Our first assignment for EDPR 527 was to think of a metaphor that represented the idea of a learning community. I choose to use a puzzle. I had worked on and completed this puzzle during the Christmas holidays. I was closely connected with the challenge, struggle and triumph of finding pieces that worked together to create a whole. It seemed fitting that what I was experiencing in puzzle building, could also represent some of the characteristics found in a learning community.
Pieces of the puzzle inform the whole. Each piece is original and has the unique one-of-a kind qualities that allows it to fit into only one place. It’s uniqueness is needed to create the big picture. Members of the learning community do just this. Each person brings ideas, challenges, struggles and triumphs to the community. Each person is needed to complete the whole. Without a piece, the puzzle is not finished. Individual talents and abilities are what make a learning community special and often drive the ideas and direction of that community. Conversely, the whole of the puzzle helps to inform the individual pieces. I needed the completed picture of the puzzle to give clues as to where each piece fit. The entire picture helped make sense of the details and uniqueness of the individual pieces. So it is with a learning community. Sharing ideas, critiquing each other, being challenged in thinking are only a few things that the whole community offers to it’s individual members.
It was a great disappointment for me to discover that one of my puzzle pieces was missing. There was a hole in the big picture. I had to think that in learning communities, some members may feel that they don’t have a voice. They may feel insignificant and unimportant. In the end, it is a loss for the whole group. How do we encourage those who are scared or intimidated to join in and make the picture complete?