Response to “No Red Pill No Blue Pill”

        The post “No Red Pill No Blue Pill” is written by a educator who is frustrated in teaching. It analyzes the processes and problems of learning in a particular writing style, in an attempt to regain her lost motivation.

This is a response to “No Red Pill No Blue Pill” by Ana Cristina Pratas. Read about it here.

The writing style of this post was unique and appealing in many ways. Its brief, narrative,  and first person story-telling style used in the introduction and conclusion was effective in adding “life” into the post. It also helped express your frustrated feelings vividly. This certainly explains why your “recipe” to help student make connections and learn is by stories. Next, the usage of visuals in your post aided my understanding of your ideas, while also making the post less dull. One thing I would suggest is that maybe you could try to place the visuals so that

they 

don’t 

look 

like 

this.

Occasionally, it may slightly disturb my reading. Finally, the text to text/world connections you made to “The Matrix” and the webinar discussion were quite thought inducing. Overall, I really liked the style of your post and the way it conveyed your ideas.

        

        Lots of great ideas were shown in the post, most of which I can really relate to. An example is your idea of “Learning may be social, but in the end it is individual.” Yes, of course we learn at school - English, mathematics, socials, and sciences – but in the end, why do some students excel while others do not? As you wrote, “Learning, assimilating skills and information is left to the individual.” That final process of absorbing is still done by oneself. Later on, you discussed the eight steps of learning, more specifically, the passion portion. In a student’s view, I would think of motivation as part of the “push”. In my opinion, passion is the initial excitement that causes us to begin the process of education while the push or motivation is the power that helps us continue on that journey. Also, I think that it is the educator’s job to constantly remind us of that passion.

     
        In the next part of your post, you talked about the transition between high school and higher education. I was especially interested in the part where you wrote about “accountability” and “responsibility”. After doing some research, I came up with an explanation. Accountability is induced responsibility, you do something because others – teachers, in this case - require you to do it. On the other hand, responsibility is taking up something according to your conscience. I also found a picture that Dean Shareski posted: 

Understanding these differences further helped me interpret the next idea you presented. I realized that high school education to university education is jumping from accountability to responsibility. Instead of constant supervision from a teacher, we are expected to adopt the self motivated, self-governed, and autonomous way of learning. However, I disagree that “learning hurts”. Although I understand why you think that the rote to digital learning, resistance to change, and fear to be factors that make leaning painful, I personally look at learning as exploration and challenge. Exploring the unknown landscape involves lots of hard work, but when you make a stunning discovery, that joy, that accomplishment - it is all yours.

Spring.

I run in the field, sun in my eyes. Grass glisten from melted frost.

All around me, I see my own kind. Some are running with me. Others, struggling, yet slowly rising from hibernation. Rest is good, but it is time to start again.

No blue pill. No red pill.

Just reality.

Just education.

Just life.