I am not one to long for the “good ole days” because I believe that there has never been a better time to be a learner, to be an entrepreneur, or to be alive in general. You can fill in the “to be” section of that statement with so many things. Now, I need to qualify a few points. I am referring to living in the west and in particular Canada but despite the unconscionable social injustices we see throughout the world and in particular the third world there has never been a better time to be alive. Don’t take my word for this–just refer to Hans Rosling amazing Ted Talk The best stats you have ever seen.
The opportunities for a learner today have never been better. Virtually all the worlds information is available in the palm our hands on our mobile devices. We can learn all the time and everywhere. Social networking enables a learner to move out of isolation and to connect to so many others who are striving to learn about similar, related or dissimilar things. These learning communities are so crucial for the advancement of ideas. Steven Johnson in the RSA talk Where good ideas come from points to the European Coffee Houses in the Age of the Enlightenment and the Parisian Salons of Modernism as places were ideas “bumped” into each other and significant advances in society were born. Johnson also argues that these virtually connected communities will further advancement today because “chance favours the connected mind. ”
The connected world of the Internet has also put significant pressure on our traditional educational institutions. At all levels we are starting to see a shift toward more student centric form of education. We see many teachers experimenting with online, blended and technology enhanced learning because they have starting to recognize that the problem of the deliver of content has been solved by technology. It has never been a better time to be a teacher. Teachers now have the opportunity to focus on helping students to go much deeper and discern what can be done with all the information.
We truly live in an amazing time and it has never been a better time to be a learner. Are you embracing all the opportunities that the 21st Century has to offer?
