What if it were to be blank?

I pause to think about what it might mean to experience a moment of entreprenuerial learning. I glance over at the Hitt et al OB text my students are reading this semester. I am proud to say I worked on that project for Wiley developing the teaching/learning guide. That plug given, here is the point of the title of this posting. What if a student were to turn the page of this text and find the next one blank? Would he or she feel rooked? Look to see if it resumes were she left off on the previous page of material? Would this breach have stopped the OB learning? Not if there were what I think of as the sort of learning we need to encourage. There were be intrigue. "How did the publisher allow this gaff? Or, is it a gaff? What if the white space were placed there just to tell me to pause and think over what was just read? Or, while I am at this spot, I might as well ask myself if there is not a better way to put this information into my head. An e-book? Not yet. I like to flip pages and mark them up. Hmm, what about an e-book that has pages and saves the markings? Too nutty? Well, I guess I'd better plow on with this chapter. I wonder if there will be more blanks up ahead?"

I am tracking the knowledge/work day of an older student right now. He is posting daily journals giving me an 7AM - 5PM accounting of significant moments. I mention this because he actually relishes the times when the clock ticks over onto the workplace equivalent of a blank page in his stored knowledge. He is in a high-tech, global manufacturing company coordinating now product development. When presented with a situation of unprecedented challenges, he seems to not panic, instead, to rub his mental hands together and dive into the newness of it all. He doing entreprenuerial learning because his position in the firm calls for entreprenuerial practice. There a lots of blank pages when you are learning your way across a day of surprises.