Building a Ship:
Lifelong Learning on the Open Sea
By: Abigail Kuhn
As I reach the end of the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program, I am reminded of my journey to this point, but I also look to the future for all that this has prepared me to do and be in my professional career. My role as a lifelong learner is critical to how I teach and how I lead. Like building a ship that will be sea-worthy, I need careful planning and consideration for ideas every step of the way. Indeed, if I will be successful at teaching and leading, I must continue to learn, especially considering the rapidly-changing world we live in today. While lifelong learning is something that has been important to me for quite some time, I recognize that this program has affected how I look at this in my professional and personal life.
Part of the mission statement at my school is that we will develop lifelong learners. In order for students to be active, innovative citizens who seek to shape a better world, I believe that they must possess the skills that allow them to ask good questions and seek new knowledge regularly. If I plan to continue in a leadership position at this school, or any school, I believe I must model lifelong learning. To keep growing as an educator, I will
After finishing the program, I hope to continue reading a variety of texts that will provide opportunities to deepen my understanding of learning. Throughout different courses in the program, I discovered some books that intrigue me, many of which I have already purchased. It may be that we read part of the book or that a topic of study led me to the book, but I simply did not find the time to read them. Two of of these are Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath and A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. I will continue to seek other writing and research that will help me to keep up with changes in technology and in theories of learning. Without doing this, it will be more difficult for me to continue to provide meaningful learning opportunities for students in ways that use technology.
Throughout my time in this program, my interest in creativity and the aesthetics of learning has grown significantly. While creativity has been an important part of my life from a young age, I now feel that I have more skills to be able to meaningfully incorporate these into my work, particularly when working to leverage the affordances of different types of technology. In order to continue to develop this part of me, I would like to look for ways to grow in my own use of creativity, particularly with my photography.
need to consider both formal and informal learning opportunities. I am intrigued by the growing use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and the potential that this provides for learning both more about technology and about other subject areas that are of interest to me. I would like to investigate some that are linked to study of Asia as I continue to develop my interest in that part of the world. Additionally, I desire to seek to take advantage of more formal learning opportunities such as study travel trips and programs for teachers. I believe that my own travel and learning by experiencing the world will continue to help me develop as an educator and a person. By modeling this type of learning for my students and colleagues, I may inspire the same in other people.
One aspect that I really enjoy about the use of technology is the ways in which it often fosters lifelong learning simply through how we must continue to adapt to new technologies and explore these to see if they are useful. We must use critical thinking and our own skills of learning to both fully utilize the capabilities of what is available to us and to determine how to best use them to enhance learning. Since a young age, I have been learning and exploring new technologies, and I do not see this changing in the future.
I feel that understanding the ways that technology can enhance learning brings a unique quality to my work as an administrator. I am in a position to be able to encourage others to consider how they can incorporate technology into their lessons in meaningful ways. When I work to problem solve with other educators in this way, I will be using my own lifelong-learning skills and helping to foster theirs. This is important to me as a leader.
If we in education continue to seek to “build a ship” we must not simply give students the tasks to do and tell educators every step in the process. Instead, we must encourage them to be lifelong learners themselves, which will begin with my own journey as a learner. It is in this that a better ship will be built, and a better educator and leader I will be. For now, it is the endless sea that awaits and calls on me to keep learning.