Comments on: Make Your Own Learning

By: Andy Burkhardt

Andy Burkhardt — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:10:28 +0000

So you’re saying that there is a difference between increased opportunity to educate yourself and people actually taking the initiative to do it. I think that is a very good point. Not everyone is going to seize the opportunity to learn a new skill. People might not have time or motivation or whatever. I wish there were ways though to spark curiosity in people and make people want to explore and learn. Is it possible for libraries to spark curiosity?

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:02:32 +0000

Great post. I’m not sure that I agree 100% with the author of the Time article, however. When public libraries began to proliferate, there was a similar belief that we were entering a golden age when people would be able to educate themselves. Some people did, of course, but we didn’t see change that some people predicted. I suspect the same will happen now with the wide spread availability of info on the web. I will say that I think the potential for more people to educate themselves is greater now, because some of the access barriers have fallen.

By: Andy Burkhardt

Andy Burkhardt — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:38:22 +0000

And in this economy it seems like students are looking for job related skills as well. I know our school attracts a lot more professionally focused students, which is kind of a cool thing. I wish I knew what I wanted to do at their age. But students everywhere I’m sure will want to gain skills that will make them employable and set them apart from other grads.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:03:03 +0000

The workshops sound neat – and for something that seems “practical” and job-related like programming, I’d imagine these workshops would be popular for students looking to concrete develop job skills while in school.

I know at the hospital where I work, the Excel workshops I offer are usually well-attended. The participants usually cite a desire to improve job-related skills and prospects. Maybe it’s not as great as folks coming for the joy of inherent learning, but it seems reasonable to me.

By: Andy Burkhardt

Andy Burkhardt — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:51:47 +0000

Sarah, I love the idea of sharing things Kahn Academy or Hackety Hack or other interactive learning tools via social media. Could we promote them in other ways to? Your comment made me think of hosting workshops called “Learning Outside the Classroom” (or something more flashily titled). They could show a lot of different learning options or they could go into depth on something like “teach yourself to program.” I wonder if any libraries are doing something like that.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:09:54 +0000

Libraries have historically been the essential tool of autodidacts (e.g. think of the stated goals of the Carnegie libraries), so I surely hope we can connect our patrons with the interactive learning resources now available!

So far I’ve found that these more interactive tools come up in the context of an individual interaction, like at the reference desk. A while ago I referred a student who was curious about programming to HacketyHack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackety_Hack).

Library social media accounts offer a way to broadly publicize things like CodeAcademy, Kahn Academy, and Open Courseware (etc.). Subject guides are an obvious choice but getting users to visit them is a challenge for many libraries.

I’m interested to hear suggestions from other commenters, because I think this is a promising trend that I hope keeps growing.