A learner is like a chameleon . . .

A learner is like a chameleon because he/she must change and adapt to his/her environment in order to survive. 

In today's digital age, the ability to access and utilize knowledge is crucial to one's success in education, in one's profession, and in life.  George Siemens mentions this critical element to success in his article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, when he states that a significant trend in learning is that the "know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed)".  Once a learner understands this crucial element and begins to utilize it, he/she begins to make changes to his/her understanding and begins to evolve into a new learner.  I used the analogy of a chameleon because I see today's learner as someone who must make changes to his/her way of learning and accessing information in order to adapt to an ever-changing environment.  A chameleon will change colors to adapt to his/her environment and will therefore survive in any environment by applying his/her survival skills.

Siemens reflects on this aspect of the learner nicely when he quotes Driscoll as defining learning as "a persisting change in human performance or performance potential which must come about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people."

While watching Siemens' video, The Impact of Social Software on Learning, I was again reminded of the importance of adaptibility as a learner.  Siemens stressed the importance of social networking as a tool to success in the field of education and expressed the essence of blogs and wikis when he said, "Blogs and wikis developed in order to enable individuals in a quickly changing knowledge field to continue to stay current and to continue to learn from each other."  Besides placing an emphasis on the ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment, Siemens suggests that the only way that learners can succeed is through social networking.  Experiences in life are very much connected to how we learn and what we learn and we have the unique opportunity to learn from others whose experiences we have not yet shared.  Social networking allows us this unique opportunity to gain new knowledge about experiences and to dialogue with others in order to build meaning and understanding.

Like chameleons, learners must adapt to their changing environments, but unlike chameleons, our chance of survival rests in our ability to work together.