In general speaking, a learner has many common points with a tree. Firstly, the most important things for a tree are the root system and soil, a tree couldn't survive without them; in like manner,for a learner who need to build his/her knowledge system, learning would be the root and knowledge would be the broad earth. A learner could be called as "learner" because they must keep learning knowledge for a lifetime to follow and adapt to the change of the information age. A tree has to experience four seasons and born new branches and leaves, so does a learn who need to update their information and knowledge, because "Learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime, learning and work related activities are no longer separate;and many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime." （Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, George Siemens, 2005).
Secondly, like the tree will live better in a forest which has abundant trees and richer soil, a learner always lives in a diversified environment and his/her learning is not entirely under the control of the individual. A tree in forest always coexists with other plants and some animals like vines and bees, similarly, "a learner is always learning with a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources."(Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, George Siemens, 2005). Through a Youtube video also made by Siemens, we know that "people use blogs, wikis and other social software to share information and connect with others, we could see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts through technologies. Different kinds of conversations make learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions."(The Impact of Social Software on Learning, George Siemens, 2007).
As the technologies are updating so quickly, we are all living in a connected world. So we have be a tree to find ways learn more from both circumstance and soil.
Secondly, like the tree will live better in a forest which has abundant trees and richer soil, a learner always lives in a diversified environment and his/her learning is not entirely under the control of the individual. A tree in forest always coexists with other plants and some animals like vines and bees, similarly, "a learner is always learning with a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources."(Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, George Siemens, 2005). Through a Youtube video also made by Siemens, we know that "people use blogs, wikis and other social software to share information and connect with others, we could see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts through technologies. Different kinds of conversations make learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions."(The Impact of Social Software on Learning, George Siemens, 2007).As the technologies are updating so quickly, we are all living in a connected world. So we have be a tree to find ways learn more from both circumstance and soil.
Your analogy of the learner as a tree works very well.
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