This statement recalls me of one of my own learning in the field of computer networks. In computer networking there are two situations for data communication:
1) Error Detection: This is the phase when the computer is capable of detecting an error in the communicated data and asks for resending of the data.
2) Error Correction: This is the phase when the computer that detects the error also runs an algorithm to solve the error thereby eliminating the need for resending the data and avoiding data clogs.
Thus, detecting that there is an error is 50% of the solution while finding what the error was and getting it rectified solves it to 100% and thereby eliminating the need for asking or resending of data.
I would like to connect this to the learning we receive in the class. As students, we always get instructions from our teachers but hardly a few of us would follow it to 100%. Hardly, a few students would understand what teacher actually asked us to do when we received the instruction and within this few students only a few would actually react back with the answer or submission that the teacher asked for.
We often encounter this scenario in our day to day life and hardly notice that we can easily overcome this hurdle by the concept of “Learning by Error”. This is because we don’t do the task for fear of getting the task done wrongly and getting it back again to do. Nobody is an exception to this. Recently, my daughter in std 6 avoided doing a project just because she felt that she might do it wrong and would require to do it again.
The fear of doing the task wrong again discourages us to attempt the task for the first time itself. Thus it is essential for us to overcome this fear of ours so that we starting making some effort and eventually we will make right efforts to befit the situation. Let us try to understand what does it mean to learn by error?
Learn by Error:
As they say that a mistake is a stepping stone to success. An error is a lesson in itself. Nobody labels us as failures before we put down our efforts to do the task again. Learn by error suggests:
1. Do the task
2. If the task is completed correctly then you are done with the task
3. If the task is not correct then identify what is not correct? Where is the mistake?
4. Once identified, try to solve the error and go to step 1.
Error Identification and Correction:
Knowing that there is some error and the task is not rightly done, is the first step to success. Having the guts to accept that there is some error and maybe I am at fault, is the second step taken towards a solution and accepting the error and correcting it, is the final step for achieving success. Mostly, we stop at the first step i.e. we make the error and then we don’t even make an effort to know what error we made and subsequently no curiosity to know how can we correct it.
As students, we never bother to ask the teacher where the fault is and thus result in achieving non desired results. If we have the guts to ask the teacher about the fault we made and if we have the courage to rectify the fault then success can surely be achieved.
Let us take an analogy, to understand the concept better. Imagine the teacher gave you an assignment of writing a fable and submitting the lesson learned from it. Kishan submitted the fable but unfortunately, the teacher rejected the assignment suggesting him that he did not write the lesson learned from the fable. Now, Kishan without making any effort for resubmitting the assignment feels that teacher rejected his assignment and gets discouraged to work again. In this case, the loss is on side of Kishan who is reluctant to improve and work. In this scenario, Kishan must ask the teacher about what exactly is missing in the assignment and make a sincere effort of getting it done correctly without taking any judgment for the work or for the teacher.
Kishan can resubmit the assignment by just filling the lesson learned from the fable. If Kishan does the later part then we can say that Kishan has learned by error and if he does then the next time he will be more cautious and may progress towards error identification and correction before submitting the assignment and thus increasing his chances of success.
Like Kishan, we should make a sincere analysis of our own work before submitting it and if we are not satisfied with our own work then we should revise before submitting the work.
Thus, error identification and correction will help you develop a habit of analyzing your own work before submitting improving on your weaker areas thereby making you strong and error free. The first step towards this is to identify that there is an error in our effort and having the guts to accept it.
Learn by error … error identification and rectification is a beautiful concept that will devoid you of the necessity of having a wrong dialogue and generating a wrong conclusion. Implement this concept and see the difference in your own output. So, learn from error. Don’t be afraid of doing the task just because it could be erroneous and even if there is an error then at least you made an attempt is more important than not attempting at all. This time the attempt is erroneous but next time I am sure you will pass on your attempts error-free.
