Thing 3 - Life Long Learning

Within the context of the 7.5 skills of a lifelong learner in the presentation, I think the skills that are most engrained in my approach (in other words the easiest) are skills #2 and #4. These two are intertwined and hard for me to separate. In order to have made it to where I am at this stage in my life, I've had to accept responsbility for my own learning and approach that learning with confidence. By doing this, I've gained an understanding of my own learning style, made choices about what I needed to learn (as well as the how and when), and shared that learning with others. In my profession, lifelong learning is expected of me (both internally and externally). In my personal life, it is an expectation I have for myself.

I know that is is said that for children "play is learning" and "learning is play", but I have a hard time viewing "messing around" with technology as productive play (skill #7). For me, other learning styles and formats are more effective. In my experience, learning to use and using technology is work - not play. However, since learning to use technology to my advantage (skill #6) is something I need to do, I am taking this course and making a concerted effort to learn about and experiment with the various formats in order to become more comfortable in using these tools and confident in their effectiveness as instructional strategies and formats. As a person who loves science, it might be easier for me if I called it "experimentation" rather than "play"!