Learning = Being Prepared to Try. And Fail.

An excerpt from The Rapid eLearning Blog

A few years ago I was working on an essay about learning organizations. I was wondering why it is that some people seem to do a better job learning. …children seem to be better at trying new things, which enables their ability to learn.

Check out the TED video where Sugata Mitra talks about his “hole in the wall” experiment. I love to see how the kids start slowly and then soon they’re teaching each other. However, it all starts with that initial risk of trying something new.

Too often, adults are reluctant to try for fear of negative consequences. Who wants to look stupid or say the wrong things? I’ve watched adults sit and stare at the computer screen because they weren’t sure what to do, afraid to click on a button, not sure where it would take them. Or worry too much about whether the answer was right or wrong rather than enjoying the process of learning something new.