Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 296

More specifically, we will focus on how Web 2.0
technologies such as blogging (e.g., using tools
like Blogger or WordPress), microblogging/mi-
crosharing (e.g., Twitter), social networking (e.g.,
Facebook, MySpace, Ning), document co-creation
(e.g., Google Docs), and resource sharing (e.g.,
Flickr, Slideshare, Diigo) can be used by post-
secondary educators to help students develop as
lifelong learners.

tion includes characteristics, such as risk taking
(Brookfield, 1985/1991), intellectual curiosity
(Dunlap & Grabinger, 2003), persistence (Grow,
1991), taking responsibility for decisions related
to learning (Candy, 1991), and viewing learning
as an ongoing process (Dunlap & Grabinger,
2003); it also includes a specific skill set: the
capacity for self-directed learning supported by
metacognitive awareness (Dunlap & Grabin-
ger, 2003; Dunlap, 2005). Unfortunately, many
students struggle with online learning because
they do not possess the necessary self-directed
learning and metacogntive-awareness skill set:
self-discipline, the ability to work alone, time
management, learning independently, the ability
to develop a plan for completing work, and so on
(Burak, 1993; Dunlap & Grabinger, 2003; Han-
cock, 1993; Ludwig-Hardman & Dunlap, 2003).
Coincidently, this is the very skill set needed for
lifelong learning.

CHARACTERISTICS OF
LIFELONG LEARNERS

Long before there was a Web 2.0, Alvin Toffler,
author of Future Shock and The Third Wave ,
foresaw the importance of lifelong learning and
broadening our conception of what makes a per-
son literate. Toffler, by quoting Herbert Gerjuoy,
argued that,

Self-Directed Learning “The new education must teach the individual

how to classify and reclassify information, how
to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories
when necessary, how to move from the concrete
to the abstract and back, how to look at problems
from a new direction—how to teach himself. To-
morrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't
read; he will be the man who has not learned how
to learn.” (1973, p. 414)

Self-directed learning is crucial for lifelong learn-
ing (Dunlap, 2005; Dunlap & Grabinger, 2003;
McFarlane & Dunlap, 2001). According to Mal-
colm Knowles (1975), one of the first scholars
to seriously focus on the concept of self-directed
learning, self-directed learning is:

The process in which individuals take the initiative,
with or without the help of others, in diagnosing
their learning needs, formulating learning goals,
identifying human and material resources for
learning, choosing and implementing learning
strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.
(p. 18)

Toffler was basically suggesting, what many
of us are coming to find out today, that the illiter-
ate of the 21st century will be those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn—in other words, those
who lack lifelong learning skills and dispositions.
Lifelong learners embody specific character-
istics that empower them to learn, unlearn, and
relearn. They are able to learn and adapt because
they reflect on the quality of their understanding
and seek to go beyond what they know (Dunlap,
2005). This requires a love of learning and will-
ingness to engage in learning—in other words, a
disposition toward lifelong learning. This disposi-

Although often described as a hallmark of
adulthood, a lot of people are not self-directed
learners (Kerka, 1994). Yet, most guidelines and
assessment tools that describe successful online
learners list self-direction as a primary quality of
successful online students (Ludwig-Hardman &