A long time ago in a company far, far away I developed technical and customer service oriented training programs.  Had a nice spiffy title – Instructional Designer – and spent a lot of time doing on-site program analysis before settling down and scribbling planning like mad. My boss described me as a gut instinct developer.  From the beginning I could apply the theory without actually knowing the ins and outs of the language associated with the field.  Despite falling into ID after way too much time in the tech support/training worlds, I really enjoyed learning about the field and developing my skills.  I even suffered through completed years of classes at the local university to increase my knowledge of theory and learn the language.  I have a nice pretty certification to show for it.

My ego (and boss) liked to think I was good at what I did.  I built a reputation for delivering a solid product. It also didn’t hurt that I loved to travel.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered that I wasn’t getting all my needs met at zee giant corporation and accepted a position in a support role at a local college.  The downside of this was that, without significant formal education, I would need to complete a few degrees in order to return to the type of work I’d done – and loved – in the past.  Ergo, the return to university and constant whining that appears on my blog of late.  For now I help implement and support eLearning programs.  IDs do the heavy lifting and I help make their vision a reality.

Sometimes their visions appear as kaleidoscopes.  It can take weeks to put all the pieces together.

The bright side is that once completed we can replicate the original course (manually) in a matter of hours.  This turned out to be a good thing when late this afternoon we discovered that the LMS the course was developed in wasn’t compatible with the LMS the course was going to be delivered in.  EEP!  No quick replication through backup restores could save us.  Thankfully all the heavy lifting had been completed last week and the manual rebuild of the site in the new LMS was completed in 3 hours.  Yay!

Life, and work, is so much easier when you have a plan mapped out and can follow it.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.– excerpt from For The Fallen, Laurence Binyon

In recent years there have been some discussions surrounding whether or not war is ever justified and if Canada should be shifting it’s focus away from combat missions and moving towards revamping our military to solely support peacekeeping and humanitarian aid roles. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica: Whether it is always sinful to wage war? says:

Those who wage war justly aim at peace, and so they are not opposed to peace, except to the evil peace…We do not seek peace in order to be at war, but we go to war that we may have peace.

I don’t believe in war for the sake of war, dominance or economics. I do believe that true evil exists and must be fought when encountered. I’d like to think I judge each mission the Canadian Forces are involved in on their own merit. Many wars have been fought during the course of human history. Many have faded to memory. A few, such as the first and second world wars will likely do the same as the few remaining survivors of war’s horror slowly fade to dust. If we are to learn from history and move forward, we must never forget our past. I worry many days that we are heading in that direction – forgetting the sacrifices of those who fought for freedom from tyranny. Each year, fewer and fewer of those who fought during WWI and WWII remain alive. Fewer people attend Remembrance Day ceremonies and sport poppies. Please take a moment to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in your local area. Visit a local Legion and spend time with our veterans. If you’re unable to attend ceremonies at a local cenotaph please observe two minutes silence at 11:00am. You can also spend some time visiting the following sites:

• Canoe.ca – Remembrance Day: Why The Poppy?
• Terry Kelly – Pittance of Time
• Shawn Hlookoff – Soldier
• Dr. Sam – Before you go
• Judy Small – Mothers, Daughters, Wives
• Eric Bogle – Green Fields of France
• John McCrae – In Flander’s Fields

For those who have served and fallen – both during their service or after retirement – take a moment to remember their sacrifice.

I’ve always been a fan of informal learning. Curiousity and all that. I love reading and exploring. Libraries provide near instant access to a wealth of available published data through digital catalogs and access to online peer-reviewed journals. The Internet provides us with excellent methods to connect with experts and engage in conversations. Conferences provide access to alternate opinions and other’s constructions. I find I learn more from conversations with others in my fields of interest than I ever have struggling through a formal learning environment and reading preselected textbooks. Conversations – written and spoken – provide an opportunity for exploration of our own constructions and biases.

Unfortunately for me, the world requires we jump through hoops and prove we’ve learned something in a more formal manner. Otherwise known as *ptooey* credentialism.  Of late I’ve come to believe that formal education is more about biulding and maintaining social class systems than it is about exploring and constructing new knowledge on an individual basis.

I, as always, struggle with the concept of learning in a classroom (face-to-face or online) environment.  While I’ve discovered that I prefer an online environment to a face-to-face setting – mostly because it provides ample time for reflection and forces me to explain my core beliefs and understanding in a written method – I still balk at some of the more formal constructs that are included in instructor led courses.

Twice since I’ve returned to university I’ve encountered profs who assign a reading or assignment and pose a broad topic question for which we are to provide a response.  No other instructions are provided and, up until I receive feedback, reading outside sources is not expressly forbidden at the onset of the assignment.  Both times I’ve received feedback indicating that it’s not appropriate to go outside of the assigned readings and incorporate other materials into the responses.  Once I was told that I’d “over researched” a paper because I’d included three outside references in it. Most recently I was advised that by encorporating the research/theory of an individual not mentioned in the text or assigned reading in my response that I’d gone off topic.  My error? I cited an alternate model of another researcher in the field (Ross) to help define my position.

Confused?  Me too.  I’m still attempting to understand how it can be possible to “over research” a topic simply by seeking alternate points of view on which to base my opinion.

This attitude towards learning and assignments strikes me as extremely detrimental to learning.  To me, it appears to assume that the learner has no previous knowledge of a topic, or no ability to find alternate sources on which to base a new construct, and is entirely reliant on an all-knowing specialist for direction and substance.

And yet, as students in a formal learning environment, we are dependant on our profs.  Not necessarily for our knowledge, but for grades upon which future dreams (i.e. access to Grad school programs) may be dependant.

I’ve yet to fully comprehend why formal education, at least in the undergrad level, is so structured and unbending. Have we not yet reached a point where informal or constructivist learning is accepted outside of Grad school?

There is one bright spot in all this; I have this prof again next semester.  As I’m learning his expectations of his students I’m learning what I need to do to fare better in his future classes.  Of course, that begs the question, how ethical is it to “jump through a profs hoops” rather than following one own path to learning?

In truth, what I am learning in these situations is when and how to subvert my own needs to search out alternate research and construct my own beliefs about a topic in order to parrot the beliefs of the instructor.  Honestly, what type of learning is that?

I logged into my courses today prepared to submit my assignments only to see that next week’s assignment was also tagged with a Monday due date. Not good. Not good at all. Some mad dash typing ensued and the peace has started to settle across the building once again.

Then I gathered up all of the garbage -less than a quarter bag, go me – to put out in the cans for pickup. After opening the can I’d left out for collection I discovered that last weeks’ garbage wasn’t picked up. Can someone please explain to me why I’m paying the city to remove my garbage – amounts of which I’ve drastically reduced within the past year – when the city garbage disposal contractors don’t pick it up?

And while you’re at it, please explain why I’m billed for assumed rain water run-off from my property and threatened with fines if we don’t clear the snow from city owned walkways in front of our homes but the city barely manages to clear roads after snowfall.

Bah! Silly hall and utility fees are really getting in my neves these days.