I Wonder...

As I write this I’m sitting at a Starbucks in downtown Seattle contemplating the topic of Wonder. (I’m not at THE [original] Starbucks, it’s around the corner and too packed for me to sit and write. There truly is a Starbucks on every block in downtown Seattle, and each one has a line, all day – I’ve never seen anything quite like it.)

I’ve been at a POD network conference this week. POD network is the Professional organization of Faculty Developers and is a network of faculty from large and small institutions who find it their goal to promote effective learning on college campuses.

Yesterday’s keynote was beyond fascinating. Michael Wesch, of YouTube fame, spoke on the power and importance of instilling wonder in our students.  He began by showing us a video of ‘wonder’. Please click on the link below and watch this video of people in Wellington, New Zealand (snow is not common-place in Wellington). Enjoy the wonder!

Dr. Wesch posited that wonder begins with questions. Notice the root of the word question? Questions elicit a quest for knowledge. Do our students have the desire to learn; are they on a quest?

If not, he suggested three steps to take to promote this climate. Allow your classroom to be a place where students:
1.  Can explore and find a real and relevant project that impacts the world with real consequences.
2. Connect with others. Important things happen in community – enlist the power of people working together toward a common goal (synergy).
3. Leverage the tools around them.  (For Dr. Wesch’s class this is often video since he is an anthropologist studying the effects of technology and culture).

Here is a sample of the powerful videos demonstrating the projects his students have developed while in his class.

He suggested that wonder is like love. It is a constant state of action rather than a passive happening. The more we do it, the better we get at it. He suggests that wonder can become a personality trait; that wonder is closely connected to empathy. When we look at the world from someone else’s perspective, a new perspective from our own, we are often filled with wonder.

Self-disclosure here, I hate snow. Growing up in Arizona thinned my blood and predisposed me to hate the harsh cold of Wisconsin winters. We are nearing the end of October as I write this, and although I have enjoyed the glorious colors of a spectacular fall, my joy has been tainted by the dreadful foreshadowing of Old Man Winter. I love Wisconsin ten months out of the year, but I dread January and February.

This winter I am going to truly try to shift my paradigm. I’m going attempt to see the falling snow through the eyes of those on the street in New Zealand. Instead of running into a building to escape the cold and snow, I will attempt to run out of buildings embracing the falling flakes of wonder. I will spend a few extra minutes of each long, dark day pursuing...on a quest for...wonder...