‘Learning styles’ can be a useful reminder that not everybody thinks like me, or you. But in our constant search for the direct path, we often confuse our tools with the Answer. I think the source of this confusion is half a lazy hope for a quick solution, and half a fantasy that there is one Answer.

Like the iPhone... this week’s Globe and Mail included a couple of delightful articles from Ian Brown about people lining up outside Manhattan stores to await the product release. Quoting some members of the line-up, Mr. Brown suggests the source of the fantasy that is (this week) the iPhone:

" 'Do you think the iPhone's like a mother?' someone said. 'You know, something that takes care of all your needs, comfort, pleasure ...'
'It's more like having a dream wife. Everything you want in a wife. Except it's also a great mobile device.' It wasn't clear if that made it better, or worse."

Brown concludes "It was the ancient longing for the one thing that will do it all. The Holy Grail and the peace that passeth all understanding come to mind." (Globe and Mail, Saturday, June 30th--link below)

This ‘ancient longing’ also governs a lot of the rhetoric (spoken and unspoken) around the web in general, and e-learning specifically.

Aren’t you glad that we humans and the way we think still eludes such easy solutions?

Link to G&M article: (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/freeheadlines/LAC/20070630/IPHONE30/international/International

(Happy Birthday to my fellow Canadians... as I was writing this, the Snowbird planes flew by my window in formation... very exciting to watch!)