The learner today is constantly changing. There is not one definition to encompass what a learner is. The learner can be thought of metaphorically as a piece of clay. It can be pulled to meet one persons needs, molded to reach another’s, and fired to form someone else’s, but in the end it is considered clay, just in different forms with different purposes.
The learner today in this day and age is molding into a high tech person. We are relying on technology to communicate but at least we are communicating. As George Siemens said in his video The Impact of Social Media on Learning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grI_h88vs3g&feature=related , "Our learning today is one of forming networks with each other," and he goes on discussing how in education we have a problem with communication. He quotes Vygotsky in saying that, "Words really give life to thoughts," so if we are not communicating then how are we being effective educators? I agree that any communication is good communication and through these social networks we join and form on-line, we nonetheless are learning.
In George Siemens article on Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, he revisited old theories like constructivism, behaviorism, and cognitivism, but also introduced new ones like the theory of Karen Stephenson who said, “Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge. Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge. ‘I store my knowledge in my friends’ is an axiom for collecting knowledge through collecting people (undated).” This is what we are doing right now! Our blogging and joining social networking groups, are in a sense "collecting people" and therefore "collecting knowledge." Staying connected, literally and figuratively, is the key!
I love the clay analogy! That makes a lot of sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAs I was writing my own analogy I was thinking the same thing...we are learning from each other. I started to think that is what we need more of. We need more learning with each other from each other. Who knows our children just might be open-minded and have more of the type of knowledge that could make the world a better place. I enjoyed reading your comments...
ReplyDeleteGabrielle,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a learner as clay works, but what I tend to envision is the clay stretched out into the fine strands of a network. At different times the strands are thinner, thicker or non-existent depending on the strength of the artist's desires or in the case of the learner, his/her own needs.
Dr. Burgos