Pulling It All Together – Loose Ends

I’ve left some loose ends in previous posts. So in order to go back and tie them up, let’s first review some thoughts from  What Drives a Learner:

I would suggest that a learner is driven by the realization that fulfilling their needs depends upon some action on their part.

A Learner is

someone who is actively looking to fill a need.

If that’s the case, what needs are they trying to fill?

I would suggest that 

a Learner is basically looking to meet

~ immediate needs

~ long term needs

The next question is:

What influences

~       the immediate and long term needs they are seeking to meet and fill?

~       the kinds of actions that are needed to meet and fill those?

This obviously begs the question: Are all actions learning? Unfortunately that question will have to wait until my next post titled, very cleverly, What is Education?

Except I didn’t answer this question.

So, is someone who is working to meet either immediate or long term needs always learning? NO. 

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

To be learning, someone must be either

~       validating something already learned and/or

~       learning something new.

Next, in the What is Education? Part 2 – Redefining Education and Learning post we find another loose end:

So society’s definition of education is based upon learners seeking some sort of societal approval through accepted actions in order to participate in and be rewarded by society.

Compare that to the LDE definition of Education which is based on learners processing their context and then acting within that context in order to meet long and short term needs.

But while the processes and evidence of education are described, Education isn’t actually defined.

So here we go:

Education is the ability to skillfully use a wide range of contexts to successfully meet immediate and long term needs.

There, that's better.

~vbb