Developing life-long learner skills

How do you become a life-long learner?  I was qualified and worked for some time as a microbiologist.  I then married someone who lived in the middle of nowhere and there were no jobs for microbiologists within a 100 mile radius.  But the local secondary school needed chemistry and science teachers, and so, I entered the teaching profession, without any training and I learned how to teach on the job.
This set me up for a lifetime of learning on the job.  My skills developed through need and, of course, I was putting in effort along the way.  As a chemistry and maths teacher, I kept thinking about better ways to teach the students, and attended professional development opportunities to help me improve.

I had previously thought that getting a degree in microbiology (and a post graduate diploma) would set me up for my working life, and that was all that I would need to be the most invaluable microbiologist in New Zealand.  I look back shamefacedly at that notion! Little did I know that knowledge was expanding at an exponential rate and whatever I knew back then, would be well out of date in five years.
As I moved into a senior management role at my school, the job description changed even more and now also included presenting and working with the staff.  As a classroom teacher, I had seen the development of the internet and digital technologies in education as opening up a whole new world for me and my students.  I started reading, watching and listening to as much as I could, and more importantly, started searching the internet for strategies using digital technology skills so that I could engage my students and deepen their learning.
 I looked for the "just in time" professional knowledge rather than the "just in case"  because there was so much to learn, it would have been overwhelming otherwise.  And so began the next stage in my learning journey. The age of the confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learner had arrived.  I am confident because I know that the knowledge that I need is out there in the ethernet.  I am connected because I have expertise at my fingertips, and have professional learning networks I can tap into 24/7.  I am actively involved because I seek out new learning myself as I need it and give that learning back, whenever and wherever I see the opportunity. I am a lifelong learner because the journey never stops.

 I don't tell you this story to celebrate my success as a learner.  I tell you this story so that you can think about your own journey and how you become a lifelong learner so that your professional expertise is based on your own wants and needs in a changing world.  And I also tell you this story because your students need to know and understand it, as they enter a rapidly changing world.

The internet has changed the playing field for everyone.  So much knowledge and learning available for all.  If I want to learn how to copy and paste, I just google "how to copy and paste".  If I want to make a podcast, I just google "how to make a podcast".  There are instructional videos about everything and anything on youtube.  You can find out anything "just in time".  And that knowledge may be redundant in a years time, so be prepared for change.  Never have Heraclitus's words been more true - “Change is the only constant in life.”

Upping the ante

With "Connected Educator Month" coming up, it is timely for me to increase my blog output.  The month-long event is a prompt to remind me how much I learn from blogging and to get onto it.  It  is such a useful learning strategy to reflect on what I have learned, and where I am going and sometimes just cogitate.

I sometimes feel that blogging is my outlet for venting frustrations as well but then I remember I should be politically circumspect.  In my work, it pays not to get too "out there" with your political stance - it could get you into trouble as Mr Whale Oil (Cameron Slater) has found out.  I suppose he has made his money in the meantime though.

Blogging is also a way for me to connect with other educators.  Isolation has been one of the barriers I have suffered from (and also enjoyed) in the past. Not just geographically.   My social self is underdeveloped.  I am always the person who stands on the outside of the crowd, the last to be chosen for sports sides, the most likely to not have a date for the ball.  (Despite all that I have a happy marriage (the second of two, in fact),  lifelong friends and a great career.)

Blogging gives me an added dimension.  I have a voice.  It is not restricted by social mores.  So, over the next month, I am going to put myself out there more often, more regularly and more directly.  My goal is to blog once a day over connected educator month, at the end of the day.  With something to say, or not.  Getting on this bus and going for a ride.

Let'e see what comes out of it.