5 ways that I Learn

By: Andy Jay Bertelsen

1. Self Learning: I think self learning is important because when you are a child it is an extremely important time in life to teach and explore the world through your own experiences. I think this is an important parallel within the text because when you are learning and taking in information, a natural as well as instinctual process is to connect what you are learning to what you already know. So if you are stopping mid sentence or mid paragraph, or even if you read the title of the book which prompts you to start thinking critically of other things I believe is important. Perhaps you have to be lost in the maze of knowledge for information to be found.
2. Horizontal Structures: When I hear the word horizontal structures or horizontal learning environments I immediately think to the Occupy Wall Street movement. What this social movement’s strongest line of defense, in my opinion was a fundamental concept called horizontalism. This is when you have an array of different types of people, from different skin color, religious affiliations, political differentiation, and life experiences, you garner an overlapping of worldviews and that is important because it makes your resolve stronger and the teamwork more dynamic and across the board more experienced. The take away from the learning technique horizontal structures is that it is important to break away from a system that is singular, to a way of interacting with people to be a combined way of learning. From “that” to “how”.
3. Network Learning: Network learning is important because it describes a way of learning that is not just an individual journey but rather a group journey. You work differently when you are a part of a team. Whether it be the fact that you have to prove yourself to others in order to gain their trust and respect to being a hard working team mate that brings to the table what the group needs. Being a part of a team is not just about coming up with a project, because an individual can do that. What changes in Network learning is the fact that you work on things that are considered important learning experiences such as social cooperation, social engagement, interactivity and mutuality. It takes a village to raise a child, not a child to raise a village? I think that’s how it goes.
4. Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity: This is important because with the use of technology and more important availability. Communities can overcome frustrations due to technological barriers, this also includes an array of social issues. I think that the internet is an important tool that can help underprivileged communities have the opportunity to connect and transform their lifestyle. An example to describe the definition of Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity: Some mountains cannot be climbed alone like Mt. Everest, you need a team of skilled climbers and people that respect the mountain.
5. Life Long Learning: This baby or I mean… Pillar of institutional pedagogy represents an important facet that should be carried out in day to day life. Participatory learning is a life long learning. We are all human, and we share a lot of characteristics that make us similar, we are not celestial beings from the tesseract galaxy dimension # 4 from the crab nebula with a divine reason of existence. We trip and we fall, we are not perfect, in fact the more we know, the less we actually confirm we know. Life long learning in an educational settings bring about an importance of our social and cultural perspectives. To know this, one can take the first step into a world underrepresented situations and problems. The power of the human and the human mind, we can adapt and overcome almost any obstacle that comes our way. The change in shifts from how we know how we know is a very important meta function in our consciousness that needs to be achieved. Understanding our place in the universe is the first step.