Week 7 Reflection: Learner Autonomy is Teacher Autonomy

http://www.goodlightscraps.com/funny-baby-3.php

“Walk your talk and talk your walk.” My own understanding of autonomous learning is independence and responsibility. Before a teacher adapts or uses learner autonomy, she should first go into introspection and retrospection. She should ask herself certain questions. Do I have an independent mind? Do I always take responsibility of all my actions? Do I know how to let loose and to let go. Is my mind open to every possibility? These and many questions only you as a person, as a teacher-learner can answer.

Learner autonomy is teacher autonomy. It spells independence, an independent mind and a confident soul. Before a teacher can produce an autonomous learner; he should first be his own autonomous teacher and learner.

I encourage my students to learn how to think for themselves and not to rely on anyone else for anything, not to believe in anything that they see, hear and read without analyzing and validating. Can somebody eat for you or go to the rest room for you? Can someone talk for you or think for you? Of course they will say NO. And that is where I begin to gauge their autonomy.

http://www.sprachenzentrum.fu-berlin.de/en/v/autonomiemodell/index.htm

Learner autonomy is self-reliance. When one is responsible of himself and by himself; he can be responsible of others and to others as well.

“For Rathbone (1971: 100, 104, cited in Candy, 1991: 271), the autonomous learner is a self-activated maker of meaning, an active agent in his own learning process. He is not one to whom things merely happen; he is the one who, by his own volition, causes things to happen. Learning is seen as the result of his own self-initiated interaction with the world.”

Learner autonomy is letting go and letting be. Learner autonomy is being an autodidact. Learner autonomy is being dependable and interdependent. 

Learner autonomy is letting people as they are and allowing them to grow as the beautiful people they are meant to be. It is accepting people as they are, not for what you want them to be.

“Cast in a new perspective and regarded as having the 'capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action' (Little, 1991: 4), learners, autonomous learners, that is, are expected to assume greater responsibility for, and take charge of, their own learning.” Thanasoulas

Learner autonomy is self-confidence, self-respect, and self-worth. Self-esteem is EQ and it matters a lot in autonomous learning.

"To be successful and survive in today’s world, individuals need to have the necessary communication and organizational skills to make sound decisions and interact with each other. Goleman argues that an individuals success at work is 80 percent dependent on EQ and only 20 percent dependent on IQ. This is because EQ components are useful in assisting employees with decision-making in areas like teamwork, inclusion, productivity and communication." 

http://appitive.com/slidershare/2012/03/04/emotional-intelligence-and-blue-ocean-strategy/

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Donna in one of our discussions said, “You have all had some great ideas of how to promote learner autonomy in your classrooms, and there are some commonalities. Most everyone agrees that technology is a great tool to promote learner autonomy. Why? Because technology gives students millions of websites and other tools at their fingertips that they can explore, manipulate, and reconstruct to their hearts content. This is very motivating and encourages students to be autonomous learners. 

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/babies-on-floor-with-laptop-royalty-free-image/104821621

As many of you have pointed out, students have to be taught to use the technology or it's useless. It's like sitting a student in a library and asking him/her to start using the books on his/her own.” Donna is perfectly right. Technology boosts learner autonomy and will produce more independent thinkers and productive people.

“Why do we want to help our students to be more autonomous? Why is learner autonomy a good thing?”  Donna again, posed another question….

“Is learner autonomy a good thing? As Ayman points out, it can be difficult to encourage learner autonomy when learners are accustomed to being spoon fed everything.”

My answer is---Learner autonomy is not just good but very good.

My happy autonomous learners (First Semester 2010)

In this age and time, self-reliance plays a very important role in survival. Learner autonomy will also produce self-contained people. It will help the students help themselves and become empowered people. 

Anyone who can be responsible of himself and by himself will also be responsible with others and for others. It will also be less work for the teacher but more satisfaction in seeing the positive result of such empowerment.

Look at us at Webskills class, are we not ourselves autonomous learners? The answer is obvious my friends. Just like Donna and the Webskills team, we can also be walking our talk and talking our walk without a blink of an eye, head up and focused. Here I am armed with skills from webskills, "freshly bathe" with new ideas and perspectives, and willing to share….

Raining in CSU (view in front of my office)

Links read: 
http://edudemic.com/2013/02/4-education-technology-trends-coming-to-your-classroom/

http://edudemic.com/2013/02/effective-teachers-who-use-technology/ ------good for us

http://edudemic.com/2013/02/challenges-of-using-education-technology/   

http://edudemic.com/2013/02/most-effective-edtech-tools/

http://edudemic.com/2013/01/how-technology-is-empowering-the-learners/

http://edudemic.com/2013/01/time-to-focus-on-skills/

http://edudemic.com/2013/02/6-technologies-that-will-change-higher-education/

http://edudemic.com/2013/02/how-to-secure-your-online-data/