Remembering what we know, but forgot: Learning about limitless learning

Like a lot of folks, I LOVE toddlers. They do what we are inherently meant to do and then forget or are taught to forget: We were made for limitless learning! Unfortunately, between misguided - albeit well-meaning - parenting and teaching, we teach kids not to trust their intuition, not to follow the call of their heart, not to explore and mess up and make mistakes. What happens when a toddler spills the milk when he grabs his cup? Or when the 5-year-old wants to pour her milk in her cereal and gets it all over the place? We are frustrated, we tell them what they did wrong AND we tell them how to fix it! This can create the false assumption that there is a right answer and they need to learn it. Rather than letting them figure out what went wrong. Rather than guiding with questions of inquiry to see why what happened, happened. A line of inquiry for learning with a young child of 5 who just spilled their milk, might go something like this:

Oh no, the milk spilled. How'd that happen?

I don't know, I was just pouring it.

Well, what should you do now?

Uhm, I can get something to dry it up?

Okay.

They get a cloth or something and start drying it up.

Now what should you do?

I can try pouring it again.

Okay try it. What happened last time when you poured it? How did you do it? Maybe we can figure out what went wrong?

Uhm...I held it like this and then poured it...but it came out to fast.

Oh maybe that's the problem! How do you fix that?

Oh, oh what if I hold it more carefully and go slower?

Okay try it!

They try it and with a few drops spilled are successful.

You did it! Now what do we do with the dirty towel?

Yes, this takes time. But so does learning. If children are not given a realistic experience of the learning process - trial and error - then they become in danger of feeling bad about "not getting" things like others do as they get older. This is so important if we are going to encourage children, youth, adults to be global learners, to be innovators and new idea makers!

Limitless learning means developing new lines of inquiry, thinking in divergent ways and asking meaningful questions about what we already know and what we seek to know.  These are ideas that need to be held and nurtured within a culture of learning. There may be elements of these ideas in our learning cultures, but often by mistake. We need to be purposeful about creating these opportunities. If we are to develop new ideas and continue to make discoveries and break new ground - then we need a learning culture that has the conditions to create innovative learners.

As a Western society, we have stated for a long time that parents are students’ first teachers. If this is true - which we know it is - then by default, their homes are the first learning spaces. Today, this is more true then ever. What we may not have really reflected on is that these learning spaces - whether at home or in a classroom - all carry a learning culture. The learning culture carries within it the belief systems of that learning group (i.e. parents, teachers, etc.) Because of the transformational advances that push and stress the dominant cultures we live in, we can no longer afford to think of a learning space as static or linear or even that one way is the "right" way. Learning has become global and dynamic, ever shifting in what it holds to be true depending on who or what is present. This has always been true, but because up until now we were able to live in a somewhat homogeneous group in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, etc. it is not something that necessarily landed on our doorstep. Even today, this is not always a welcome knock on the door. With smartphones in every pocket, the learning space is now mobile and the conversation is constantly stressed by global participants entering our personal learning spaces.

We know education is being transformed significantly by technology. Anywhere a human being exists a culture of learning is present - we are learning all the time. Today, with the access to information so readily available, learning is exponential! Learning does not only take place at a desk and in a classroom. Our learning spaces have shifted dramatically and we need to ask ourselves are we giving students and ourselves the opportunity to shift in this global learning space? Can we continue to assume a learning culture that says there is one truth and one norm: ours; is today valid?

Today I'm at the annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference in Denver, Colorado. I always look forward to this conference as a lover of learning, ready to dig in, knowing it offers participants the opportunity to test their mettle as learners by stretching their belief

systems to what is possible, to what challenges us, raising our consciousness to the global enterprise we are engaged in as educators. The conference is often set in cities that are also trying to engage globally, emerge as technologically savvy, with drastically shifting cultures that try to embrace all things new and innovative:

• Sustainable living
• Gender neutrality
• Art integrated purposefully in work and living spaces
• Alternative modes of transportation
• Blending of science, food and technology

I am excited to see how all of these experiences will lend to the learning opportunities and possibilities facing learning communities today. What it will do to stretch me and my colleagues to go back and dig in deeper. To identify what needs to be done in this powerful work of education. To create learning spaces that allow for the opening of truth held within each student, teacher, learner...in other words, all of us. 

We need to go back to what as a toddler we inherently knew to be true: we are limitless beings and today we are ready for limitless learning!