I'm proud to call myself a life long learner. Do you consider yourself one? I really like this infographic as I used to consider the barriers they state below, but it's true, location and money are now taken away when you have things like the khan academy and other great sites to help you continue your learning regardless of your interests.
Reading Stephen Brookfield's chapter on racism was one of those "aha" moments. It got me. We say we aren't racist, but are we unintentionally? I may not think of myself as racist, but what knowledge did I grow up believing to be true, which really isn't? What will our children think about Muslim people because of the fear around ISOS and terrorism in general?
I found Dalia Mogahed's Ted talk another thought provoking look at this reality. Perhaps it is the sooner we accept that we have racist tendencies, the sooner we can check the facts and get past them. A friend of mine recently completed her accreditation for the Council for Certification of Volunteer Administrators. I had heard of accreditation in our field, but I admit I hadn't given it too much thought. The process was not an easy one, with self study and hearing of how many actually failed the exam and had to re-write, but without a doubt my friend completed her accreditation process. When I asked her how it felt, she said she couldn't wait to send her mom a business card with the initials after her name. So what is the deal about program accreditation in the volunteer world? I had to go and find out. The Volunteer Management Professional association I belong to decided to step up the accreditation that they had previously designed and partner with the Counil for Certification of Volunteer Administrators (CCVA). It is a world wide accreditation that talks about the goal of "competent, passionate leaders, effectively engage volunteers. " On the site they talk about the emphasis on professional ethics in the field and what the benefits are to you as an individual when you decide to take on this challenge. It also talks about the employer benefits but we can probably all guess what those are. So why might I now be thinking of certifying? After all I do admit that I'm not sure where my career is heading and if I will stay with volunteer management when I move on from my current role. That said, I am and always will be a volunteer. I have been a volunteer minded person since I was six years old and it is in me and something I plan to pass along to my kids. I have really enjoyed the PIDP 3260 course and it's emphasis on ethical decision making, and I think the work for my CVA could benefit from it, but I could benefit from the additional emphasis on research and case studies specifically in the volunteer management arena.
I am a huge fan of constructivism, and having people develop their own meaning based on an experience. I do this in various ways in my classroom, but it usually involves the learners doing something so I don't stand up being a talking head.
While I do think this is good and important I can also see why others enjoy lecturing and that it isn't "bad", but just a different way of getting across material. First of all, you need to choose the right method at the right time... sometimes lecturing is the best or only option, and other times discussion or hands on learning is a better learning method for the material being taught. I wanted to include a video in this post and in my efforts to find some cool ted talk on lecturing and how it lives on I had an epiphany... I was LOOKING at lectures! Not only do they live on in classrooms and conferences we attend, but we choose to watch them at home, on our phones on transit etc... via ted talks. Lectures live on! If you watch any Ted talk you won't think, ugh a talking head, you'll be sitting on the edge of you seat listening and learning. So just because I love Ted Talks, here's one for you to enjoy. https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all These two videos from Rushworth M Kidder's work on How Good People Make Tough Choices are really helpful for understanding where something is an ethical dilemma versus a moral temptation. The 4 paradigms he talks about in the first video show where most ethical dilemmas come from and the second video talks about the hard choices we must make as it is right versus right. Well worth the time to watch these and think about how then check out Kidder's 8 steps of working through an ethical dilemma. |
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