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Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

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Learning by prostheses

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Jim Schuyler, CTO of the Dalai Lama Foundation (and colleague, mentor, friend), writes in his blog:

My contention is that much of what we have to accomplish in educating people is to help individuals understand the limits of their own cognitive (and memory) abilities and find ways to interface with memory and cognition-devices in the external world so they can effectively and productively learn – and I mean learn and learn and learn for an entire lifetime – and make use of what they have learned.

In one sense this sounds a lot like George Siemen’s connectivism, and in another like the meta-learning (learning to learn) that I was promoting with Jay Cross and several others. I still think that meta-learning is a big missed opportunity in the corporate world, and it’s definitely part of the curriculum I’d like our schools to be working on.

It’s about developing a mind-set to steadily and systematically learn along our lives, and having the skills to do so effectively and efficiently. Sounds like the best investment I can think of. We know our limitations: great pattern matchers, poor arbitrary rememberers. Which is why I push my ‘external brain’ (my Treo) to see how much smarter it can make me (part of my mobile learning learning).

As a side note, I wish Sky allowed me to put this comment on his site, but he requires having a log-on and I’ve enough of those already. In general, when I’ve read others’ comments on my blog in their blog, I leave comments on their blog rather than reiterate them here. And maybe I’m missing one of the benefits or responsibilities of blogging? Live and learn, so opinions welcome.

Superman versus Batman

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As a kid, I read comicbooks (and I still think they’re undervalued as a learning tool). Naturally, I was keen on the superheroes, and given my name, Superman was probably my favorite. To fly, to be invincible, strong, and fast, well, it as too perfect for a kid who wasn’t the greatest athlete.

As I get older, I’m becoming more partial to Batman. Why (and why is this relevant to learning)? Because Superman, and so many of the other superheroes, got their powers through no particular effort of their own. Radioactive spider bites, being born on a planet with different characteristics, lab accidents, the list goes on. They don’t even stand up to scrutiny! On the other hand, Batman set his mind to becoming extremely capable. He learned science, trained in martial arts, etc. (Ok, so he started with a fortune to back him, but he didn’t have to work so hard, he chose to.) It could happen!

Informal learning only works to the extent that the informal learner knows how to learn, and is diligent in doing so. Learners have to challenge themselves, and take responsibility for ensuring what they need to know, and we shouldn’t take that for granted. I’ve found one of the keys to my own learning is to choose not necessarily the easiest path.

I’m a big fan of learning to learn, but you have to be aware and choose to learn. For example, I think we’re not doing enough in most of education to share responsibility with the learner. I think we need to support, and expect, self-learning. And I think it’s one of the greatest ROI potentials in corporate training, where the one investment gets leveraged across all areas of endeavor. So here’s to Batman and all those who set themselves goals and work hard to achieve them.