A Learner's Analogy

I believe that a learner is like the outdoors. All of the individual pieces are always changing and being molded by their environment. Each of the individuals may exist, but they are also interconnected as in nature. The mountain is shaped by the wind, rain, ice, heat, the animals that tread on it. Learners are shaped by their interactions with other students, teachers, and community members. Just as the mountain is changing, as Siemens says in his Network of Learning post on youtube " what we know today is not as important as our ability to stay current ... if I'm not continually learning then I am becoming obsolete in my field." This shows how important it is to continually be willing to change what you know to be true and accept that as teachers we are forever learning. The other quote that I liked came from Siemens's article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age “One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago. The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD). To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.” This little bit of information shows how important it is that learners are willing to allow themselves to open up to the constant stream of new information that is continuously shaping them. This bit of information reiterates Siemens's point made in his youtube video.