Reanews: You can´t teach an old dog new tricks... can you?

I had not realised it, but it had been some time since I really learned something... slowly, sacrificially, painstakingly. Until just a few years ago, that had been a part of my whole life; always studying something, always facing new challenges, but since I took responsibilities at the seminary as Dean first and Principal later, and had to stop teaching as a direct consequence, I also virtually stopped learning... at least consciously.

I must admit that as I assumed my new responsibilities I had to "learn to learn" in a different way, on the job, everyday, almost at every moment and I can´t deny that I have learned a bit about administrative education this way... an informal way, which although is highly efficient, does not have the sense of achievement that setting a specific goal and reaching it has.

Earlier this year I tried to learn German, but for many different reasons the experiment had to stop. More recently I have had to face 3 different experiences, that are challenging my own self esteem.

First, I enrolled in a course to learn how to tutor and monitor students through e-learning; that is on completely virtual environments. And if you think that´s the future of education, you´re wrong; that´s more like the present. The problem is that for folks like me (“people from last century” as my kids love to constantly call me), the whole thing is hard to grasp. Interestingly, it´s not the technical element that bothers me; I´m fairly comfortable with computers and still can learn to handle new software with relative ease (in all truth, I do feel comfortable around computers, but not around cell phones... they are a mystery to me. My children still call me to fix their computer problems, but I have to ask them to tell me how to do something in my cell phone... we´ll call it a tie).

So if technology is not the problem... what is it? It is that the whole idea of virtual education is completely alien to my way of thinking. To begin with, there´s no classroom, no people to look at, no eye contact. There you are, alone in a room with your computer, interacting with people who are not there in space and mostly not there in time (because there´s synchronic and asynchronic virtual interaction... you see, I´m learning!). Then, for me as a teacher, I feel the lack of spontaneity. Now don´t take me wrong; I always prepare my lectures and all that, but also relish the opportunity of just throwing at the students a question that comes to mind, or vice versa, having them stop the lecture and come up with an idea, a comment or a question that may even sidetrack the whole thing into a line of thought I had never considered... I find that absolutely delicious, and it´s not there in virtual education, not as far as I have looked into it anyway.

There´s also the learning mechanisms. Virtual education does not mean typing into your computer your old hand written class notes on Church History, for example, and put them up in a web page, peppered with pictures of Israel, video clips of old Easter-time films and audio clips of sheep bleating... I´m afraid virtual education has to be seen as something completely different from what I had known --good and bad-- from traditional education. The process of learning is different, the pace is different, the basic tenets are different, what you expect from the students is different, the way to stimulate them and to keep them interested are different, and now I´m assuming that the way to evaluate them has to be different (we haven´t got that far in the course yet).

I used to have serious doubts about the efficiency of virtual education, because I do not have the student “there” in front of me, and because I thought interaction is poorer. But then I had to reflect on my many many years as a traditional student and my not so many years as a traditional educator, and realise that there is no way to escape in the new system, as there was in the old one. I can recall so many of my former students who never spoke a word, never uttered an opinion in class, wrote the necessary assignments, and disappeared from the horizon. Can I honestly say that I had with them the proper, meaningful, formative interaction now I say I long for? No, I can´t. One of my former classmates (and I won´t say any more, as he has to remain anonymous... we´re still close friends and I want that to go on), got good enough marks in a course where, judging by the time he spent sleeping, we could safely say he was barely present. I myself slept a lot at the same course, and even being awake, so often it happened that my mind wandered away... that doesn´t happen with e-learning; and that bring us to the greatest paradox, and perhaps the most valuable thing I have learned so far: actual interaction is much more real in virtual education. You can´t sleep; you can´t let your mind wander away, you can´t hide behind your classmates´ heads... you have to read, you have to answer, you have to acquire the necessary knowledge or skill and if you don´t, your tutor will notice immediately and ask you to fix it.

But I do miss the other type of interaction... the one that can´t be replaced: a cup of coffee in between lectures, a good laugh, a “can I talk to you for a minute?” type of thing, or someone landing in my office with a silly question about nothing that leads to a deep, often tearful opening of the soul. Among those who have been my students in years past, I count not a few of very good friends... and I can´t see that happening through the mediation of emails and electronic chats.

Anyway, I like what I´m learning, I like to see that I´m more open to trying it, to take advantage of its pros and live with its cons... that is making me feel younger, one way or another... let´s see what happens.

Sadly, there are other things pointing in the opposite direction: for the first time in my life I have been prescribed reading glasses, and as I have always had glasses for far sighting, now I am learning to wear those progressive things that let you either read or see far depending on the way you position your head... a nightmare!! Mine are not bi-phocal but so called “progressive”, with about two million different options available depending on the position of the head in relation to what you want to see. The instructions tell me to point with my nose to what I want to see clearly... can you believe that?!! As you can imagine, this is not making me feel any younger of course...

And then, there was last Friday. Out of the blue, a couple from our church asked Paty and myself to clear up that day because they wanted to give us a surprise (and they didn´t know we were dog tired, that we were celebrating 20 years of our civil marriage, that we haven´t had a proper vacation since the earth was still hot... they didn´t know a thing)... and took us for a day out. We were taken to places that were off limits until recently but are now clear of guerrillas and battles and kidnappings... you only have to be careful with land mines. We had a picnic by the river, walked and talked surrounded by beautiful scenery and some wonderful birds, saw magnificent waterfalls, had a great demonstration of off road driving... and I was invited to try fly-fishing.

My father taught me to fish when I was a kid, and I have delightful memories of afternoons spent fishing by the sea, in spite of the pain (no fishing rods... too expensive..., just the nylon line and your bleeding fingers!). Then, by the quiet lochs of Uist, I learned how to to use a rod and experienced wonderful times watching my children get excited hooking worms, casting lines and retrieving trouts, patiently taught by Iain MacAskill... I will never forget the tons of priceless pictures that could have been had Iain put a little film in the camera.

All that was OK but fly-fishing?... that´s real sportsmanship for well off folks, that´s the stuff people spend a lot of money in, books are written about that, and magazines published... and yes, this friend is a dedicated fly fisher. He gave me the option of either fishing with a normal rod or give a try to fly fishing and this old dog said “I can always learn something new”... of course I didn´t get one single fish, but instead lost half a dozen flies to trees, bushes, fences (not to mention that I hooked myself three times!), and 3 days later I still have a sore arm, but boy, did I enjoy that! My friend gave me some exercises to begin with so that I could get used to whipping the rod without any weight at the tip, then guided my arm, showed me how he did it, talked about angles, timing, and waves, and currents... my arm was too extended, the rod was not vertical enough at a certain point, less shoulder, more wrist... and so on... by late afternoon, after a whole day of doing that in 4 or 5 out-of-this-world spots in 2 or 3 different rivers hearing only the water splash and the birds chirp, I was sore and soaked, but had got the basics right...well, more or less... absolute bliss!

Three different learning experiences, with very little connection one with the other, but they make me reflect that perhaps most of the enjoyment I get in life comes from learning (stuff like this I have just told you about, trying a new recipe, driving a vehicle I have never driven before...whatever). Trying hard, fighting frustration, taking pride and joy in even small achievements, and one day... perhaps... being able to say “I did it”... “it” being something that looked or sounded almost impossible initially , all that make for a lot of good. I can only wonder what it will be like in God´s very presence... the sheer lack of limits in what we can learn, the absence of limitations and shortcomings, the absolute beauty and goodness of anything we can discover or explore, bathed in the light of God´s smile. If standing in the middle of a shallow river in the Colombian mountains, casting a line, bathed in sunshine and listening to the birds was such an incredible experience that moved me to worship, I cannot imagine what it will be like when enjoying the new heaven and the new earth... I almost can´t wait.