The will to learn

Today, I meat a man that I knew a few years ago, he is almost 60 years old, and he is laready retired.

This man, had his PhD in engineering about 30 years ago, but did not work as an academic, rather, his work was in management.

His love to learn, encouraged him to continue research for the past 30 years continuously! His latest publication was last year (2009).

When we sat together, most of the time, we were talking about a research point that he is trying to solve for the past few years.

I was really inspired by his will to continue learning more in the topic he loved most!

Imagine, if you have that will, what would you do?
How many people would learn from your knowledge?
How many people will be enspired by your dedication?
How mcuh satisfaction will you be able to gain?

This time, I am just writing to send my respects to that gentelman.

The job market!

This might really be a tricky issue ... Why are you learning?

Or in other word, why are seeking a certificate? Why are you studying for a degree? Why are you going to school?

One answer, of course, is "to get married" ... no "good" one will marry me if I am not educated!

Another answer may be "to learn and gain knowledge" ... OK! (another Goof)

But most of the answers will be "to find a better job!"

Do you really believe that the main goal of higher education should be to provide the job market with better employees? Do you really believe that you need a university degree to be a better employee or to be better prepared for the job market?

Personally, I doubt!

To be prepared for the job market, you probably need more of technical education, in addition to good level of soft skill! Basic management skill will definately be a very big plus!

Worldwide, higher education institutions are focusing on providing the job market with better employees, the industry has become a part of the advisory board of the educational instituions. More content that sutisfies the industry requirements is being added ... OK!

Let's think history for a while, what was it that braught universities to existance in the first place? Let's even go further, how did people get to learn before universities existed?

Seeking knowledge drove people to travel for days and nights to get to the person with knowledge (professor) or to reach a library where a book is keapt ... Later, as more people came to seek knowledge, groups of professors would gather in a place where students can visit them easier and more knowledge would be transfered easier ... Later, there had to be a system to insure coordination between different professors and learners, as well as insuring the delivery of a minimum amount of knowledge for those people to get them "certified"

As time went on, more people got to colleges as they realized the "knowledge", or to be more accurate "certification", gave them better opportunities to earn more money ....

Further down the line, investors realized that more people want to have "certification" so they created private institutes that collected professors to provide certification to students who needed to be "certified" ...

As the number of institutions became more, competition started to float on the top ... "I need to have more students to get more money or to sustain my existance" ... Then, to attract more "learners/students" the institutions started campaining that they provide better chances for there "graduates/certificate holders" to find better jobs ... and you can write the rest of the story!

Now do you realize the shift that has occured in the goals of higher education of the centuries, and mostly, in the past decades?

Where are the "learners" who are seaking "knowledge"?
Who is going to prepare a generation of "educated" people who can help developing the human knolwedge?
....
Please, take it seriously and tell me what you think!

Challenge!

The question always rises, "How much should you ask a learner to achieve?"

Should you go as far as the "average" person can go? Should you consider slow learners? Should you go as far as you can and let who can not cope with you fall?

Each answer, you may give to those questions, have its cons and pros!

In the years I lived as a teacher, I discovered that the students are always capable of coping to a very good extend with what you require them to achieve. If you ask for projects, they will perform well on them; extra homework problems are always solvable; extra research topics are always handeled in a decent way ...

Did I lose some of them in the way? YES ... I am not prowd of that of course, however, the achievement that some of them were capable of doing more that anyone else expected is what keeps me going on! On the other hand, I, definately, learn more when I ask more from my students ... I learn new things, I learn the limits of there performance, I learn what way to teaching is good and what is not!

What would you do? What do you think?

The will to learn

As a learner, you need resources to be able to gain knowledge. Resources have been all around us since the begining of life ... Nowadays, we have all the traditional learning ways that have been around for centuries, such as books, television, schools, colleges, etc ...

The, relatively, new resources are the internet resources. It is not something that you do not know about, since you are already online reading this blog!

Blogs is one way of transfering knowledge to others, someone writes about what he knows about, and others read it and sometimes have some coments on it too.

A few days ago I was attending a workshop by a brilliant professor, Prof. Maged Boulos, about the uses of internet in education. Personally, I was astonished by the possibilities that he presented ... Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, Wikis, YouTube, Second Life, and many others ... You may see one of his presentations titled "Networked Social Media in Learning, Teaching and Research" posted on SlideShare.net.

It is not the availability of information that should be stopping you from learning anymore, it is the WILL TO LEARN that you need to start learning

What should I teach?

If "the best way to learn is to teach," what would I teach, and how, when, where, to whome?

Different answers will come from different points of view, of course.

Since I am a university professor, I will make a presentation about a special topic to my students in the college as soon as they finish their exams (what, how, when, where, who)

How about you?
Maybe gather your family for 10-15 minutes and talk to them about a book that you have read lately

If you are a student, maybe get your colleagues after the next exam and talk to them about how you were able to solve a certain problem or how you understand a certain point in your course of studies

How about one sentence that you liked in todays newspaper or in the radio, post it on your facebook account or your blog so that others may read and enjoy it too?

All these might not be the best ideas ... how about your ideas?

The best way to learn ...

Now, imagine yourself going to the museum and preparing to tell your kids all about it when you return home ... How would you watch things there? How would you read the labels?

Yesterday, your boss told you: "You are going to attend that seminar, and on the following day, you will make a presentation to your colleagues about what you learned ther" ... How would you listen during the seminar? How much notes will you take?

A student, who plans to have academia as his career, is sitting in a classroom listening to the professor. How much attention would he be paying? Would he watch how the professor is moving on the stage? Would he, even, pay attention to the way he uses his voice tone?

Now you got it ... The best way to learn is to teach.

Think about it, when you have the responsibility of delivering a certain topic of knowledge to a group of people, how much attention would you pay preparing that material? and how many questions will pop in youe mind that you will search for answers for?

I have spent most of my life as a college student, and certainly, I have learned more during the years of my teaching that during the days of my "learning"!

Today, you will search for a topic, any topic, even one that you are studying now for an exam. Then study that topic putting in mind that you will teach it to a group of your friends or colleagues during one class ... Try it ... really do ... just focus on that you are ging to be teaching it and see the results

I will be happy of you shared any of your experiences with me, I need to learn from you ...

A Community of Learners

A community of learners is a community in which everyone has set his life goals towards continuous learning.

I am not talking about fairy land, it is a very realistic idea!

Imagine what you can do if you are a parent and you could make your children more willing to increase their knowledge ...

If you are an educator and your students have got the idea of how to increase their knowledge without waiting for someone to teach them

If you are just a simple ordinary person and you could recognize how much more you can still learn and benefit, how much would that change your perspective of life?

The basic concept anyone needs to grap is simply "I am ignorant"!

Yes, that's it ... How much do you know? How much knowledge have you accumulated during the years of your life? How much benefit have you gained from that knwledge? How much did you help people with that knowledge? How much more can you do to yourself and to others with that knowledge?

Now, think for a moment, how many people know more that you do in some branch of knowledge or another? Can you still learn more in one of those branches?

If by this time you have aknowledged your ignorance, then you are really ready to learn!

The first question that would pop in my mind at this moment would be, "What should I learn?" There are so many things that I can learn, where should I begin? and how?

These are not trivial questions, and there is no definite answer, however, let's explore some ideas.
Pick the first book your hand reaches in the library and start reading it!
Look for an online seminar (webinar) and attend it!
See if there is a public lecture in your neighbourhood and attend it!
Watch a documentary about something that is interesting!
Call a friend and ask him about something to learn!
...

Now, stop reading this blog, and start doing something to increase your knowledge!