Pages

9.13.2007

Successful finding and feeling

My critical reflection on PLE's has finally caught up with Leigh Blackall's. PLE's don't exist! They appear to have substance for a good reason. The urgency to speak of them passionately makes lots of sense too. But in fact, they don't exist. PLE's are a reification to capture "successful finding and feeling".

When we think of PLE's as things, we are operating in failure mode. We cannot get the PLE to work like we want it to. We are failing to find what we want to learn, connect to or simply come across serendipitously. We are feeling like this PLE thing is too much trouble or does not reward us for the effort involved. We cannot fix the PLE thing so it does work because it's not a process.

When we think of PLE's as processes, we are operating in success mode. A PLE is a big nothing and our process works great. We effortlessly succeed at finding what we want to learn, connect to or come across by chance. We are feeling this learning is very enjoyable, this freedom is very significant and this process is very effective. If we get into something that does not feel right, we can put this baby into reverse. It's a process that can go backwards as well as forwards.

The more we succeed at finding exactly what we want, when we want it for our own personal reasons, we find several other ways to reverse any learning endeavor that is not working:

  1. We find that seeking is a flawed concept. There is only finding what we want or not. The more we find, the more successful we get at finding more. Anytime we realizing we are seeking, or chasing after something we're not finding, we turn that around and go with what we're finding.
  2. We find that delayed gratification is unrealistic. There is only immediate satisfaction or not. The more satisfied we are, the more we become rewarded, fulfilled and grateful. Anytime we're not satisfied with our learning, finding or intentions, we can turn the process around and be immediately  appreciative of the turnaround and more.
  3. We find that going against our feelings is clueless. There is only alignment with what feels right to do and intrinsically motivated. The more we succeed at feeling aligned with our inner prompting, the more we will feel that way without trying. Anytime we're going against what we feel inspired to do, we can reverse that process and follow our intuitions.
  4. We find that learning is not a thing to measure, account for or substantiate. There is only continual learning from everything that happens. The more we evolve from our experiences, the more evolved we become naturally. Anytime we are making a thing of learning, we can reverse that misconception and learn to dismiss any misplaced concreteness.

We make a thing of PLE's to do battle on the same turf as LMS/VLE things. We speak passionately about PLE's because they represent freedom from failure mode. But PLE's perpetuate unsuccessful finding and feeling until they are regarded as a process and no-thing. How is your finding and feeling going right now?

No comments:

Post a Comment