Experimenting Self-Directed Learning

Lifelong learning is inevitable to a successful career in the knowledge economy. I see self-directed learning as the way to go, after formal educations. While classroom learning has many merits in itself, there are many shortfalls:

1. Curriculum-driven rather than learner-driven. Each learner is unique and it is hard to have a one-size fit-all course.
2. Usually much more expensive, especially degrees from well-respected schools

While self-directed learning has many benefits, contrary to disadvantages of formal education, there are many challenges:

1. It’s not easy to set your own learning objectives. Quite often learners are novice in the area. Solution to this is to search around for school curriculum and try to see common theme.
2. Self-discipline is mandatory
3. This is probably the most difficult one: evaluation that you have already met your goal.
4. In many disciplines, especially social science and management, peer experiences are very important. I think webboard can be a potential solution for this.
5. Learners have to be highly self-reflective.

With many challenges, I still would like to make an experiment.

These are things I need to do:

1. Find a topic of interest
2. Research curriculum from well-respected universities and from list-mania on Amazon
3. Define learning objectives
4. Define evaluation
5. Subscribe to common-interest group and webboard
6. Obtain learning materials
7. Set schedule

Self-Esteem

Today I am a little unhappy because my self-esteem being hit. I find it is the most important asset and I will be in big trouble if it runs very low; I have to protect it.

Life Is So Uncertain

As many of you know, I belong to Toastmasters club and we usually have competition at area, district, and international levels. RT usually used to belong to my club and I have seen him a couple of time. He was a great fellow and very committed to Toastmasters. He often served as contest chairperson for our area.

Yesterday at 4:43PM, I received email from him as following:

“Unfortunately, I ran into a fairly major medical problem last week and will have to be off work for at least a month.

Would someone from one of the Area 31 Clubs please take that on?”

And today at 3:43, I received an email from JL stating that RT has passed away.

“Fellow Toastmasters, it is with extreme sadness to advise that RT passed away peacefully at home this morning.  This news has come as a surprise to everyone.  R’s leadership and many contributions to Toastmasters Community will be greatly missed.  Details on Funeral Arrangements to follow.”

Life is so uncertain, and I should appreciate every moment I have left.

Pity You!

I have had troubles with a peer, whose project my employees works in. Today, my employee invited me to a demo and the troubled little guy was so furious and canceled the meeting simply because I was there, even after I said I was there as a silent partner.

At first I was mad too, but quickly I felt so amused by and pity at him. I felt like a victory too; I didn’t know he gave that much importance to my presence.

Buddhism and Love

I have become very interested in the philosophical aspect of Buddhism. (Yep, I am still undecided on what religion I should be part of, and mostly likely never will)

My sister introduced me to the work of Ajahn Jayasaro, a British Buddhist monk, and I really like how he looks at things. Just like me, he begins everything with questions. You can download his books and audiobooks here: http://www.fungdham.com/book/chayasaro.html. All of them, except one, are in Thai. Perhaps I should see if I can work on translating some of his works.

The first work I read was “Why Was One Born?”, and the part that I really like related to love. He says that falling in love with someone is more like having a virus. You might have it for a short while, or all your life. You have to be careful not to think that your lover loves you because you are a good person. If one day your lover stops loving you, out of the blue, it must mean that you no longer are a good person. Actually, it might not be. You really have to know yourself.

The reason that I like this part is not because I am heartbroken or anything. I just think it is an interesting way to teach that “nothing is eternal” and “importance of self-awareness.”

Anyway, after translating this short paragraph, I probably should work on improving my English before I even think of translating one of his books.

Recession

The fact that the current recession is the worst since the Great Depression in 1930s hadn’t hit me until after New Year. Some people that I know have been laid off. I saw many workshops on how to deal with unemployment.

The fact that some laid-off employees wouldn’t know in advance that it would be their last days at work still makes me feel uneasy. Why is it a common practice? I hope that these people will find a better things in life, trying new things they have never dared trying, and, most importantly, never lose their self-esteem.

Hello

Welcome to my new blog! Here I’d like to keep you posted about my life happenings, things I find interesting, and also my various trips. Sit back and enjoy!