obrienk

Monday, January 9, 2012

"The Love of Embracing Change"

"How do you get kids that have curiosity and a questing disposition?"


Taking inspiration from John Seely Brown, I quote him - making a poem of his words.
Brown concludes:


Not everything works.

In fact, most things don't work.
And the first thing that happens [when] something doesn't work
is that it frightens you...

then, you're not going to be very willing to embrace change.


But if you realize that when things don't work,
which is almost always,
you can get in there and figure out how to tinker with these things
and just absorb what happens.


Very often when you're tinkering,
it doesn't make pure logic sense.
It's something that you begin to feel in your hands
as much as your mind.


Tinkering brings thought and action
together in some very powerful, magical ways.

I manipulated his words, using enjambment to allow his words to linger
and absorb
with the space after the line.

He's as much a poet as an "Innovation Expert."
I consider this an extended metaphor for life.

So today, we are tinkering.

When we do so,

we breathe

and we are open to embracing change.


Have a wonderful day.

Tinkering, and questing,

Mr. O'Brien

10 comments:

  1. I think John Seely Brown was correct in his conclusions based on his observations of youthful successes. From his message I have come to think that in driven kids (accomplished athletes, gamers, students, ect...)their initial fears of failure have been over powered by their competitive natures. You can get these kids, with curiosity and a questing disposition by exploiting their passions to a competitive community of people with the same interest. This environment will force them into success.

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  2. Brown says that children are driven by their passions and interests which I think is very true. If a person can develop a true love for something then that should be enough to spur them to pursue it. However one major obstacle that Brown mentions is human natures fear of failure. We easily get frustrated and give up on things that are difficult and out of the ordinary. We are "frightened by the things that don't work" and prefer things to go smoothly on the first try which rarely happens. However instead of abandoning the practice Brown says that if we continue to merely tinker and work together than we can improve and even enjoy ourselves.

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  3. Kids who become passionate with their interests learn more, not consciously but through absorption. This knowledge that they hold makes kids interested in new things, makes them tinker with these new devices and makes them become curious and question disposition. But we fear failure when things don't work and start to fear change, so we simply push everything aside and forget about it. But, like what John Seely Brown was saying, once we realize that not everything is going to work, we use our knowledge and curiosity and tinker more to try and understand how it works.

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  4. John Seely Brown discusses the reason to success within the young and successful. The key is persistence and determination. The people who are passionate about something and have a drive to be the best, most talented, and unbeatable are the ones who always succeed. Brown also points out the reason to failure, and that is simply fear. Too many people become intimated by something that will prevent them from pursuing their goal. This factor of fear is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. Anybody may have an inner talent, or a simple passion for something, but only the ones with that fire within can take their goal or dream to the next level. Never give up!

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  5. As I was watching this video I was thinking of the ways I adapt to different situations. The story about the surfers made me realize that I solve problems the same way that they do, I have just never thought about it. It comes almost as a second nature. I think that can be said by many kids of our generation. The use of trial and error until we reach what we want our end product to be.

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  6. It's really important that kids follow their interests and be passionate about their favorable interests. Different situations will provide kids chances to face different risks and be stronger. I believe that failures and practice could make kids successful. As Brown says that learning is a process, which is what I agree the most. The process of learning something I am interested in, or even something new, could make myself into a stronger person which means I am brave enough to face challenges.

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  7. John Seely Brown's conclusion on youths' successes is correct. Those who embrace failure and use it as a learning experience in order to better themselves for the next time around are those that succeed. Those that may not succeed let the fear of failure get the best of them. Fear of failure has crossed my mind many times before. It's something that I, myself and the rest of the world should work on in order to let failure become a learning experience.

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  8. I think that Brown's best point that he made was that people are afraid of failure. There are many people in this world who were born to do great things, but in order to do these great things you first have to fail. Failure is a huge part of succeeding, it is one of the most important steps to obtaining your goal. For example, when Thomas Edison was inventing the light bulb, he failed thousands of times before he made the right one, but when asked he replied that he did not fail, he succeeded in discovering thousands of ways not to make a lightbulb.

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  9. Brown states that digital media is a big factor for why we are able to learn so fast, and why we need to embrace change. I think that the speed of information is cool but it can also be overwhelming in a big way. A combination of play and technology has allowed us to progress and further our learning pace, as well as our ability to use this appropriately.

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  10. I agree Brown’s idea that growing generation needs to “love the embracing change”. There is the reason why he chose “the change” as the key term for growing generation. The relationship between the change and technology is deep. As times pass technology developed so quickly and our generation needs to cover the change. Through the technology like the internet, people could communicate, brings something new, and find out the problems like as the suffer boys that he mention. Trying new things which also could be the change gives the experience and some learning.

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