Learning in its essence is our understanding of the world through our experiences of the world – the way we see it and the way we are made to view it. The way we see the world is as simple as the visual experience of the world without attaching any other meaning to it whereas the way we are made to view the world depends on what we have learnt about it through a learning process that was at our disposal at various points in time.
If I cannot have the visual experience of the world, then the learning will depend on other types of experiences that I can associate myself to the world. Not having a visual experience of what a tree is, I wonder how I would be describing my understanding of it in such a way that my experience of the tree will be similar to the experience of the tree without the visual experience. That would be a totally different type of learning experience and is possible using the power of language. I can only say for the time being that COL is capable of embracing this type of learning too.
Learning could be as varied as basic learning, professional learning, essential learning, critical learning and so on and so forth. Whatever may be the case, COL to learning is like sugar to any sweet. I am making these bold statements about COL without earning any stripes for it. But it is up to me to elaborate my claims by challenging others to view it from any perspective that is different from mine to see whether they can arrive at the same conclusion.
It does not matter how the sweets are prepared or how long it took to prepare it or in what shape or form or color; you cannot end up in anything like sweet, unless you start with sugar or any other that can give that sweet-ness. It does not matter when you will use that sugar, but you will need it to end up with a sweet. Hence, an understanding of COL in its essence is what we need to start with or is what we need to have, to have a new perspective for education and to educate 21st century Gen M masses.
I am very conscious of what I am saying here. However, I have to bring about the same level of consciousness in others to embrace COL. I can present the COL the way I see it or I can present it through my understanding of COL, but, I have to do it in one way or the other. I will switch between the presentations quite frequently in the days ahead.