Cultivate These Behaviors for Responsible Digital Learning - Tip #193

These two ideas from Finnish sociologist Esko Kilpi, brings me back to the core of accountability, personal responsibility and drive. It is about individual self-realizations and insights for personal growth.

“Activities are performed in interaction, sharing a cognitive load of work, rather than based on reductionist organizing principles or social isolation. The focus shifts from tasks and roles to relations.”

“One is responsible for one’s own actions, rather than seeing someone else, somewhere else, responsible.”

It also reminds me of the tweets and blogs of Bulgarian writer Maria Popova, and how she beautifully selects great stories from writers, scientists, adventurers, artists, philosophers, and other inspiring people and use their lives to tell her audiences about our individual personal struggle.

Freedom and Responsibility

This article by Popova on existential psychologist Rollo May brings home Esko’s message.

May’s definition of freedom suggests that people need to have the ability to pause and reflect on how to interpret, learn, and act upon different stimuli that comes our way.

That is, in essence, how we learn - or how we should learn.

Technology-Enabled Reflection

We inherently have the ability to pause, reflect, and learn, and just by pausing, we consequently learn and respond appropriately. This means changing our response can get us the outcomes we want.

Esko wrote his key idea by pinning down the need in workers and learners to account for and be responsible for their own actions.

This is a key thing for us in the learning world to think of as core in our desire to help people be digitally connected. Technology will only bring us so far.

What will move us forward is in the recognition that technology enables us to pause, reflect, and be responsible for our actions.

Responsible Digital Learning

When we implement digital initiatives in group learning and collaboration and problem solving, we need to observe if our workers and learners are taking pause and owning responsibility.

What are the indicators?

1. Do they initiate response to issues that truly matters and not just to add to the chatter?
2. Do they listen carefully to others and reflect and pause before they offer a counter idea?
3. Are they willing to share how they arrived at their answers and humbly admit if they are unsure or to offer references as basis for their confidence?
4. Are they open to ideas that may question their opinions and beliefs?

These are cultural behaviors we need to observe. Are we progressing? Are learners progressing while we taut and espouse digital solutions?

References

Esko Kilpi. The ten principles of digital work. Medium, May 31, 2018
Maria Popova. Existential Psychologist Rollo May on Freedom and the Significance of the Pause. Brain Pickings, October 4, 2017
Tip #68 - Why Reflect? The Role of Reflection in the Learning Process
Tip #175 - 3 Ways to Learn Better in the Modern Era

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"