Episode 51: Fell, Destroyed: Looking back on debacles, failures, and questions that did not work

Matt’s Notes

Hi everyone, and welcome to the second in our latest twopeat of episodes! Whereas in our previous episode, we were speaking to success in education… we now look towards debacles, failures, and questions that did not work! We are grateful you are here! Please click below as per your interests!

Is it easier to fail in audio than video?? These and other important questions explored herein!! #ednontech

Thompson Rivers University EDUC class(es)

It’s an interesting thing.

I was going to try and do my normal thing here, where I look at various of the resources I’ve seen lately and emailed to myself… as an excuse, more often than not, to dive into some stuff that’s maybe a bit outside my normal or current professional lane… it always does a body good to explore the wider perspectives both within and without a discipline…

But really, all my attention lately outside of work has been devoted to podcast… and, somehow, educating via the podcast… which I would have been hard-pressed to predict back in September of ’22 when Doug and I first launched this thing…

And, furthermore, I’ve been trying to clear the backlog of music podcast episodes… a week ago we had 3 that needed to go out… as of today, we just have one… I’ve struggled with it… despite knowing it’s just a matter of opening up a few media files and writing a few paragraphs… Comedy albums… go figure… being challenging for me…

And so… if you look to the sidebar of this post… and you’ll see what I’m talking about… insofar as recent posts and recent comments go…

I will repeat what I’ve said elsewhere: I’m humbled and thrilled by the opportunity to engage with students in EDUC 5040, as well as with students in an upcoming asynchronous lecture of EDUC 5030: Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Pamela Gurney of TRU Education for reaching out to me for this series of lectures… which also includes a discussion with Dr. Reid for EDUC 5000… to Pam’s students for coming up with such excellent, thought-provoking questions… and to Dr. Hassan Arif for being such an excellent co-host for the lecture, and for his interest in engaging with students’ questions… which will be the basis for a post on this site early next week…

So… aware as I am that this is/was ostensibly an episode speaking to… debacles and failure… I’m finding it hard to find any as I survey what’s going on in my professional and “podcasting” lives… except perhaps in terms of managing my time with the podcasts… I’ve always had an interest in taking new things on… sometimes at the expense of sleep, mental bandwidth… and personal and professional relationships…

And… I’ve failed to add any references or citations to this podcast notes or PowerPoint slides!

So there… some abject failure! Apart from whatever I spoke to during the recordings!

I usually almost always succeed when I go searching for failure! Sometimes it’s really just a matter of wanting it enough!

Doug’s Notes

Looking back on debacles, failures, and questions that did not work

We learn more from failure than we do from success

When a new technology is introduced, earlier studies focus on demonstrations of efficacy, followed by studies comparing the new technology against the old. However, such studies do little to advance the new technology. 

Cook, D. A. (2009). The failure of e-learning research to inform educational practice, and what we can do about it. Medical teacher, 31(2), 158-162.

Are universities that become content producers and adopt new learning technologies guaranteed a healthy future? 

Lucas Jr, H. C. (2017). Technology and the failure of the university. Communications of the ACM, 61(1), 38-41.

The affirmation of failure as a pedagogical principle is an integral part of not only fostering creativity in students but also preparing them for the sorts of adaptations and flexibility they need in an environment of technological change.  

Creely, E., Henderson, M., & Henriksen, D. (2019, March). Failing to succeed: The value of failure in creativity. In Society for information technology & teacher education international conference (pp. 1403-1411). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

We are less interested in the latest digital technology trends than the educational transformations aimed at addressing current educational challenges. 

Sancho-Gil, J. M., Rivera-Vargas, P., & Miño-Puigcercós, R. (2020). Moving beyond the predictable failure of Ed-Tech initiatives. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), 61-75.

Recent Examples of EdTech Failure

Word of the Podcast

Debacles

Phrase of the Podcast

Introducing… digital crud… and… advancing the pedagogy

Question of the Podcast

Rather than just looking at the technology and financial failures, where is the human cost measured in all these failures?

We are grateful beyond words you’ve joined us! Let’s do this again, ASAP!

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