In class, sometimes a learner will come up with a suggestion or a way of doing things that I hadn’t known. I absolutely love it when they show me something new – it adds a little excitement to the class, and the other learners are now learning from each other. It’s a two-way dialogue, not a lecture.

Or, someone will ask a question for which I don’t have an answer. I’ll say, “You know, I don’t know that one! Let’s take a look!” and I’ll try to figure it out. If I find the answer, we both (all) learn something. If I can’t figure it out in a reasonable amount of time, I’ll tell them that I will try and figure it out and email the class with the solution later.

With that last one, the key is to make sure you follow up, whether you find an answer or not. You absolutely MUST honor your promise, no matter how informally made. This is critical.

I can hack my way through most any program but I’m STILL having problems with publishing the modules created. Skipping slides, tabs recorded out of the order accessed, and snarky non-helpful technical suppport (mostly on my side of the IT street).

I am simply grateful to get some acknowldgement that what I experienced in the training was NOT the optimal way to present the information. I already bought the software – I didn’t really need the ‘look what this can do’ pitch from the trainer.

The concept of continuous learning has been interesting to me ever since I left under grad. It only took me about 1.5 years to decide to go back for my MBA. Then after finishing that I really started learning. But I was always interested to observe how some people don’t worry about continuous learning and others like me and many of the people who comment on blog posts are obsessed with it.

Since then I’ve realized it takes many different people to make the world go round but I’m interested in the ones who like to continuously learn simply because they are more like me.

Great post, thanks.

So true. Losing your curiosity must be a terrible thing. How stale life could become without the desire to learn.

Personally, I find it much more fun to be around someone who, (like you,) admits to being an avid learner. Those who think they have mastered a subject and can stop learning are wrong. And boring.

And as you point out, the best way to learn something is to explain it to someone else.