Learning on the Road

Caleb has been working on a piece to submit to a blog on how he is learning during our trip.   Here is a shortened version of his initial submission.  He is working on a revised version that better suits the blog’s requirements.  We are proud of the hard work he is putting into this endeavor.

By Caleb

My “classroom” in Kas, Turkey

Being away from school for six months means I must find alternative ways to learn on the road. While overseas I am using a number of different approaches to learn. I use Khan Academy to learn math, Duo Lingo for Turkish, I write for our family blog, and I experience the world.

Khan Academy (Khan Academy) is a big factor in helping me learn math. Up till now, I have used Khan Academy to learn quadratic equations and factoring polynomials. I like Khan Academy because it makes learning math easy by combining instructional videos with practice lessons. I also like that this program allows me to learn at my own pace. My parents also like the fact that it is free.

I started out on this trip thinking I would continue learning Chinese (I completed one semester before we left). After a few weeks I realized that I didn’t have the necessary resources available to me to learn Chinese. I looked for other languages to learn and I found a website called Duo Lingo (DuoLIngo). At that time we were in Turkey so I decided to learn Turkish. It was such an interesting language that I kept learning it.

To improve my writing skills I am writing for our family’s travel blog. Writing for our blog is a nice way for me to write about what I am experiencing and it forces me to learn and research a bit more about what I am seeing. Publishing for an audience, even a small one, has helped me get better at revising my work.

The last way I have been learning is through experiencing the world. I have seen and learned about major religions as well as a number of political systems and issues. For example, I observed first hand a lot of development in Ethiopia including roads, buildings, and even a light rail. But while they are doing all of this building, many people are concerned that the quality is not good enough. I also learned that much of this development is done by Chinese contractors who seem to be profiting from lower quality work. While this is happening China is also being accused of importing very poor quality everyday products.

Another contentious issue I observed was the tension between Jews and Muslims over the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount section of the Old City in Jerusalem. After experiencing this first hand I then read an article about this situation in the NY Times and was fully able to envision the whole story. Through my travels in Ethiopia, Jordan, Israel and Turkey, I am learning a lot about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

So far it has really been exciting for me to learn in so many ways that are different from how I learn in school. I have been seeing and learning about things rather then just reading about them. This is a much more fun and hands-on way to learn. It has also been cool for me to try out a new language then apply it directly to my surroundings.

At the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia (ILAE) in Addis