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Installment #6: What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning

February 9, 2010 by melaniebooth

After a brief hiatus from PrattleNog, I am back to share the most recent lesson that my toddler Mac has taught me about adult learning: We often need to select the right tools to help us learn.

Mac has discovered the importance of a box full of learning tools — the tape measure helps him determine how long or wide something is; the wrench helps him know if something is secured tightly; and the hammer? Well, as Mac warns us every time he picks up his little toy hammer, “I’m going to be a little loud now.” I like to believe that somewhere in there the hammer is helping him learn about force (for better or worse, though nothing has been broken . . . yet).

Measure twice, cut once. Right? Wait! Measure once, cut twice?

One learning tool that we suggest to our PLA students is the Mind Map.  Mind Maps help you organize your ideas visually and map them out, which can then help you figure out how to organize them in writing or for a presentation — or just organize them in your own head!

I think ideas floating around in our heads are often like a bunch of jumbled clothes in a basket of laundry; you have to sort them to make sense of what is there and how they work together (or don’t!).  In PLA, students use Mind Maps to brainstorm their existing knowledge about a topic to get an organized inventory of what they know and to determine how to structure an essay accordingly.

Mind Maps — and other kinds of learning tools — can help us sort, organize, and identify what we’re learning. They can help us articulate our knowledge and experience to others. Like Mac’s wrench, they can help us ensure that an idea we’re trying to convey to ourselves or others is secured tightly.  And, like Mac’s hammer, they may help us articulate these ideas with “force.”

So think about this: What are the learning tools in your toolbox?

Previous installments of What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning:

#1 – Learning Can Happen When We Challenge our Perspectives

#2 – Learning is Developmental

#3 – We Learn by Direct Experience

#4 – We Learn by Observing Others, Even If Others Are Not Experts

#5 – The Importance Of Books In Learning

Posted in Adult Learners, Learning, PLA, Toddlers, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Installment #5: What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning

December 17, 2009 by melaniebooth

Installment #5 is all about books, because each and every day, Mac reminds me just how important books are. Books have become Mac’s beloved friends: they comfort him when he’s upset, they entertain him when he’s bored, they help him wake up and go to sleep, and they teach him.

We  take Dr. Seuss’s ABC book to his school to share every day (every day!), and every night we  read the dinosaur book AND the tadpole book before bed, with frequent perusals into a book that Elayna Alexandra, one of our students, illustrated and so kindly gave us called Sherman the Frog Meets the Snow Princess.

Which of these are the most reliable academic sources?

And like kids, we adults need good books to be our friends and our teachers as well.  Pam Houston’s short stories in Cowboys Are My Weakness and Wallace Stegner’s novel Angle of Repose are two books that have come to be best friends of mine: I’ve read each one numerous times and every time I do, I gain new insight into myself.  Good stories indeed, but also good learning!

Of course, adult learners also need books to help us with our course work. Though we have a lot of prior knowledge and know a lot about … well …  a lot, sometimes time in the library or a good bookstore, and with our noses in books and articles and research databases, is just what is needed to fill in the gaps.  The literature review for my dissertation was 36 pages of gap-filling, and that doesn’t count all the stuff I read that didn‘t go in the review! (For those of you who are Marylhurst students, I cannot say enough good things about the great resources and folks at Shoen Library.)

This whole book thing reminds me of one of my favorite quotes about books (to be honest, I remember it because it was one of the quotes on the wallpaper in the bathroom of the house I grew up in):

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Oh, and that reminds me of another one of my favorite quotes about books:

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend.  Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.  ~Groucho Marx

Previous installments of What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning:

#1 – Learning Can Happen When We Challenge our Perspectives

#2 – Learning is Developmental

#3 – We Learn by Direct Experience

#4 – We Learn by Observing Others, Even If Others Are Not Experts

Posted in Adult Learners, Learning, Toddlers, books | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

Installment #4: What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning

December 14, 2009 by melaniebooth

Lesson #4:

Sometimes we can learn a great deal by carefully observing others.

Surely dad knows what he's doing!

Even if others aren’t exactly experts!

(No offense, dear husband.)

As one of my PLA students wrote in her essay on Leadership Communication:

I learned all about leadership communication by working for a person who did not do it well. Everything she did represented everything one should not do when striving to be a leader.

Here are links to previous installments of What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning:

#1 – Learning Can Happen When We Challenge our Perspectives

#2 -Learning is Developmental

#3 – We Learn by Direct Experience

Posted in Adult Learners, Learning, PLA, Toddlers | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

Installment #3: What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning

December 11, 2009 by melaniebooth

In this third installment of What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning (here is installment #1; here is installment#2), I offer you a sequence of three photos. (I also apologize for the blur; it is representative of the speed with which Mac was learning.)

The lesson Mac offers us adult learners?

Never underestimate the amazing learning opportunities presented by direct experience.

Hey – maybe Mac could get PLA credit for Introduction to Physics!

Posted in Adult Learners, Learning, Toddlers | Tagged , , | 6 Comments »

Installment #2: What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning

December 9, 2009 by melaniebooth

Hey - I might want to play with this!

Learning as adults is a developmental process, just as it is for Mac.

At first we see the possibility of simply playing with the car, but very soon we become the drivers of the whole big bus!

In between these moments?

GROWTH.

Now I am the driver!

Posted in Adult Learners, Learning, Toddlers | Tagged , , | 3 Comments »

Installment #1: What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning

December 7, 2009 by melaniebooth

For the first installment of “What My Toddler Has Taught Me About Adult Learning,” here is a little story that will either warm your heart or make your stomach churn.

A few weeks ago, Mac and I were talking about dinner on our drive home from school. The conversation went like this:

Me: Mac, what would you like for dinner tonight?

Mac: Pizza!

Me: What should we put on the pizza?

Mac: Peanut butter!

Me: What? You want to put peanut butter on your pizza?

Mac: And guacamole!

Me (almost gagging at the thought of such a pizza): And what else?

Mac:  Green beans!

Me: What else?

Mac: (pause) (pause) (pause)

Me: Anything else you’d like us to put on your pizza, Mac?

Mac: MILK!

The lesson?

Why not a peanut butter/ guacamole / green bean / milk pizza? I mean, seriously!!!

The real lesson?

We easily get stuck in ruts and thus we need new perspectives to challenge our thinking.

Thanks to lason on Flickr for making this image available for reuse.

I thus offer you this picture of a corn dog pizza with a challenge to try new things! You just might learn something!

Posted in Learning, Toddlers | Tagged , | 6 Comments »

Only Connect

December 2, 2009 by melaniebooth

Thanks to anemoneprojectors on Flickr for making this image available for reuse.

This morning I listened to part of Obama’s speech about sending in 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.  At the end of his speech, he called upon Americans to be united:

It’s easy to forget that when this war began, we were united — bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack, and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear.  I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again.  I believe with every fiber of my being that we — as Americans — can still come together behind a common purpose.  For our values are not simply words written into parchment — they are a creed that calls us together, and that has carried us through the darkest of storms as one nation, as one people.

(Man! That Obama gives good speech!)

This part of his speech didn’t necessarily inspire patriotism in me, but it did remind me again of seeking integration in my life. It also reminded me of a quote from E.M. Forster’s novel Howard’s End:

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon.
Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted,
And human love will be seen at its height.
Live in fragments no longer.
Only connect…

I think, more than ever, I need to create opportunities to connect the varied and disparate aspects of my life and to connect with other people and species as much as I can. I think connections will keep me healthy and … balanced. If I were one to make New Year’s resolutions (I am not), mine would be to try my best to live my life by this credo.

Only connect …

I really don’t see any disadvantage to it.

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45 Credits – And She’s A Better Writer, Too!

November 24, 2009 by melaniebooth

Today we celebrate Chrissi Antonopoulos, a Business & Leadership major who just completed a 45-credit Prior Learning Assessment portfolio. 45 credits is the maximum number of PLA credits students can earn, and Chrissi achieved it! Here are the topics she wrote for:

  • BIO 164: Introduction to Human Anatomy
  • BIO 165: Alternatives to Health and Healing
  • CCM 322: Interpersonal Communication
  • CCM 323: Effective Listening
  • CCM 333: Intercultural Communication
  • CCM 346: Conflict Management
  • SP 111: Public Speaking
  • SP 130: Business and Professional Speech Communication
  • CTD 440: Principles of Instructional Design
  • CTD 446: Helping Adults Learn
  • CTD 450: Instructional Presentation & Interaction Techniques
  • BA 206: Management Fundamentals
  • MSD 117 / 161: Customer Relations
  • BUS 400: Personal Ethics in Organizations

Here’s part of what Chrissi wrote in her Final Reflection Essay:

As a student, my PLA experience has also helped me in my other courses; I am a better writer, I can convey my thoughts more precisely and I have learned to be more efficient and organized when it comes to course work. I have also used some of the reading materials I discovered in other classes or papers as references. . . I value my experience highly and can see how it fits in with my overal educational experience at Marylhurst.

In the following video, Chrissi talks about her experiences with the PLA program, highlighting how writing PLA essays helped her develop her academic writing skills, which have served her in all of her other coursework. Enjoy her tips for writing PLA essays and organizing her time.

CONGRATULATIONS CHRISSI!

Posted in Adult Learners, Higher Education, PLA, Writing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

Welcome To My Workplace

November 23, 2009 by melaniebooth

Some of my creative colleagues recently put together this video of Marylhurst University – it’s a virtual tour, and I think it totally captures the beauty, history, and ethos of this place. Every day when I come on to campus, I am thankful that I get to have these buildings and grounds surround me.

Posted in Work | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Are You In Sleep Debt?

November 16, 2009 by melaniebooth

 

Thanks to floralbrigades on Flickr for making this photo available for reuse.

The New Service blog posted a good article about Sleep Debt that I wanted to share.  What is sleep debt? According to the article:

 

Sleep debt is the accumulated sleep that is lost due to poor sleeping habits, sickness, or other causes that affect “peaceful” sleep.  This debt can become difficult to “pay back” if it becomes too large.  Adults roughly need between 7-9 hours of sleep per night.  Yet according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many adults are not getting enough sleep each night.  Nearly 1 out 4 adults do not sleep 50% of the time or more.

This seems like an especially important concept for adults in higher education because we try to do everything and cram it all into 24 hours. We work, we take care of others, we eat, we exercise, we spend time with our children/friends/sisters/brothers/partners/animals,  we contribute to our communities/place of worship/neighborhoods, we clean house or do yard work or make our meals, and then ??? THEN we add to this already very full plate educational activities. Somewhere in this mix we need to sleep!

Wanna know why? It’s quite simple: we need sleep in order to learn.  Read more HERE and HERE about this! Sleep is critical to helping us process new information and make sense of our prior knowledge.

I can add a tip to the list offered by New Service: remove your cats from your room!

What tips can you add for ensuring you get enough sleep?

Posted in Adult Learners, Sleep | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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