Learning Through Failure

This week, I began to brainstorm ideas for my Online Learning Environment (OLE) and and read chapter 8 of Theory and Practice of Online Learning entitled, “Developing Team Skills and Accomplishing Team Projects Online” by Hurst and Thomas. I also read “Learning Together in Community: Collaboration Online” by Palloff and Pratt.

The theme that seemed to stick out to me this week was that of learning through our failures. This theme hits home with me for two reasons: first because I am in the process of reinventing myself after a failed marriage and second because I’m a perfectionist and failure is a “bad” word to me.

Attempting new things can be very intimidating to a perfectionist because of our fear of failure. Hurst and Thomas emphasize the importance of failure as a learning tool while working through simulations in online learning environments. They point out that students can preserve their dignity when working online because their failures are not made public to others. I would like to create an OLE that allows students to feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

However, the thought of even attempting to create such an environment is so intimidating to me because of my own fear of failure. It is almost debilitating. I don’t know where to begin. Palloff and Pratt helped me put things into perspective with this quote: “We should never be afraid to try new and innovative ways of creating collaboration. Even if we fail, we learn from that failure and that learning informs and enhances our teaching the next time around.”

I realize that this is easier said than done, however, I would like to commit to experimenting (and failing) more with different online tools in the next week so that I can learn from my mistakes. I cannot continue to be immobilized by my fear of failure.

I would also like to begin thinking of ways that I can eventually create an OLE that focuses on writing and allows my students to make mistakes that they can learn from. I envision a tool that sees patterns in the mistakes that an individual student makes. These patterns will then guide the technology in providing teachable moments and exercises for that student in order for him/her to master the concepts that he/she is struggling with (like ending sentences with a preposition:). See! I can make mistakes!