A Look Back At Week One

Things have changed is eight short weeks. While I have taught for some time in the library setting I’ve never had formal teaching training nor read much about educational theory. My week one remarks about my learning style seem now to be a mix of wisdom and naiveté. The wisdom comes from my observation that my learning style wasn’t confined to one theory. My naiveté coming from thinking that how I used to learn is necessarily how I learn now.


All the reading and discussion has shown me clearly that the main theories and all the offshoots have each corralled some useful elements. I might be more comfortable in one, two, or three types of learning styles or strategies but in reality I’m learning in all ways. While I might have been almost exclusively behavioral and cognitive as a kid I am now much more constructivist and connectivist. As a child my sights were set on discrete units of facts and the regurgitation of same. Learning was the acquisition of facts that already existed, retaining them as best I could, and then displaying that knowledge hoping for the ‘attaboys’ that usually came. Now I find that I am fully engaged with the items I investigate. They are no longer facts so much as blocks to use to construct my own understanding of whatever is in front of me. And I don’t just go to the ‘book’ anymore. Technology has allowed me to spread my wings so to speak and find a world of interpretations online. And the confidence of adulthood has opened up the social interaction that often informs those building blocks. Plus, learning no longer occurs solely in the classroom. It is as if I am ‘on’ almost all the time. Whatever scaffolding I and others had used to raise me to the level I’m at is always in need of repair and addition. That kind of work requires constant vigilance and thus the 24/7 learning experience.

I found that I have become inextricably linked to technology. And this applies to my efforts to learn. I take my information everywhere. I carry several flashdrives filled to the brim with all the things that matter. The rationale is that at any time I might need to add to it, or modify it in some way. Carrying my work with me takes me out of the formal setting and allows me to work outside the box. I work now with collaborative software (Teamspot and Google Docs) and find that having instant access to modified work and other’s insight makes me more assured that what I am creating is really taking advantage of every social and technological opportunity. My laptop allows me to access that cloud of computing pretty much at any location. And the web itself, both the academic and peer reviewed sources through my library’s website, and the more, perhaps, opinionated fact out on the unfettered web allow me to look at both the supposed strict science of an issue and the attendant skepticism that comes along soon after. Both are good for forming my own opinions, creating my own work.

This class has helped me to thoughtfully look at the approach I am already taking in my learning and teaching and give it a name. And that name is diversity!