Andragogy; About My Artifacts
Reflecting on my own experiences in numerous adult learning environments, I looked to Knowles’ assumptions of adult education (St. Clair, 2002) to help me analyze my own learning and to better inform my teaching practice. As the years pass my motivation level and willingness to learn has increased dramatically, especially if it is something I am interested in or it solves real life problems. Andragogy was a fascinating subject that I researched in relation to ESL (English as a Second Language) to gain greater insight into its application globally. The knowledge gained led to the writing of Andragogy and ESL; Friend or Foe, a literature review that provided insight into the difficulties incurred in applying adult learning principles in cultural environments around the world.
The second artifact in this theme is another literature review titled A Personal Perspective from Collective Minds; On Knowledge, Learning, Teaching. This was chosen primarily because it is the culmination of reflection, collective thinking, and teachings that occurred throughout my studies in the Principles of Learning. For the first time I was required to contemplate on the nature of knowledge, learning and teaching, which also began my thinking towards the development of a teaching philosophy. Finally it was chosen because it represents one of the first literature reviews I wrote, while having very minimal knowledge of what a literature review entailed. Although writing was never my strong point, and the writing style is quite different from that found in the Arts, I believe my understanding of literature reviews and the manner in which they are constructed has improved since those early writings at the beginning of my program. The third and final artifact in the andragogical theme is Digital Native, Digital Immigrant, which is a PowerPoint presentation on the much debated topic of technology use by the generations. It has been chosen because it represents my induction into the world of blogging. As a required part of the Introduction to Adult Education course I was given the opportunity to voice my opinion and even achieve a grade for doing so. Although I had never blogged before, I found it to be a promising avenue in which to share my thoughts with the world. This particular blog, written in response to Prensky's (2001) article, Digital Native, Digital Immigrant accompanied my presentation on the topic, and since I have been using technology from its inception in every way possible, Prensky's categorization of my generation as digital immigrants caused a reaction I could not suppress. What is more, the blogging I began in this class led to the development of my own WordPress site, which I hope to have more time to devote to now that my graduate studies have been completed. |