September 16, 2008
23 Things: Thing 1 : Reflections on Lifelong Learning
Posted by cobannon under K12 Learning 2.0, Web 2.0 | Tags: K12 Learning 2.0, lifelong learning, thing1 |[2] Comments
As I was watching and listening to the Voicethread on 7 1/2 Habits of Effective Lifelong Learners there were a few of the habits that truly resonated with me to the point that I found myself nodding in agreement. It was a nice self-affirmation as well to see a few habits that I could readily identify with. However, the one that brought a smile to my face was Habit 7 1/2 : Play.
In my field, this is the most favorite part of my job, but the one I have the least amount of time to do. I love playing with new technologies and figuring out how they work. That element of discovery makes me feel like a kid with a new toy. When my co-workers find me hunched over my keyboard with my eyes glued to the screen, they know I’ve become engrossed in a new tool that they’ll likely hear about soon.
Another that resonated with me was Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox. Every day, in my field, seems to be a learning experience and I constantly find myself digging into my toolbox to find answers to issues that I encounter or to questions a teacher might email to me. My toolbox is comprised of a variety of sources from my social bookmarking community to my colleagues that I lean on in my other social networks.
Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. This particular habit will be my “challenge”. I struggle with having confidence in myself at times when it comes to redelivering or sharing the knowledge that I have acquired. I tend to second guess myself and wonder if I truly have a solid grasp on a concept or tool when it comes time to teaching it. This is an aspect of myself as learner that I will need to work on so that I can have more confidence in myself as a presenter.
Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind, will be the most important for me as I work through this course because it is my plan to redeliver this in my district. For me, I not only look at this course as a learner, but I will also be wearing my professional development “hat” to analyze the course, how I can implement it in my district, what do I need to add, change, edit, embellish? It will be important for me to think of my teachers and how they might approach this course so I can ensure it is manageable and meaningful for our school system. Luckily, I have found that a couple of the teacher in my district are already taking this course, so I plan on getting feedback from them as we go along.
Image Credit: I’m Your Pusher on Flickr
September 20th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Your image caught my eye, and I read your thoughtful posts. Thank you for putting so much into the thinking and sharing and including links. Already “50 ways” has had an impact on me as I began a digital storytelling elective yesterday. I saved your images to my favorites on flickr. I will return here for more learning!
September 28th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I guess I get frustrated and overwhelmed with the sheer volume of new things that come out on an almost-daily basis. How do you know what’s worth learning? What replaces something old? What can be integrated into what we already do? What needs to be scrapped because there’s something better out there now? Sigh. I make myself tired.