I've finally got a blog where I'll describe me, etc; I just don't have more than a title for it yet. I'll comment here in the next couple days when I do get the content rolling.

I don't know if that's right. I only know it's right for me.

As for curiosity: if I knew the answer to your question, I'd be a millionaire but for some questions, it's enough to simply ask.

Now I'm curious about you Who you are, what you do and all of those stories.

When it comes to curiosity would you say its more about environment(role-models) or the person themselves? I guess then that leads to nature vs. nurture.

Failure is something I do for certain, but I find its something I seem to have a taste for it akin to the ebb & flow of the tides.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

I tell my students throughout my courses that I can't teach them to be curious. That's an internal motivation that I can't provide. I do, however, try to model “curious” behavior by talking through my thought processes. To demonstrate “curious-ness.”

I find the collaborative learning environments I set up, after I get them used to working in a collective online environment, oftentimes spark discussion and curiosity.

And…I would encourage you to fail as much as humanly possible in this life

Reminds me of how in my business courses where management is not management its coaching; & as such its a team gig. I'm doing a year abroad right now surrounded by students from all over and its interesting to see how and who emphasizes trying & effort vs just taking in what is “lectured” or presented to us. I'd have to say I've used many more courses here googling the course/lecture topic than ever before. I'm still wondering how and where its taught to be curious in life.

Thanks for the reply. It's been fun sharing your thoughts with other professors. It's certainly prompted a fair amount of discussion amongst my friends + peers. I think there are more professors out there who agree with what you say than you know.

We're in the middle of an over-haul in th education system, integrating emerging technologies into the classroom. Changing the ways in which we look at teaching.

Still, it's nice to engage with students (or former students or recent students) about the topic. It's helpful for everyone

While I was studying for my undergrad degrees, I remember a few occasions where I had found a mistake or mis-worded concept in the textbooks To make matters worse, one of these occasions was in a class with the professor who had written the textbook. Any time I would speak up and point it out (keep in mind that I did this with the expectation that I had misunderstood the concept, not that the textbook or professor were wrong), I would sometimes get smug responses from the professor and fellow students… responses to the effect of, “who are you to question the professor/textbook?” On one hand I would agree and feel ashamed. On the other hand, I would then question, “Who are they to expect others to accept their word as truth without objection? If they truly know, then they should have no problem setting me straight with facts and reasoning.” After all, I am a no-nothing student, how could they expect me to NOT ask questions?

Also, as a side-note, it's probably beneficial to point out that the “shit you know you don’t know” category not only contains information you don't yet possess, but also the information you once possessed but can no longer recall.

Thanks for reading and commenting. I imagine that this is, on a certain level, a semantic argument. Although I would agree that in my basic courses, skills are far more important. However, I teach mostly upper level and project courses where answers are not necessarily the point.

The more (inelegant) point I was trying to make wasn't that skills weren't taught – but that my colleagues sometimes care so much, they get concerned that they will not know something. Or that they will find themselves unable to answer a question. (The eternal fear of a professor.)

I talked with a few of them and found myself telling them: it's okay if you don't know. It's important that we don't know. Not knowing isn't something that should be feared.