A4RiegerStrzepek

A4RiegerStrzepek

To Do

• please work as a group (minimum: 2 members; max: 6 members) and submit one answer as a group (clearly identifying the members of your group)
• read Fischer, G: "Lifelong Learning - More Than Training", Special Issue on Intelligent Systems/Tools In Training and Life-Long Learning (eds.: Riichiro Mizoguchi and Piet A.M. Kommers), Journal of Interactive Learning Research, Vol. 11, No 3/4, 2000, pp. 265-294. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/lll99.pdf
• reflect on the following statement about Lifelong Learning:
  • "If the world of working and living relies on collaboration, creativity, definition and framing of problems and if it requires dealing with uncertainty, change, and intelligence that is distributed across cultures, disciplines, and tools-then education should foster transdisciplinary competencies that prepare students for having meaningful and productive lives in such a world."
• in your statement, address the following issues:
  We are asking "YOU" questions - use this as an opportunity to discuss your individual experiences among the members of your group → you can answer individually or find the largest common denominator

Part 1

• do you agree with this statement?
• what does the statement mean for YOU?
• do you prepare yourself to be a lifelong learner? what are your most important activities you undertake?
• does your education at CU prepare you for being a lifelong learner?
  • which activities are most important for this objective?
  • which activities are "in the way" to achieve this objective?

Part 2:

• which support from Information and Communication technologies (or: which Digital and Social Systems) are most important for lifelong learning?
  • describe requirements for them
  • describe your personal experience with them

Group response

1. Members of the Group

Colin Rieger Janusz Srzepek

2. Statement Part1

Nice work

Colin: Yes, I agree with this statement. To me, this statement means that in order to become a well rounded learner and worker, one must undertake a diverse education that will show them different views on learning and working with others.

I think I have unintentionally prepared myself to be a lifelong learner. What I mean by this is; I set out to study Computer Science and Psychology when I started college. I didn't choose these two because I thought they would make me a lifelong learner, but because they were interesting to me. Now, I feel like both have given me a strong foundation for learning in the future. From Psychology, I have learned about people, how they act and why they act. This will be beneficial when dealing with coworkers and collaborators on projects. From Computer Science, I have acquired more problem solving skills and a good foundation to be able to learn any programming language that comes along. These two studies will enable me to learn more about people and learn new software technology as it develops over the years.

I would say yes, my education at CU has prepared me for being a lifelong learner. Any activity that will give me a new perspective or a new way of thinking about something, will be most important for this objective. Any activity that is redundant, already well learned, or without any useful information will be "in the way" of achieving this objective.

Jani: Yes, I agree with the statement. To me it means that education should be designed to prepare for working and living. Given the "if conditions," which I believe most people would agree with, the "then" is that the education should conform to those needs specified in the "if."

I don't actively try to prepare myself for LLL, but I think I do get some practice. I think the most important activities are group projects. I learn a lot about how to work with other people to complete a task.

I think my CU education does prepare me for LLL. Like I stated earlier, group projects produce much of my LLL preparation. I've had to learn some programming languages and libraries with my teammates helping me and other times I've been helping my teammates. However, I don't think that the current setup of quizzes, tests, and exams are doing much to prepare me for LLL. But the group studying that can happen before an exam might help some.

3. Statement Part2

Colin: Some support for lifelong learning that I think is very important is the use of technical forums and student forums. People can go on these forums and not only fix their technical problems, but connect with people as well. If they then become part of the community themselves, they may contribute to a fix for another person's dilemma and then the cycle may continue onto the next person.

Requirements for these forums are a server to host them on, an internet connection and most importantly the people. My personal experience with these forums has been a good one. Ive fixed many problems for myself, friends and family by using these forums in the past.

Jani: I agree with Colin that these specified forums are very beneficial to LLL. Additional requirements would that the forum actually has some useful ways to (1) find if helpful information is already on it and (2) actually have knowledgeable participating members to help those who need to learn. Personally, I have found many answers to software questions from forums which came up in Google searches.