One of the many changes I’ve noticed lately in my daily life is the proliferation of online learning opportunities. The organizations that offered online professional and personal development programming before the pandemic have now been joined by organizations that previously offered only face-to-face programming. These organizations have begun offering their programming online in order to help people keep their distance from others and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
This new trend means that each time I check my inbox, I frequently find multiple invitations to learning opportunities. Whereas I could previously ignore many of these invitations because they were not offered locally, now every invitation represents a real opportunity to learn something new. As a dedicated lifelong learner, this can be both a blessing and a curse. While I’m able to delve into more of my interests now, if I were to pursue every single opportunity that looks interesting, I would quickly run out of hours in each day!
This recent phenomenon got me thinking about my history of lifelong learning. Which extracurricular activities have I pursued throughout my life and why? What drew me to these activities? What has allowed some of them to continue and others to fall by the wayside?
Music
Over the years, I’ve learned various forms of music. I sang in both a church and a Girl Scout choir in my youth, and my middle school required all students to sing as part of music class, even sending us to regional music competitions a few times. In addition to singing, I learned to play instruments when I was young. I studied piano for a few years and later the clarinet. In middle school music class, my favorite instrument to play was the xylophone. I never became a standout in any of these instruments (my clarinet playing was marked by lots of screeches, as it is for many learners, and I pity my family for having to listen to me practice back then!), so each instrument eventually fell by the wayside.
In my twenties, when I lived in Korea for a year, a Korean friend invited me to take gayageum lessons with her. As I began to play traditional Korean music, I found my ability to learn both the Korean language and the rhythms of Korean life improved. However, once I left Korea, I didn’t have the opportunity to continue to play, so this instrument, too, fell by the wayside. Since then, I haven’t studied music, but nonetheless, I’ve always enjoyed listening to a wide range of music, from classical, to folk, to alternative rock, to reggae, and more.
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| A sanjo gayageum. (Wikimedia/Sam Stephens) |
Dance
As a child, I enjoyed dance classes. When I had to choose between weekly Girl Scout meetings and weekly dance classes that met at the same time, I chose dance. I loved all forms of dance. I started with ballet classes in the second or third grade, then quickly added tap to my repertoire. Later, I added jazz and pointe. I studied dance throughout my youth, stopping sometime in high school, at which time I had started helping to teach some of the classes for preschool-aged students.
Some of what drew me to dance were the friends I made in my classes. I remember lots of laughter and fun, no arguments or drama, and a general feeling of camaraderie. As I grew, these bonds began to fray as we were pulled in different directions with school clubs and team sports in high school. Although I left formal dance training, I have never lost my love of dance, either as a participant or observer, and I make an effort to watch The Nutcracker Ballet every winter.
Writing
My academic degrees have all focused on writing to one extent or another. I’ve studied academic writing, professional writing, the teaching of writing, and more. I’ve mentioned a few times that I also enjoy both studying and writing poetry. I never studied the writing of poetry in my formal education, although I certainly studied the analysis of poetry in several courses.
One winter when I was in my twenties, I took an in-person non-credit creative writing course focused on poetry through Brown University’s community education program. Then, at the beginning of this year, I signed up for a free creative writing course called How to Make a Poem offered through Future Learn, a provider of MOOCs (massive open online courses). This course focused on various strategies for creating poetry, from learning about found poetry, to focusing on lines and stanzas, to understanding the process of workshopping. I’ll probably never become a professional poet, but I have found it interesting over the years to learn about different approaches to writing poetry. I find I sometimes express myself through poetic forms, so understanding why this might be is intriguing.
Languages
My most recent experience with lifelong learning is my current effort to brush up on my Korean language skills. I’m using Duolingo, an app developed by alums of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) that I learned about through a CMU news story I received as part of an alumni newsletter. I first learned Korean when I lived in Korea as a Fulbrighter. I had no previous experience with the language before living there, as I had studied French in middle and high school. But, by the time my year in Korea was over, I had learned enough Korean to travel and shop independently. I could ask for directions, ask about prices, order meals at restaurants, and accomplish other daily tasks with little to no trouble.
Later, I chose to take formal Korean language classes to satisfy the language requirement in my graduate degree program at the University of Arizona (UA). The UA offers Korean through its Critical Language Program, and I passed every level of Korean offered there. As I’m using Duolingo now, I’m surprised at how much of the language I remember, considering it’s been a while since I studied it formally. I’m a big proponent of multilingualism, and I wish I could become truly fluent in more than one language as so many people around the world are. Overall, I’d say studying languages helps me feel more connected to the rest of the globe.
Others
Another area where I’ve focused my learning over the years is photography. When I lived in Washington, DC, I enrolled in an in-person black and white photography class through the Smithsonian Institution, where I learned not only how to take photographs but also how to develop film and make prints. I also have an interest in birding, which I once studied through face-to-face community learning courses. During the current pandemic, I’ve noticed the Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are offering lots of online learning opportunities on this topic. I’ve also taken several courses on various topics over the years through Future Learn, including a course a few years ago called Modern Korean History and another course earlier this year called Exploring Copyright. Future Learn is just one of many options for accessing MOOCs in a wide range of subjects, with a long list of providers offering this service. I’ve found these courses an enjoyable way to satisfy my curiosity about a topic and discover if I want to learn more.
I’ve also learned a lot about technology through my dedication to lifelong learning. Following trends in social media and web marketing, I learned to use Hootsuite and became proficient in Google Analytics, for example. Although some of my technology learning was gained through formal education, starting with learning programming languages in middle and high school, becoming proficient in word processing software in college, and mastering html coding in grad school, most of my technology learning over the years has been extracurricular. I think some people might be surprised to discover how many different platforms I know how to use considering I’ve focused my academic studies on the humanities.
The learning opportunities I’ve listed here don’t capture everything I’ve learned outside of my formal schooling over the years, but they do represent the broad range of interests I enjoy. When you look at your history of lifetime learning, what do you notice about yourself? Which topics do you return to over and over again? Which new topics do you explore? Why? I hope you enjoy learning as much as I do!