The potential of interconnectedness and open lifelong learning may be the key to finding ikigai - your purpose, your reason for being - and the key to a happier and longer life.
TEDx University of Bolton presentation
Video: https://youtu.be/FRyBrdE61fA
https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/19984
17. – Jean-Christophe Denaes 2007
“Serendipity is the way to make
discoveries, by accident but also by
sagacity, of things one is not in the
quest of. Based on experience,
knowledge, it is the creative
exploitation of the unforeseen.”
@suebecks
33. – Don Tapscott 2013
“Collaboration is important not just because it's a
better way to learn. The sprit of collaboration is
penetrating every institution and all of our lives. So
learning to collaborate is part of equipping yourself for
effectiveness, problem solving, innovation and life-long
learning in an ever changing networked society. ”
@suebecks
The potential of interconnectedness and open lifelong learning may be the key to finding ikigai - your purpose, your reason for being - and the key to a happier and longer life.
The University of Bolton's Motto
No man was ever wise by chance.
Seneca the Younger, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, LXXVI
What is your reason for being? What is your purpose? Who are you seeking to become? How will you get there? Whose wisdom will help you achieve your aspirations?
One of the thing I have learned is the more I learn, the less I realise I know.
One of the thing I have learned is the more I learn, the less I realise I know. Today I'm going to talk about why interconnected lifelong learning is something we can all embrace and celebrate.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chambers_1908_Rope.png
To gain any form of wisdom
The common barriers for any time of learning tend to be motivation, having the time and having the confidence to try something new. What I'm going to share next are some of the key things that I hope will help anyone of you, as they have helped me.
For many of us technology has opened new doorways to the world and with this new opportunities to extend our learning. The smart phone and access to the Internet and an abundance of apps. We get frustrated when the Wi-Fi is flaky or absent. We panic when the battery on our devices brings up the red warning light.
Phone and Wi-Fi: Public domain licences
Socket: This image has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Attribution: Miguel Durán
But with this access to an abundance of information comes a warning. We need to learn how to manage attention overload, develop skills for fact checking, or as Howard Rheingold refers to as crap detection. This involves both critical skills and building our online learning networks to learn from of others who are already filtering useful information.
I left school 40 years ago and went to college. I wanted to be a Domestic Science teacher, well actually truth be known I wanted to be Val Singleton on Blue Peter but I'll come back to that. I was offered a place at the Teachers Training College in Sheffield but on completing college I panicked. This was a time when qualified teachers were finding it hard to find work. I started to apply for jobs and within weeks found myself working in a bank. I got married at 19. I went on to have two beautiful girls and spent four wonderful years leading a local playschool. Not only did I have the nearest opportunity I could get to teaching I realised my dreams of using sticky back plastic, squeezy bottles and an abundance of pipe cleaners. For those of you not old enough Val's craft table was a big part of Blue Peter in my childhood. Once the girls were at school I took part-time jobs. Circumstances changed, and following a divorce I had to work full time to pay the mortgage and look after my girls. In 2004 my life changed in many ways. I remarried, lost my Father to cancer, was made redundant, found a job at Sheffield Hallam University and started my first degree at the University of Sheffield through their Lifelong Learning Centre. This meant I could study in the evenings. 2004 was the first time I had ever set foot in a university. And it has changed my life. Over the last decade I've completed two Masters degrees, a post grad certificate in Learning and Teaching, become a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of SEDA and a certified member of the Association of Learning Technology. This year I was selected by my university to put forward an application for the National Teaching Fellow ship award. Time will tell if I'm ready for that but I feel proud to have been chosen. I'm sharing this story because I want to tell you learning is not easy but it is without doubt rewarding.
Self-belief. This will give you the motivation to become the person you want to be. Tell yourself daily you can do this. Dream big.
Be curious - explore, experiment, take risks and above all keep on asking questions
Grasp those new opportunities to learn from different people and perspectives
Jean-Christophe Denaes (2007) Life and Cognition. Adrian Bejan and Gilbert W. Merkx Eds in Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics (2007), p. 315
From being babies we have learned by listening. It is no different online. I have many to thank for all that I have learned within open social spaces.
Embrace resilience. Learning is hard. You will have knock backs, you will make mistakes. It's all part of the learning process. Remember wisdom overcomes difficulty. If at first you don't succeed, try try again.
Find your purpose. Your reason for being.
As a student I found my voice. As a teacher I found my purpose. And a passion to help others find their voice, their confidence, and the curiosity for lifelong learning
What if we were all to embrace lifelong learning more openly? What if we could extend our learning with anyone, anytime and anywhere...
Through the affordances of mobile technology and smart devices we have ever increasing opportunities to extend our learning, both formal and informal learning. It was through the personal learning network I was developing that I met my dear friend Chrissi Nernantzi. And we had a shared idea. Infact we had many shared ideas. One was the 5 C Framework.
Some people will tell you social media is just noise... and in many ways they would be right. connecting people and ideas
LinkedIn 500 million 40 million students/recent grads https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin
Twitter 313 million active users https://about.twitter.com/company
Facebook 1.23 billion https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
https://conversationprism.com/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/9241526804/ (CC BY 2.0)
In 2015 Helen led a Twitter chat on Digital Wellbeing. Simon Rae a retired Lecture in professional development and active member of this LTHEchat community created this doodle, an adaption of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. You'll see the addition of wellbeing and Wi-Fi are important additional components. Below Wi-Fi we might want to add battery.
Tweet by Simon Rae https://twitter.com/simonrae/status/612279251459510272
Don Tapscott, Chancellor of Trent University - instalment speech to the graduating classes of business and nursing. Don Tapscott is president and CEO of The Tapscott Group. He can be followed on Twitter @dtapscott
CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/vandycft/29428436431
Or as the people of the Japanese island of Okinawa say - find your ikigai - your purpose, your reason for being - and the key to a happier and longer life.