What is the learner like?

A learner is like a computer. Hardware is like the internal knowledge, and software is like the external knowledge. As the video "What is Connectivism" claims that “knowledge is networked and distributed” , a high-powered computer not only needs high-profile hardware, but also requires useful software. Similarly, a good learner also should be able to handle both methods which are individual learning and communicating learning. According to Vogostky, learners need other regulation, which means learners need parents, teachers or other older people to teach them some knowledge. In this process, a learner are like a computer that is receiving external knowledge. Then, a learner will internalize these knowledge and realize self regulation. In other words, the learner is like a computer which uses hardware to transfer external knowledge into internal knowledge and keep it, and achieve self function.

In addition, as Siemens states in his article Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age,  “Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.” Nowadays, with the development of technology, a large amount of knowledge has been exposed to us, including useful or beneficial knowledge and useless or harmful knowledge. A good learner are supposed to distinguish between good and bed, and make right choices about accepting knowledge. In my view, setting up a goal will be a good way to help us learn knowledge, because at the same time, we are thinking about what target knowledge we should get from the learning activity. Besides, it helps us filter useless information directly. In conclusion, to be a good learner, we should set up a clear and reasonable objective and learn the relative knowledge via both individual learning and communicating learning.