That a-ha moment!

"A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind."  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

One of the few things I do specifically remember from nursing school was this sort of constant, knawing sensation that I didn't really get whatever it was I was supposed to be getting.  I read the material, did well on exams, made excellent grades, but I felt like all I had was a collection of data with no real anchor.  Then, somewhere in my late junior year and under the tutelage of the amazing Barabara Martin--I had an a-ha moment.  It was as though all the discordant pieces of information layed out before me in what I could now see was a complex, interwoven picture and I finally felt like I understood why A led to B led to C.  Mrs. Martin said it was her favorite part of teaching, this visible jolt, when a student started to really make the connections.  Now as an instructor myself, I tell students it will happen for them too--you just have to wait for it and make sure you have prepared well.

I start with this story because, honestly, I thought I was a little beyond lightbulb moments.  Wrong!  I am in my final semester of my Master's program, actually my final weeks, and I feel like I just solved a riddle that will propel and inform my teaching from this point forward.  I've been through 32 hours of coursework learning research, theory, health promotion, curriculum design, and leadership garnering bits and pieces.  I've come to this point knowing that the way I was taught, the way I've primarily been teaching, wasn't really going to cut it anymore; sure I needed to change, not knowing from a practical standpoint how to do that.  Here's what I watched today (yes, literally today) that helped me cross that divide.

John Seely Brown--Learning in the Digital Age