September Summary

MONTHLY SUMMARY – September 2014

Submitted by:  Jan Miller

Group 1 – The Highlander Effect

Group Process:

Joe Morris established a Group Blog for Group 1 with the title “The Highlander Effect.” This title was very helpful to the formation of the group because we have a mutual interest in social justice.  At least two of us joined this group because of the title.  This provides a beneficial beginning.  It should also be noted that we have four members in Group 1.

We exchanged several e-mails to establish how our group would work and, after a few shaky starts, had our first teleconference meeting on Tuesday, September 30^th.

We began by introducing ourselves and discovered we had a wide range of skills and experience. Two of our members are younger and two of us are a bit older.  The combination of youth with technology skills and fresh ideas and maturity which brings years of experience will make this an interesting, dynamic group.

However, we all are new to on line graduate work so we have common issues and questions in navigating the course.

As other group members have already stated, our first assignment responsibilities were divided by task: 1) Two group members will each research an adult educator; 2) one group member will prepare comparison summary; and 3) the last member of our group will prepare the summary.

We developed specific time-lines and agreed to share our information for comments throughout the weekend.  We also have scheduled weekly teleconference meetings for the remainder of the class.

Reflections:

This is the first course in my graduate program after being out of college for over thirty years.  I have had a great deal of professional experience which included a large number of seminars and training sessions (non-formal education) and on the ground training (informal education).   I have also provided a large number of seminars/training sessions and have been a mentor to many young people.

What I am learning is the Academic side of learning.  I find myself constantly identifying formal, non-formal and informal education in every setting. 

I resonated with Malcolm Knowles and his four principles to apply to adult education.   1) Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction; 2) Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities; 3 ) Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life and 4) Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented.

A common theme in these principles is a core respect for adult learners.

My additional learning, and what I hope to explore, is what I see as a lack of connection between theory and practice outside of formal learning institutions.  Perhaps this is yet another example of “town and gown” that is often discussed.  Ball State’s Building Better Communities is one department on campus that attempts to bridge that divide.  It would be interesting to bring academic adult educators and those who are doing the work in the community together for discussions.

Future

The first six weeks have been difficult.  I have had major work and personal commitments that have made it difficult to devote the time needed to be successful in my course work.  In addition, I have had to relearn research techniques and learn the new landscape of on-line research.  I have learned that although I am quite savvy and finding information on the internet, I am still learning how to access scholarly journals.

I have had some one-on-one meetings with researchers at the library and am now much more confident in my research.  My personal goal is to maintain balance between work, personal and course work.  For me, this means saying the underused word “No” when asked to take on more responsibilities.