The InterLearn Blog

I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve had this conversation as a parent with my children.  Sometimes it has been about examples that are in front of my children as teachers or leaders. . .sometimes it’s about me.  I tell them as we’re reflecting on the situation and can find very little positive that happened:  “I’m sorry but you’re going to have to learn from the negative on this one.  You’re going to have to see what not to do and learn to do the right thing.”

One maxim that I share with team members here at InterLearn is that “you can tell clients that you don’t know.” That is, I want them to know that they don’t have to know it all.  

I’ve seen it time and again…examples of exceptional teachers in higher education and some dismal failures.  We look to faculty to be the deliverers of our message and mission to the students at our institutions.  We hire them educated in their field of study and ask them to pass on the body of knowledge to our students from our institutional perspective.  

In fourth grade, my teacher had us do experiments to demonstrate water tension.  One experiment was to get a very nearly full cup of water and start adding BBs until the water overflowed.  Nearly all the other students in the class did that experiment.  The other experiment that we were able to choose (and that I chose) was to float a paper clip on the top of the water surface.  Since then, water tension has been a very clear concept in my mind and I reflect on it often as I did as I was measuring out a cup of water for my breakfast porridge this morning.  

Throughout my life, there have been individuals that I have so greatly learned from that I just wanted to really dive in deep with them and learn as much as I could.  For me, this category has included some ministers, some leaders, some Godly, wise men, a few teachers.  These individuals so grab my attention that I want to be able to just sit at their feet and learn what they have learned and can pass on.  A few of these individuals I know well and still get the chance to continue learning.  A few of these individuals have passed away.  A few of these individuals have changed in some of their perspectives and I am more guarded in what I would choose to learn from them.  

When I started out in what is now the adult and online education field, it was in correspondence programs where students and faculty communicated via U.S. Post (or if the assignment was really late. . .UPS or Fedex). Then these new things called e-mail addresses were being given out to allow us to communicate through something called the internet (“internets” if you were or are old. . .or funny). I and my trusty 14.4k Modem were burning up America Online.