Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Nature of Connectedness

The Connected Coaching course I've been engaged in this summer is drawing to a close, at least in terms of the more formal class meetings and assignments. But it's become such a part of who I am and how I live in the world that it will carry on indefinitely. I can count on one hand how many professional learning or PD opportunities have had that kind of impact in my life.

One thing I'm walking away with is that self-directed learning is a connection activity. As much as I love learning with others, discussing ideas and working through my thought processes in collaboration with my friends and colleagues, when I thought about "self-directed" learning, the word self was what stood out for me...as if the learning process was totally devoid of input/interaction with others. Like a self-help book, for example. To be self-directed, before, meant (for me at least) it had to be relatively solitary, independent. Like the five year old who learns to tie his shoes (I can do this, Mum!) pushing away the helping hand and forging on alone, forgetting all the scaffolding that came before. So it's interesting for me to recognize, then, how connected "self-directed" learning actually is. Oh, I've been a collaborative learner when the opportunity was there; working with others produces the finest work, I've always believed. But somehow, I've never seen or thought deeply about the connectedness in self-directed learning.. As much as I truly believe that "none of us is as good as all of us", I've never thought that applied to self-directed learning. Coming to really know how connected self-directed learning truly is...that's been an awakening.

Another reason I loved this course so much is that it is so strongly aligned philosophically with what I believe about teaching and learning...connected coaching hones in on appreciative inquiry and strength-based learning. It doesn't stop there, though; it provided a wayfinding model that put legs on that philosophy with strategies to help actually implement all those wonderful ways of thinking so they could move from ways of thinking to ways of being. Makes it dance!

Don't get me wrong, this course was no walk in the park. More like a hike in the mountains with episodes of occasionally straying off the path and getting lost, being chased by a bear, finding a ripe patch of blueberries to indulge my appetite, and finally reaching the summit...all with my trusted friends and colleagues at my side to help pick me up, dust me off, point me back in the right direction as we all set off together again. And as we straggle back down the mountain together to go our separate ways, we each leave with a backpack of more than good memories and a sleep-deprived high -- we actually have a toolkit of connected coaching/wayfinding strategies, tools, techniques, readings etc. to help us continue our self-directed journeys. More importantly, we are leaving with the knowledge we have trusted colleagues with whom we will always be connected, that help is just a tweet/email/skype away, and speaking for myself, that my self-directed learning journey has not only changed me, but has only just begun.