Re-imaging Learning - #EdBlogNZ Connected Educator challenge

Re-imaging Learners and Learning

The Ulearn15 Conference has caused me to revisit ideas that I’ve been exploring for the past couple of years, in particular, the idea of re-imaging learners and learning. I think of myself as ‘always learning’ and certainly appreciate the opportunities to learn that have come my way. My involvement with the PLPcommunity enabled me to gain connected coaching certification and led me on a journey discovering what it was like to be a co-learner in an online environment. This process leads me to revisit and unpack all my concepts of learning and view what a learner looked like through a different lens. We were asked to unpack the “Other 21st century Skills ‘ list by Tony Wagner, select the 3 top skills and use the online environment as the lens.

(image: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/the-other-21st-century-skills/)

My top three skills are agility & adaptability, collaboration across networks, empathy & global stewardship. Digital innovation has created an era in which we are faced with what is termed "the Big Shift", where new skills and practices are evolving as new technologies emerge. Skills that our parents and we depended on for sometimes a lifetime often are redundant in a matter of years even months. Learners need to be agile and adapt quickly to different situations, requirements and even ways of working both from a social and cultural perspective. Reflecting about how our constructivist theories, linked with this, is the ability/skill to reinterpret and re-engineer our views through the lens of digital and network technologies. Another skill to add perhaps? Thinking about how my own ways of learning have changed and those of my co-learners on the online course, the second one would be collaboration across networks. I used to go to a library, attend a face to face course, chat in groups in a social setting. This is still possible, however, I now use a combination of physical and virtual spaces. A new 'mode' of learning where learners network on a technical and social level, leveraging social media such as blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, all things Google to name a few. These require active participation, across physical, social and cultural barriers which bring me to the importance of empathy and global stewardship. In this globally interconnected world, time and distance seem to have been diminished, we must be aware of and develop the ability to understand, accept, and interact with individuals from all different backgrounds. Having the ability to 'walk a mile' in someone else's shoes, a 'people' centred lens is vital in determining the success of any collaboration. With this comes a collective responsibility or stewardship towards the networks, we join or help develop and also towards our younger learners.