Lifelong Learning and the 7 1/2 Habits

Here goes my first blog post ever. After looking at some of my classmates blogs, I am aware of how little I actually know - they are very impressive! I am trying not to get overwhelmed and to just focus on my own learning. After all, the point of this class is to bring students like me up to speed on new technologies; and I have to say, so far, I am enjoying it. I look forward to learning something new in class each week.

Regarding Learning 2.0, I think it is a great curriculum, but I am glad that I have someone giving me tutorials each week. I become restless when learning on my own, so the focused and structured learning in class is very helpful to me. My preferred learning style leans somewhat toward the traditional, structured, rule-based, classroom model. But I want to grow and change with the time in which I am living, so this class is a nice mix of classroom and independent learning for me.

This is my first semester as an MLIS student, and the decision to pursue this degree was one that I weighed carefully. So if becoming a librarian is my goal, I have definitely begun this program with the end in mind (Habit 1). Habit 2, accepting responsibility for my own learning, is certainly inherent in deciding to pursue the degree, but is also a commitment I renew each time I decide to sit down and give my best to my assignments for classes. Since I work full-time, this takes a lot of will power and focus.

Habit 3, viewing problems as challenges, and Habit 4, having confidence in myself as a competent, lifelong learner, are things I work on. I have definitely had to learn from problems in the past! Even when the situation that caused me to learn was very stressful, I got a bit of a rush from the new knowledge I acquired. Knowledge is a great thing to collect, and sometimes the knowledge we go to great pains to collect is the most valuable to us. In a stressful situation (a "challenge,") there is no time to decide whether or not to take the time to pursue learning; sometimes learning is the only way out! Confidence for me also takes the form of patience with myself, and the relinquishment of perfection. A brain that is tense because it is striving for perfection does not learn as well as one that is relaxed and open. I have to remind myself that it is OK to be where I am at right now, and that the process of learning is a reward unto itself.

This is also connected to Habit 7 1/2 - Play! Sometimes, when time constraints are tightening, it is difficult to play. I think that most adults with busy lives don't even think about playing and how good it is for the brain. With so many urgent moments, it is hard to bracket time where play can take place. Technology seems to be one of the forms of play that many people enjoy, whether it is through online gaming, blogging, music downloading, or Facebook. But when learning is higher-stakes, such as in the pursuit of a degree for a career, it is easy to become tense. It is probably exactly at these tense moments that we need to step back, take a deep breath, and add some play to the task at hand.

This class is helping me learn to use technology to my advantage (Habit 6), and more importantly, the Learning 2.0 program is helping me learn how to learn to use technology to my advantage. Learning how to learn other related things is learning of the highest order, and learning that teaches the most. Knowing how to learn is the first tool in the learning toolbox (Habit 5). Creating my learning toolbox is one of the steps I usually forget, but I understand the idea of creating the toolbox as setting oneself up to succeed. It is planning. Lovely planning. Sometimes I feel like planning is a lost art. It was interesting to see one of the first steps of a technology learning program return to the slower, more deliberate aspects of learning. Everything is so fast today, everything is needed yesterday. People forget that things take time, especially if they are going to be done well.

And finally, Habit 5 - teaching and mentoring others. I think that one of the jobs of libraries is to encourage and provide opportunities for lifelong learning. This is one of the public services a library can offer. A library could design Learning 2.0 programs in many areas, and in ways that foster community togetherness. Reading about the Learning 2.0 program and the 7 1/2 Habits is making me think about what a library should be as an institution of public lifelong learning. I look forward to exploring this concept further in my Library Studies.