Breakthrough

This post is just a quick reflection on my recent technological breakthrough. For the whole second part of our class I have been feeling a little stressed about the digital sharing project. I had used the cool tools we had learned about only minimally in the classroom so I didn't feel that I could create a digital lesson as some classmates had. I was feeling very unsure of what my project would be and what it would entail. Emily and I had an idea about a creating resource wiki for reading comprehension, but neither of us were quite sure what it would look like. Emily and I are similiar in that we like to be able to picture our outcomes. I had never created my own wiki, so I really couldn't envision it at all. At some points I really wasn't even sure that I was capable of completing the task. I was frozen and unsure of what I was doing. About a month ago I wrote a post about Motivation vs. Confidence, but then deleted it. At that time I was feeling as if I had the motivation and enthusiasm to do anything technological that was required in our course, but that I didn't have the confidence to make it happen. I deleted the post due to feelings of inadequacy and because I felt that others in the class had far surpassed me in ability and performance and I didn't want to reveal how far behind I felt. I knew that I would get there, but that it would just take more practice and more time. My style is fairly deliberate, so with some things that are completely unfamiliar my learning can be slower. This is a good example of how many factors contribute to learning including the interplay between the social-emotional and the intellectual.

Well, I have made a breakthrough. Emily and I have been working on creating our reading comprehension wiki and we are having some degree of success. It's not completed and it's not perfect by any means, but it is a start. Just like anything that you have been anxious about, once you begin whatever it is that you are feeling anxious about, the feelings of anxiety begin to go away or at least they lessen somewhat. Working on anything related to technology can have its glitches. We are encountering some, but are trying to tackle them as we go. It's the beginning of the task that matters. Just starting is often a psychological hurdle that you have to get over. I remember feeling this way about other things and I always know that once I begin something I am fine. It's the thinking about beginning that can be so defeating. The lesson again is to just jump in and do it. Don't think so much and don't procrastinate so much, just do. Now that I am "just doing" our wiki, I feel that I can achieve success and am actually enjoying the process as I go. Now I wonder what took me so long to get started. My breakthrough has been both a psychological breakthrough and a technological breakthrough. Now that I have overcome my fears and my anxiety, I think I'll go back and post about Motivation vs. Confidence.