Video - Using Concept Maps in Creative Writing Classrooms (CAT #13)

How Adult Learning Occurs: Reflections With A Fellow Student

It was my privilege to meet with fellow student Ana Gupta in early November to not only discuss our previous blog posts and the course in general, but also to have my first live, in-person interaction with anyone else in my class! 

I assume this was part of the rationale behind the assignment, much like the group forums and this blog, to address and mitigate a potential weakness of online (or distance) learning by providing at least some "touch points" between students so we can still hear, consider, and borrow from our different perspectives, teaching styles, and learning preferences.

This actually became the centrepiece of my conversation with Ana. While we explored the course's content, things we had learned from the assigned readings, and the differences between andragogical and pedagogical approaches (ultimately coming to a conclusion echoed by Knowles that real-world adult learning typically involves elements of both), the most exciting part of the discussion for me was getting to know Ana: her work as an employment specialist, how she hoped this course would help, the unique challenges of her daily tasks, the nature and needs of her clients, and above all, her deep passion for learning and effectively communicating ideas to others. 

Talking with Ana reminded me that this is what lies at the heart of andragogy for instructors: getting to know your students, discovering their goals and motivations, assessing their level of interest, and constantly evolving to to accommodate how they learn best. (It also reinforced my belief that all teacher's reflexive tend to treat every interaction as a learning moment!)  Don't get me wrong, our time together, which lasted roughly four times longer than expected, was thoroughly enjoyable on a personal level and Ana was a delight to meet. But the activity itself also created the environment for a kind of self-directed learning I hadn't anticipated. A bit of genius, actually, on the part of the course designers.

A good reminder that some of the best opportunities for learning are ever-present (if not always obvious) and incredibly easy for an instructor to build into their curriculum...so long as we remember the fundamental andragogical idea of how real-world learning occurs in the first place.  

  

Trends in Adult Learning

Adult learners are uniquely challenged in their pursuit of the knowledge and skills required to be successful at work, at home, and sometimes even at play. (Ask any professional who would do almost anything to get better at gardening, tennis, or parenting!) Limitations imposed by busy schedules, budgets, multiple responsibilities, and available energy often restrict or even bar hopeful learners.

At the same time, adult learners are also uniquely motivated and equipped to identify and focus on the areas of development they need most - assuming opportunities and avenues of learning exist that are able accommodate their particular circumstances.  

Alternative and innovative forms of adult education, not exclusively but increasingly found online, have existed for decades; but continuous improvements in technology, collaborative school-industry networks, and institutional attitudes regarding the role of the learner in the educational process have made adult learning even easier.  

1. Flexible learning times and locations - Thanks to increasing numbers of formal educational institutions offering online programs, on-demand courses, non-fixed intakes, and flexible assignment submission dates, adult learners can choose the environment and relative timeline that fits his or her location and schedule.

2. Increasingly sophisticated and easy-to-use cloud-based systems allow students to make progress with relative speed and ease via collaborative project development, student forums, document storage and sharing, and assignment tracking systems like Moodle, Slack, and CampusLogin, as well as Google Doc challengers like Bit, Quip and Zoho. 

3. Virtual learning experiences using VR, AR, and AI technology allow students to participate in the design, creation, evaluation, and improvement stages of professions such as architectural engineering, aircraft construction, emergency response simulation, and video game development.

4. Broadened partnerships between education providers and employing industries, including work experience, internships, simulated pre-employment testing, and on-site mentorship programs, continue to provide win-win solutions for all stakeholders and streamlined, employment-oriented courses and outcomes.    

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Sources: 

Erstad, Will, Online vs. Traditional Education: What You Need to Know (Rasmussen College, 2017) https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/online-vs-traditional-education-answer-never-expected/

Halpin, Susan, Trends in Adult Learning (University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2018) https://news.nnlm.gov/ner/2018/05/01/trends-in-adult-learning/

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Education 2020 (2014) 
http://government-2020.dupress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Education-+-sources-11-7-14_Ramani-proofread.pdf.

Wentworth, David, 5 Trends for the Future of Learning and Development (2014)
 https://trainingmag.com/5-trends-future-learning-and-development

Vander Ark, Tom, 10 Current and Emerging Trends in Adult Learning (2017)  
http://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/09/10-current-and-emerging-trends-in-adult-learning/

Trends in My Field (Film & TV)

The Canadian film and television industry, like so many others, has experienced tremendous upheavals and changes over the past decade, and particular in the past five years, due largely to rapid (if not complete) shifts in social attitudes and democratizing changes in technology.

Once (and let's be honest, still) dominated by straight white male artists and stories, big studio decision-makers, and technology that restricted the autonomy of independent filmmakers, film and television productions have found themselves more recently moving into the hands of radical new voices, creators, and distributors.

Long before the MeToo movement kicked into high gear in October 2017, author Virginia Woolf wrote that, in the fiction of her day, "all these relationships between women, I thought, rapidly recalling the splendid gallery of fictitious women, are too simple...and I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends. They are now and then mothers and daughters. But almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex. And how small a part of a woman's life is that." Woolf's concern would be echoed over half a century later in Alison Bechdel's 1985 comic Dykes to Watch Out For, and immortalized in the oft-cited Bechdel Test.

In 2016, Hannah Anderson and Matt Daniels published one of the most comprehensive and alarming studies on gender and age representation in film, shining a spotlight on the huge representation gap in story subject, character mix, and screenwriters. Gwilym Mumford expanded the gap to include underrepresentation along lines of ethnicity and sexual orientation.       

Slowly but surely, things have been changing. While the majority of rolling end credits are still overwhelmingly male-heavy, the demand and audience for stories by women, about women, and starring female-heavy casts is significantly on the rise. 2011's Bridesmaids is often viewed as a turning point where gross-out female buddy comedies, and female-driven films in general, became as demonstrably successful as similar films starring men, reinforced by the successful reboots of Ghostbusters and Ocean's 8. Though the 2010 Oscar nod to The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow came a bit late and was far too noteworthy, it pushed the door further ajar for Greta Gerwig, Patty Jenkins, and Dee Rees, while building on the legacies of already-successful filmmakers like Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, and Sarrah Polley. 

One can assume that three other relatively recent trends have been significant contributing factors to this change:   

1. How movies and television productions are filmed. With next-level improvements made every few months in media technology, aspiring indie filmmakers can get the job done today using a DSLR camera or even their iPhone.

2. How productions are funded. Thanks to crowd-funding platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter, producers can access the money they need relatively quickly without the need for studio approvals.

3. Where people watch film and television. After Netflix launched House of Cards in 2013, and with YouTube already exploring similar paid streaming services, it became clear that traditional television networks and theatres would no longer remain a viewer's only option for watching their favourite shows.

4. Insatiable demand for new and varied programming. One massive and fortuitous spinoff of the Netflix and Amazon revolution was an explosion in the demand for more programming and the democratization of what shows get made, by whom, and for whom. From Grace and Frankie to Dear White People to RuPaul's Drag Race, it's hard to argue that change hasn't come, and fast. 

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Sources:

Anderson, Hannah & Daniels, Matt, Film Dialogue from 2000 Screenplays, Broken Down by Gender and Age (The Pudding, 2016) https://pudding.cool/2017/03/film-dialogue/

Mumford, Gwilym, Hollywood Still Excludes Women, Ethnic Minorites, LGBT and Disabled People (The Guardian, August 1, 2017) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/01/hollywood-film-women-lgbt-hispanic-disabled-people-diversity

Woolf, Virgina. Thomas, Stephen, ed. A Room of One's Own, chapter 5 (University of Adelaide Press, 1929) https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91r/chapter5.html

It Begins!

This blog is a requirement of the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program at Vancouver Community College (Course 3100 - Foundations of Adult Education)

To My Fellow Students (& Karen):

I am the lucky husband of Melissa and the father of five amazing humans  - James, Jennifer, Ricky, Connor, and Leo. As a screenwriter, producer, composer, instructor, and now VP of Academics at SC Institute of the Arts, I get to do and teach what I love every day. I adore my family, my job, and pretty much everything about my life. Yes, I do know how incredibly fortunate I am and try to take none of it for granted.

Because I vividly remember seven years ago, when I was a rig worker and training supervisor in Alberta oil and gas industry. Surrounded by great people, I was nonetheless in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, making buckets of money and feeling miserable, wishing I could pursue what I really love: telling stories and making movies.

And then in 2011, my daughter had the audacity one day to ask me why I was preaching to her about following her dreams when I wasn't following my own. (She was 13. I know, right?) So on a wing and a prayer, and with the incredible support of my more-than-incredible partner, we packed our bags, headed west, went back to school, and never looked back.

For years now, I've had a blast writing and scoring for film, web series, comics, and more, and now I get to teach what I love. I'm not just a provider of adult education, my life has been radically changed and improved by it, as have the lives of the people I care most about. In fact, being silly enough to chase after my own dreams later in life has played a big role in inspiring my kids to go after theirs.

So when I meet people sitting on the fence about pursuing a lifelong goal, I get excited about encouraging them to do just that. No matter how old they are, where they've been, or how impossible it might seem. It is truly never too late!