A Learner is like a Doctor

I was reading the article  A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and watching the video  The Changing Nature of Knowledge the only thing that kept standing out to me was the idea that people have to keep learning throughout their lifetimes. This made me think of doctors because doctors can never stop learning and is one of the only fields this has always been true no matter what. 

When I was watching the video according to Siemens "it not just what we know today that is important, it is our ability to stay current as knowledge changes. What I learn today in a course by the time I go out in the industry, that knowledge may well be obsolete." For me the world of medicine encompasses this idea because with the advent of new techniques and constant advancement in treatments over the last 100 years, it has already required professionals in this field to do that. Now every field requires people to be like doctors and never stop learning. 

The article much like the video made me think of this analogy because Siemens says "the "half-life of knowledge" is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is know today was not know 10 years ago." This quote in reference to the idea that because of fast pace in which knowledge is growing and the shrinking half-life of knowledge people can never stop learning and they need a network to support their growth as learners. Doctors have had to keep current on the ever evolving methods of treating patients even before the time of computers they had to always be connected to a network of professionals in their field to make sure they never fell behind. Now because of this growth of knowledge people in every industry have to create networks because the growth of knowledge impacts every industry.