About

Lifelong Learning at Mission to Learn

Jeff Cobb If you are a passionate, ever-curious lifelong learner, you are in the right place. My goal here at Mission to Learn is to to provide resources, insights, and news that help you make the most of learning life long - online and off.

Here at Mission to Learn you will find multiple “channels,” each of which provides a different set of resources for lifelong learning:

Mission to Learn Blog - Postings 2-3 times per week on new learning resources, news, and insights about learning. Subscribe to the blog by RSS
Free Learning Monitor - A monthly e-newsletter that delivers a wealth of free and low-cost learning opportunities to your inbox. Subscribe to the Free Learning Monitor
Radio Free Learning - An occasional (aiming for one to two times per month) podcast in which I interview thinkers and doers in the world of lifelong learning. Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning Podcast via RSS or with iTunes.
Mission to Learn on Twitter - a continuous stream of lifelong learning resources and updates on Twitter. Follow Mission to Learn on Twitter

You can also explore each of the channels to get a better feel for what they offer. Check our the Free Learning Monitor archives, listen to some of the recent Radio Free Learning podcasts, scan the Twitter stream, or visit some of the following popular postings on the Mission to Learn blog:

My goal is to be more successful in my learning efforts and to help you be more successful in yours. I hope you will join me on the Mission to Learn. (And feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or suggestions.)

Join me on the Mission to Learn by subscribing!

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The Longer Version

It is important to say up front that I do not necessarily focus on learning in a traditional sense. Learning is not just about courses, or schools, or teachers. In fact, I’m not all that concerned here with formal learning or professional development. Learning happens everywhere, all the time, and the Web has exploded the possibilities for all of us to reach our full potential - and to transform our organizations and societies - through learning.

Why “Mission?”

I see learning as a fundamental life activity—almost on a par with something as essential as breathing—that takes place without our necessarily even being aware. We’re born with a native will to learn, and to a large extent we “just do it” throughout most of our lives. And not just individuals—organizations and societies are systems with an innate capacity for learning life long.

But something tends to happen as time passes.

Learning becomes formal. It becomes purely about “education.” As individuals, we submit to the standard schooling and training. We put the direction and focus of learning into the hands of others. As organizations and societies, we stagnate and become stuck in the status quo. Or we become so overwhelmed by the forces of change that we fail to harness them productively.

We never stop learning—I think that is probably impossible—but as learning becomes more passive, the opportunity for realizing our full potential fades.

Continuous, productive learning demands a sense of mission.

Learning, Technology, and Change

One of the reasons a sense of mission is so important these days is the rise of the Web and, more recently, the array of social media technologies that are part of Web 2.0. As I’ve noted in my eBook on Learning 2.0, it is now dramatically easier for all of us to:

access vast amounts of content and data;
actually control and contribute to this content and data;
interconnect the various software applications we use;
form meaningful communities and collaborate globally.

This is all very exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. Web 2.0 in general, and social media in particular, give us enough rope to hang ourselves if we are not careful. Part of my objective here at Mission to Learn is to explore how we can use the tools of Web 2.0 to truly facilitate learning, rather than to simply generate a storm of useless data and meaningless social connections

Learning, in my opinion, is essential for creating change of any type. If you are interested in change, neither learning nor technology can be ignored.

So What Will I Find Here?

“Learning” is an awfully broad category. Areas on which I tend to focus are:

The Learning Individual
What approaches and tools can the individual take advantage of for personal learning and knowledge management? How and where can you learn online? Often you are learning when you aren’t even conscious of it. Learn how to take advantage of those moments!
The Learning Organization
How do organizations create sustainable, meaningful communication with stakeholders that transcend old approaches to professional development, marketing, and public relations? All organizations interest me, but I am particular interested in how new learning approaches can help nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations achieve their goals. I am also interested in how learning fits into market conversations. Goodbye advertising, hello learning!
The Learning Society
How can societies provide an appropriate environment and infrastructure for learning in a globally, interdependent economy? I am particularly interested in areas like open education and the economics of “free” as it applies to learning.

I don’t make any guarantees anymore on when I’ll post–the day job always has a way of interfering–but I shoot for at least twice a week. I’m always looking for new and interesting learning resources or approaches to learning and teaching to write about, so I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas about what you would like to see at Mission to Learn. Contact me

More About Me

My background is as an educator and entrepreneur, and for years I have combined the two by starting and/or helping to build e-learning companies. I currently serve as managing director of Tagoras, a research and consulting firm and I speak and write frequently on social media, marketing, and e-learning. If you are interested, you can find out more about me on my Jeff Thomas Cobb site, where I also blog about topics more related to my business activities.

Please Comment, Please Subscribe

That’s it. If you like what you read here–or just as importantly, if you don’t–please submit comments. Also, I ask that you please subscribe to the RSS feed or use the e-mail subscription form in the upper right side of this page. Please also tell others about Mission to Learn. I would write this blog whether or not anyone was reading, but still, it’s nice to know that there are people along for the ride. Enjoy (your) Mission to Learn.

Jeff Cobb
Mission to Learn

Your source for lifelong learning resources!