Eureka!

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Week 2 – Initial thoughts about chapters 1 and 2

The phrase “Do-It-Yourself Learning” (p. 11) in The Connected Educator  resonates. The fact that we each have the ability to design and pursue our own learning plan and opportunities is librating. First, I get to make decisions about my own learning; I get to look for ways to expand what I know into the many areas in which I want to know more. But, better, and even more liberating, is the fact that as an educator, I am no longer the expert who makes decisions about what someone else needs to know. 

All right, true confession: I’m struggling with that last statement. Where does my responsibility as an educator begin and end in terms of teaching and learning? What do I decide about others’ learning, and what do they decide?  As someone who teaches adults in the community, this line may be a easier for me than if I taught in a traditional classroom.  The reality is that my students decide whether to show up or not, and if they don’t find it personally relevant at the time, they walk, most of the time with few measurable consequences.  What I teach is specifically related to life skills – managing money, reducing debt, developing more effective parenting strategies.  What I teach has to be relevant to someone’s specific day-to-day life; my students have to see a need and experience a benefit.  Also, my overall goal is to empower people to know they can change the way they do things; ultimately it is their decision about what and how to change.  I’m there to provide information they may require and/or desire, but they have to run with it.  I’m giving them new tools and resources and hopefully a new perspective (and often a pep talk).  But, at the end of the day, they, as learners, have to do it for themselves.  As this idea has evolved in my personal teaching philosophy, I’ve even found that I’m not completely comfortable with using the term “teaching” because it changes the focus from “learning.”

That brings me to collaboration and connected learning communities (chapter 2).  In my own organization we have started to collaborate in such communities.  As a follow-up to professional development on adult learning and technology, a group of my colleagues and I decided to form a Community of Practice within Cooperative Extension to study the subject of adult learning or andragogy.  We met and formed a loose structure and a plan. There would be no chairperson of the group, no one leader; rather, we would all contribute to the group’s knowledge.  Coming to consensus in a group of strong-minded independent thinkers was a challenge in itself, but finally we chose a book to guide our discussions.  Each of us volunteered for a specific week in which to post a summary of one of the book chapters using Google+; other members would post comments and discussions.  Going forward we will meet via Google+ Hangout once a month to discuss the book as a group.  The book we chose was The Adult Learner.  It’s been bumpy and may not last, but it’s an attempt to address a real learning issue that we’re facing as education professionals and address it for ourselves; we’ve taken ownership of our own learning.

Back to my learners: I’ve noticed that somehow they’re getting the message about taking ownership of their learning.  They also collaborate together in their learning, without my orchestrating it.  They share ideas and stories and frustrations.  They support each other. They realize that others have the same challenges they do. I see the light bulbs go off.  I hear people get excited, because they understand through the process of learning that they can do things differently and get different results.  The “eureka” doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does happen, it’s a pretty amazing feeling.  As it turns out, I do make my own contribution to their learning, but the group together is what makes it work best.  Eureka!