Mod 4 Post#1 An analogy of the learner of today

A learner is like an airport. As similar as airplanes come from all over the world with lots of cargos and passengers using airway, you can also acquire knowledge from all over the world via your connection. Since you cannot experience everything you want to know, airplanes can bring cargos and passengers (information and knowledge) from everywhere.

Needless to say, all airports in the world can be connected with each other somehow. Siemens similarly stated in a video clip about “the external component of network,” “which is the learning we do when we form and make connections with other individuals and with other sources of information.” In that sense, you can access everywhere by using network effectively, even if you do not have a direct connection to a place (knowledge).

Of course, an airport is not only for arrivals but also for departures. You can also send information using your connections to all over the globe. As Siemens mentions in his article, “[i]n a knowledge economy, the flow of information is the equivalent of the oil pipe in an industrial economy. Creating, preserving, and utilizing information flow should be a key organizational activity.” In that, output is also regarded as an important aspect of learning. 

The most interesting analogy Siemens stated in his article was “[t]he pipe is more important than the content within the pipe.” If I were to use my analogy here, having various routes to many places is more important than what kind of airplane you have in your airport. As long as you have the connection, you can get to the place you would like to visit, and acquire information you need.

Thus, an effective learner is like a hub airport which many airplanes come from various cities and countries carrying various kinds of cargos and people that you usually cannot see or meet without going there by yourself. In addition, a hub airport is “an integrated whole” which needs a high level of management skills with time, place, people, money, and systems. This is also similar to what Siemens stated; “[c]onnectivism also addresses the challenges that many corporations face in knowledge management activities. Knowledge that resides in a database needs to be connected with the right people in the right context in order to be classified as learning.” All in all, these analogies well describe several factors which can highly contribute to learners of today being effective in learning.