Learning is one of my passions. I have been in some form of school non-stop since kindergarten ;) I love to learn, whether it is learning how to sing, how to play beat saber at expert+ level, or how to develop optimal [XR] user interfaces. In teaching I have had a broad set of experiences from Introduction to programming to Algorithms and datastructures and Research skills (Curiosity).
Some of the topics and questions I have started to dive into in this digital gardenDigital garden
A digital garden is a type of web presence which is somewhere in-between a tweet and a blog, in terms of the amount of structure and finality of the contents (see [[note stages]]). Like a garden, i...:
- How do you become an expertExpert
As a relatively young [[research line]] in the group on relatively young topics such as XR and persuasive technology, an interesting question is: When can we call ourselves experts in these fields?...? - How can a learning communityLearning community
A [[learning]] community (a.k.a. a community of practice) is where different people come together to learn and develop on a specific topic. This can be a key factor in continuous learning and devel... help us in life-long learning? - What are key concepts in learning (and teaching) that are important to understand? Such as threshold conceptThreshold concept
A threshold concept is like "a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing so...s, scaffolding, but also the productivity-related Pareto principle.
I can thoroughly recommend the books by Barbara Oakley on this, specifically:
- A Mind for Numbers, for learners (related to Learning how to Learn on Coursera – Thanks Almer Tigelaar, for pointing me towards that one!)
- Uncommon Sense Teaching, for teachers
They are both very thorough, concrete and hands-on.
“Learning is the ultimate procrastination” – Tiago Forte.
Tiago Forte’s position is that if you can get the same work done without more learning, then that learning is just a way of procrastination. Learning provides a certain sense of achievement. It is fun to be able to do things you could not before. But it is easy to take it further than necessary. This line of thinking would then advocate for a just-in-time approach to learning – to pick up knowledge and skills when you actually need them.
I disagree. Your goal is likely not just to be able to do what you already can do. You probably want to improve at your craft. Secondly, I have noticed that people tend to switch gears every 5-7 years or so. Then learning new things is important as it helps you decide which direction to pivot to when the time comes. (Read more on this way of thinking in Dorie Clark - The Long Game (2021)Dorie Clark - The Long Game (2021)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57511240-the-long-game
)