I find this post fascinating in multiple ways. It seems simple…what will my learning focus on in the coming year or two?

Except for just about every one of my A-Z headings, they involve learning in some way.

Except that I recently went through a huge analysis and research project to look at very specific types of formal educational learning that I might undertake, representing hours of work on my part to figure out just what was out there in the fields that interested me.

Except even when I look at the long list, which ones will I do simultaneously, and which ones will I do sequentially? Or as fallbacks if the others don’t happen?

Except that what I thought was my likely priority is not the list when I have to rank very different things against each other.

Let’s go…

Rebuilding / summarizing my list

Just to help keep things straight and not confuse formal education with simpler task-oriented learning, I’ll divide the list into three parts:

• Formal certifications
  • Masters of Fine Arts / Creative Writing: Dalhousie/King’s College, UBC, Algonquin, Athabasca (BA Communications studies or BA English, or MA as Interdisciplinary Studies — build your own MFA degree … Writing the self; creative non-fiction; digital storytelling; narrative possibilities; and what I tell you may not be true (autobiography in a different lens)
  • Education: Athabasca (M.Ed in Distance Education)
  • Law: Redo old program, update old program (criminal, constitutional, contract, torts, property, ethics, dispute resolution, access to justice), Athabasca (Interdisciplinary … $$$), Carleton MA (Legal Studies … zzz), Coursera, Royal Roads MA (Justice Studies …. $$$$)
• Utilitarian skills
  • Astronomy: Algonquin (2 courses), The Great Courses + Coursera, YouTube, books
  • GIMP Processing: Online downloaded course
  • 3D Printing: YouTube, local experts
  • AI Software Development: Algonquin, online programming training (app development)
  • Photography: SPAO (formal and rec), Great Courses, YouTube
• General interest
  • Baking, cooking, pastry arts: Algonquin
  • Mythology, sci-fi, world religions, world literature: Algonquin
  • Kayaking: Clubs
  • Psychology: Athabasca (BA), Algonquin (1)

Prioritization

For the training and learning options, I can apply the PACE approach to prioritizing:

As I said, I did not expect my priority to be GIMP over Astronomy (TGC), the MFA itself at Dalhousie, or psychology. If I leave work with a large education allowance, the MFA would jump up the list as a formal commitment. But perhaps my thoughts on the priority is more driven by what I can do this year. I could, in theory, start on the MFA, but there is already a lot going on in the next year in our household with multiple health issues, changes in lifestyles, etc. An MFA on top of that seems like a lot. I also didn’t consider whether something that was an “alternate” for formal (like the BA English or M.Ed.) might go above the psychology too. The rows do rankings by column, but the columns don’t necessarily rank evenly from row to row.

If I look at my “learning” list from previous years, there are a number of little things on there that didn’t make the above list. Chair yoga, origami, etc. Nothing “big” enough to make the overall list. But something to consider on my future tracker if learning is limited to these headings, or will also reflect my NF reading, other hobbies, etc.

In the meantime, I can start learning GIMP.