Nebraska Learns 2.0 kick off post

Photo: learn by aaron schmidt

I am participating in the Nebraska Library Commission’s Nebraska Learns 2.0 over the next few weeks. At the very least, it’ll force me to actually post on my blog!

I’m going to take a slightly different approach to the 23 things, at least the ones I already know something about. My goal for myself is to look at each of the things and try to figure out how they work rather than how to use them. For many things, that might mean trying to figure out the API. For others, it might mean looking for new tools that suit my needs. I hope to couple this with learning PHP and Ruby and wrap it up in a nice little package. Or something like that.

So this week, we’re on thing #3 – which is to post about the 7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits tutorial. The prompt question was which of these is to be easiest and hardest for me and why?

So to recap, the 7.5 habits for lifelong learning are:

Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3: View problems as challenges
Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7: Teach/mentor others
Habit 7 ½: Play

I think one of the things I have a hard time with is to begin with the end in mind. I start out with a vague goal like “I want to learn to program!” If I take programming as a test case, the goal might instead by “I will learn to program and make use of API’s so I can enhance websites with dynamic content.” That still sounds a little vague to me, but that is the reason I want to learn to program. Well, besides the fact that I want to bend the computer to my will. :)

One of the things I think I am pretty good at is “Play.” I often set up challenges for myself so I will learn something- an example is switching to Linux as my primary operating system at home. It probably would have been simpler (and saved me a bit of frustration) to just stay with Windows or get a Mac, but I really wanted to understand how Linux worked. So, I played around, installing it first on a test machine and then buying a Dell with Ubuntu pre-installed (I have reinstalled it several times since). Along the way, I have learned quite a bit about Linux, and have had LOTS of fun personalizing my desktop. I think the challenge is setting up play that is productive and fun.

One other thing I found useful is the learning contract (PDF) you can download as part of the tutorial. I especially like the opportunity to sit down and visualize obstacles, and to actually write down the names of people you can turn to for help, as well as setting targets for yourself. Basically what you are doing is creating your own syllabus, and as a distance student, I can say that a syllabus and deadlines are important for self paced learning.