Dear All,

I´d like to share lots of impressions and here it comes the moment when I am in front of a computer screen ready to thow up a lot of words, feelings, expectations, frustrations and so on, but who would be interested in such a catharsis? Well, I guess I myself wouldn´t if I were in your shoes, so I decided to talk about non-linear learning.

For those who have come across the chaos theory, you might end up agreeing it has much to do with what we have been facing so far. Since, online learning seems chaotic, no matter how guided or structured it might be, this non-linear model is definetly the turning point in education. First of all, because it demands a new approach to teaching/learning; secondly, we are supposed to develop, perfect, or, at least, handle a lot of different kinds of input that will fit in a diversity of learning styles at the same time. A recurrent issue is the fact that now we are much more autonomous to make decisions on what directions to go, what subjects to explore, with whom we are going to share our discoveries and how we will check how much we have learned.

Nevertheless, a question keeps in my thoughts: are we prepared to learn this way? I mean, can we go for what interests us or do we feel more likely to wait for guidance? In general, from what I have experienced as a learner in general, I confess most of times I feel totally lost, but then I realize how much I have learned along the way by clicking on the multitude of links available on the Internet, which one taking us to a different ending point. So, although I am not enrolled in a regular or traditional course at school, this lack of guidance is illusory. Of course there is somebody responsible for getting things going on, but the truth is EACH PERSON is a valuable reference, each one is part of a powerful learning network which is responsible for generating useful and highly motivating content as well as for being there whenever someone else is about to quit. By being supportive, naturally curious and willing to expand our knowledge, we tend to collaborate to enrich our online learning experiece.

To sum up, I guess this course will offer all of us insightful moments of reflection, and I do hope to become part of your new personal learning network.

See you in the cloud,

Elysio