The Lifestyle of Online Learning

                
 Next week, I am going to the Canvas conference in Utah for admins and other such people.  Which means, according to my email, that I am now part of a conference course that studies the conference itself. And on the twitter network, people are already chatting about it.  The eagerness and intense excitement from so many people both impress me and intimidates me a bit. This is definitely Not Your Mother’s Conference.

Online learning is continuous and non-stop. It is embracing and engaging. It is a river flowing with thoughts and information and every time I step in the water I discover a shiny new pebble, washed with the energy of the rushing water. I collect ideas that people have concerning education; teaching, learning, technology, resources, methodologies, and experiments.  I jog next to the river, trying to see where it is going; I sit next to it, and I wade in it. It exhausts me and inspires me. All the while, it flows.

None of us can see the other end, but we feel this river in all of our lives. It overflows into our personal space and blurs borders between people, work, play and learning. This river is a revolution that is touching every aspect of education, and those that explore the river are discovering new connections with each other, students, and learning. Let’s all plan to spend at least some time during the summer wading and collecting pebbles. We can all share our new collections in the fall. Happy collecting, everyone.                 Image: BBMaui/flickr.com