I’ve been pondering the next few weeks and have come to realize that my computer and I will be having a lot less face time than we have over the last few months. Tomorrow afternoon, I leave for NY for various personal and professional reasons. Then, I come back to VA for Memorial Day weekend, after which I depart for West Virginia where I’ll be visiting 15 schools in 4 days (”naturalistic” data collection for statewide study). So, there will be lots of time on the road, lots of time talking f-2-f; in other words, not a lot of time in front of the computer…not a lot of time engaged with my personal/professional learning environment (PLE).

I’m certain this is a good thing as I’ve necessarily been a little withdrawn from the “non-virtual” world for a while now; the end of the semester does that to me. But, I have to admit that I have lots of anxiety. What happens when my networked learning opportunities are less frequent? How am I going to keep up with my tweets, feeds, e-mails, etc.? So, yes, I’ve grown very attached to my PLE. And that leads me to my point…

I’m a voracious learner…and I’m very proud of it. In fact, I’m so narcissistic that I’m willing to say that I think we ought to make nurturing the love of learning the centerpiece of 21st century education. In my opinion, we (the royal we?) write/speak a lot about the technological tools, and even how it’s not about the tools, it’s about the opportunities the tools give us. We write/speak about skills such as digital and information literacy as a 21st century skill.

For me, though, it starts with 21st century dispositions. As we look towards School 2.0 or Classroom 2.0, first and foremost, we need leaders, teachers, and students who are willing and eager learners…voracious learners.

Photo Credit: Aaron Schmidt

Tags: 21st century skills, learning, PLE