Examples, Templates, Prompts, and Exercises

Making Sure You Explore Widely

One of the harder things about being in charge of your Learning Journey is knowing what might be out there in the world for you to learn about. It isn't too hard to listen to your own interests and follow your curiosity. It might be a little hard pushing yourself into the unknown.

This section gives you some prompts and ideas you can use to make sure that you are exploring widely. They are meant to generate ideas and open up your thinking. It is still up to you to make the decisions about what Learning Opportunities to pursue but the ideas below might help.

Explore Widely by trying different Subject Areas

One approach to planning your Learning Journey using a Explore Widely strategy is to look at a list such as this and try and make sure you cover a wide range of subject areas.

There are some obvious disadvantages to this approach; a list like this isn’t all that inspiring, you might not know what these subject areas even mean, it feels pretty traditional (isn’t this supposed to be a new way to look at school?).

All that is true. This is just one approach.

Before we throw it out, let’s think about the advantages of this approach.

One, it aligns with how classes will probably be offered at high schools and colleges so if you were interested in taking an in-person or online class this list might be helpful.

Two, it uses language that traditional schools understand so if at some point you need to translate your story to clarify what you did during your Learning Journey this list could help you translate it into language that traditional schools use.

This list could go on for pages but hopefully this is enough to give you a good look at what kind of traditional subject areas are out there.

With a little bit of imagination this list doesn’t have to be so boring. For one, we can simply combine subjects and make them a little bit more interesting.

What if you don’t love history but you do love theater? Combine them and you have … the History of Theater.

What if you enjoy computer programming but don’t love algebra? Could you do a project in which you write computer programs that make algebraic algorithms, using your strength in writing programs to help you understand ideas in algebra?

Take a look at the list, find something you can connect with and see if you can build a way to incorporate it with a subject you might not fully connect with, yet.

Culinary Arts with Chemistry, World Languages with Business, The Physics of Music, Literature and Politics, Nutrition and Visual Arts.

Now things are getting slightly more interesting. You can take it a step deeper. What if we pulled out some subtopics from within these subject areas and creatively combined things?

Part of Animal Science includes pets, and you love pets. What if you studied .. The History of Pets in America. Pets in Literature (or Pets in Theater or Pets in Music or Pets in Art). The Science of Pets (why are some animals able to be used as pets while others are not.) Pets and the Law. The Psychology of Pet Ownership. Pets Across Cultures. The Health Impact of Pet Ownership. Building a Dog House. The Business Side of Pets. Amazing Pet Statistics that You Never Knew.

Personal Finance is a relevant topic but it can also open some interesting doors. What if you studied The Personal Finances of Genghis Khan? What if you wrote a short story in which a family budget drives the plot? What if you designed a budget for an electronics project you wanted to build? What if you created a periodic table of budget elements? What if you created a personal investment portfolio that helped reduce carbon emissions by investing only in companies that are working towards a carbon neutral future?

Maybe you love gaming and love/hate gaming fandoms. You could do an anthropological comparative study of different fandoms. You could explore the place of gender in gaming characters. You could research the business side of gaming, the art of gaming, the music of gaming. You could explore the research on mental health and gaming. You could analyze virtual economic systems inside of gaming worlds. You could explore the rise of esports and gaming tournaments.

To review, so far we are planning without a plan by using a Explore Widely strategy with the following possible approaches:

Approach 1. Take a look at the big list of subject areas and make sure to hit a broad range of them.

Approach 2. Combine two subject areas and come up with something a little more interesting.

Approach 3. Find interesting topics within the list of subject areas and combine them to create something interesting.

Those approaches are directly related to the question of What is your Learning Opportunity about. In particular it is looking at the content of a Learning Opportunity. We already know that Learning Opportunities are about more than just content. They have a Who, What, When, Where, Why, and a How.

We can take each of these and do a similar exercise.

Explore Widely trying different answers to Who Are You Learning With?

Let’s start by looking at options for answering the question, “Who”. Who did you learn with? Who did you learn from? Who did you work with? Did you have an audience for your work or performances?

As you go along your Learning Journey, consider this list and make sure you are challenging yourself to try different approaches on learning with other people. Perhaps you typically seek out solo Learning Opportunities, and it is time that you try finding a group to learn with or joining a community. Perhaps this a chance to explore Learning Opportunities where you learn from a peer instead of from a teacher or expert. Sometimes our peers can explain ideas or offer feedback in a way that an adult, a teacher, or an expert can’t. Perhaps you can find a partner and you can each trade off teaching each other.

Remember that experts and teachers and mentors come in many forms. They don’t have to be a formal teacher, after all you can learn from an author, a YouTuber, a mechanic, a librarian, a public speaker, a politician, a grandparent, an artist, a podcaster, or an older sibling.

In that same spirit you can be a teacher, too. You could give a speech, write instructions, create a video, curate a collection, give lessons, and even teach a class.

Don’t forget to think about the intended audience for the things you create or perform. Consider who might be helped when you volunteer and who you might work along side.

At its heart, learning is a social activity. It involves people learning with and learning from each other. Make sure you don’t limit your approach to a single kind of Who.

Explore Widely by trying different answers to What Are You Learning?

Let’s move over to thinking about ways to answer “What.” One way to think about “what you are learning” is to focus on the content of your Learning Opportunity. At a traditional school, you are learning by focusing on the subject area of a class, like math, science, history, etc. but “What” is bigger than just content.

What can also include skills, habits, and mindsets. Let’s look at a big list of skills and you can use it to make sure that you are covering a range of them in your Learning Journey.

As part of your Explore Widely strategy you can use a list of skills like this to make sure you are developing different skills along the way. You can use your imagination to include some of these skills when we create a Learning Opportunity. Perhaps you always rely on your writing skills and it is time that you tried to communicate visually so instead of writing a Reflection on the last book you read, you are going to try and illustrate a comic that captures your thoughts.

Now that you can drive, it wouldn’t hurt to learn some car maintenance and develop some mechanical skills. At the same time you can design a set of instructions to teach your future self because you are certain that you won’t remember how to change your tire when the time comes.

You can use the list of skills and design a Learning Opportunity around it or you can use the list of skills and find a way to make sure you add it to a Learning Opportunity designed around something else.

You might try out a skill and come to realize that it is something you would really like to develop in order to improve your competency in the skill. It could turn out that you really enjoy the problem solving and physicality of fixing up your car. It could also turn out that you can appreciate the skill required to fix your car but it isn’t something that you want to develop further. You are happy to pay an expert but at least you have a better understanding of what it involves.

Another way to think about “What” is to consider the habits that are involved in a Learning Opportunity. We can tie certain habits directly to the four qualities that are associated with living a good life.

Autonomy Habits

Habits of Caring

Confidence Habits

Finding Existing Learning Opportunities

Making Your Own Learning Opportunities

Making Sure You Explore Widely

How to Dive Deeply

Examples of Learning Opportunities

Interviewing as a Learning Opportunity

Telling Your Story for College Admissions

Examples of A Summary of a Learning Journey