It is amazing to me how much effort and thought it takes to be a "life-long learner". Recently I have been "teaching myself" html and web page design. Of course, "teaching myself" involves finding a new place to find out how to do every step...blogs, online tutorials, support services, help indices... But I am finding that 7 or 80 hours later it is pretty much all out there. Just recently, I have been "building a box". Sounds easy, but I want it to have rounded corners...that takes looking up the vocabulary for the processes before even beginning to understand the processes. But there are sites where all that is explained and even "plug and play" sorts of box creators. Then, if you decide to use images, there is more vocab to understand before using the image creation software. But the software is there to be had and there are online "books" of instructions. Then there is deciding what the box will look like. (and changing it when your tech person finds a new wall paper that will be perfect for your web page! What a sucker...I spent 4 days getting those green and brown boxes to look good, not to mention they work...sort of! And now I decide to change the colors?) But there are sites with backgrounds and wallpapers and images and instructions on how to download them all. Back to the free software to adjust colors and shapes somewhat...another seven or 80 hours! And when it is all perfect, try it on another browser...oops! Yes, life-long learning assures us all that we will never lack for things to do, and the "new" web seems determined to support all our efforts.
I attended a workshop recently where the presenter was espousing the oft-heard saw that we must stop educating students for yesterday and start educating them for the future...Who is she kidding? How many among us could even begin to guess what the future will bring even five years from now, let alone when our beginning students reach an age of employment! Will even the most involved of life-long learners be able to help them keep up? Sometimes I think not, but I am having fun trying!
