Mod 4: Post 1

A learner to me, as cheesy as it sounds, is like a tree. It is constantly growing and if it does not adapt itself to its environment it will die. That is why trees are different based upon where they are from. Learners are constantly growing with their funds of knowledge, and if they do not keep up with the the times or the ideas in their environment, they will fall behind. This is shown in a quote from the video “The Network is the Learning” where he said “if I'm not continuously learning I'm becoming obsolete I my particular field”. We sometimes forget as teachers that we are also learners, and we forget that we too have to keep up with the current knowledge and practices and constantly be adapting ourself. A quote from the article "Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime" lets us think about the learners path as a series of stages throughout their lifetime, just as a tree moves from a seed, to sapling to full grown tree. Learners have many transitions and because they all vary from one another, specifically the fields they may choose, they need to consistently be growing. Networks make that possible because it gives us people to help support us in our growing and adaptation. This can be taken in the sense of my analogy to a learner as the forest around the tree. One tree by itself may not be able to survive, but with a forest, it gives it strength.