When you start to think about your future, particularly in the context of a learner, you can't trivialize your past.  Looking at your entire journey helps you reflect on the aspects of learning that worked, and what didn't.  This exercise lets you evaluate your options and set forth the best plan when faced with future learning goals.



But what about the million dollar question that still has to be addressed, "what's next?"  For me, I believe it’s going to be just a lot more of the same.  I am going to continue to encourage my natural inquisition and interest into the way things work.  I will continue to ask questions and to challenge the status quo.  When an opportunity or requirement for learning is presented, I will most definitely pursue it.  Learn what you need when you need or want it, and learn it the way that best suites the mood.  It's something I like to think of as "Justin Time’s Learning."  When Justin has time he tries to use it to learn something.



I can’t talk about the way I am going to learn in the future, without talking about how I will facilitate the learning of others. I take great pleasure and pride in helping others understand that which was once foreign, but now is familiar.  In that vein, I want to change the way that people look at education.  I want to expose learning as a fun and exciting way to live, instead of a rigid and solemn way to exist.



Instead of making the learner responsible for the majority of the work; the motivation, the time management, the focus, the questions, we as educators could spend more time taking the learning to them.  Not just focusing on delivering the content, but instead creating the experience.  Experiences are stored in the brain differently than those which are classified as memories.*  Experiences are what mold us into what we are, memories are what we remember of our experiences. Let’s not focus on ensuring the learner can remember or recall an event, make it an experience and the memory will follow.



If you've made it this far, then let me leave you with this.  Take a genuine interest in as much as you can.  If your natural childlike curiosity is missing, take some time to find it.     Be inquisitive as much as is sensible, and question your beliefs to ensure that it aligns with your goals.  Never be content with what you know, because a mind is like a tree, it’s either growing or its dying.