Sunday, May 15, 2011

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Un-Learning Curve

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." (Alvin Toffler)

Here are some habits which may be worth un-learning...

  1. Vocalising the words as we read, and to quit reading from left to right.
  2. Typing with all your fingers (if you've been using only two your whole life). This is especially tough if you're a relatively fast two-finger typist.
  3. Looking for value and usefulness in ideas. We need to unlearn launching into criticism (i.e. analysing why it won't work) as a knee-jerk reaction to every new proposal we come across.
  4. Responding to menace with menace (instead of mercy). 'Nuff said.
  5. Having an answer to every objection to our most cherished beliefs - we could explore the value of silence or a waiting period so the question can be sharpened and the issue re-focused.
  6. Believing in the necessity of meetings - we must unlearn accepting their inevitability and experiment with other alternatives (e.g. Wiki-meetings?
  7. Reading the same authors over and over again - they sometimes anchor us down in unhelpful places.
  8. Requiring a teacher/lecturer for complex theoretical topics, without which we feel that 'real learning' hasn't occured
  9. Repeating a similar course of action when nothing substantial is changing, whilst continuing to believe that something different will eventually happen from the repetition...(I think Einstein called this 'insanity')
  10. More? What else do we need to un-learn?

Monday, May 2, 2011