Origin & Learning Journey

The origin story of “In the Loop” is a weaving of my different curiosities and clashing of my two worlds in tech and learning. 

 

I’ve always been fascinated by learning. From writing geography textbooks from scratch with my 6th grade class (from scratch, as in we had to figure out book bindings) to building, teaching, and designing the learning experiences for my non-profit, I’ve stayed close to various experiences in learning spaces. 

 

What I’ve loved about facilitating workshops has been how my own understanding of learning has widened. My students taught me about their own interests, provided sneak peeks into education systems worldwide, raised issues they faced as learners and students. When COVID-19 hit Amman, some students who did not have access to personal computers watched publicly broadcasted lessons on television. Lots of my Turkish students were familiar with professions such as management consultants and investment bankers - when I personally did not learn of these career paths until college. Mental health, climate change, and better learning experiences were top of mind for learners of all regions. This provided my patchwork of learning, interests, and challenges for the past 7 years, but I haven’t pieced everything together. 

 

Separately, another passion has been technology and startups, and their rapid pace of iteration, learning, and impact. Finding myself in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I loved not only the innovation and excitement around new technologies, but also the continuous learning and drive to build and iterate. Here, I was exposed to how various individuals took learning outside the boundaries of school. I saw friends tinkering with the newest tools to self-teaching accounting to start businesses. 

 

In SF, I was surrounded by the excited buzz of the latest technologies. Elsewhere in the world, I saw learners grow and evolve, with tech as companions or distractions. The similarities and differences in different learning spaces made me wonder, how do others perceive their learning journeys, in relation to different technologies. Hence, the invitation for individuals to share thoughts, rough categorizations of latest emerging academic research, and industry overviews of different players within the learning/tech problem space. 

 

As tech and learning, separately and together, rapidly change forms and meaning, my hope is that “In the Loop” could be an ongoing project, with snapshots of this growth and evolution.