Tools for Learning to Learn
I am currently reading the article professor Batchelder posted on the Fundamentals blog about learning to learn. I thought I remember there being another, older, posting on the subject from him but could not find it, maybe I imagined it. While reading this article, and the included list, I was astonished at how many tools I already use regularly are becoming considered learning tools.
I have always been a self-learner, I teach myself new things as I travel along in life, and come across things I am unfamiliar with or need to learn. I use Google religiously when I don’t know about things, but want to. One saying I use almost daily when asked a question I don’t know the answer to is “I don’t know, but I bet Google does.” I, for one, know that this is usually the best way for me to comprehend and remember new information. I never thought that this type of learning would become accepted as a form of teaching by so many respected learning professionals. I feel that having to go out and find the answer to your own questions makes the answers to those questions more valuable to you once you find them. The more valuable the information is to you, the more likely you are to remember it, right? (luckily this is not an English paper, I would be failing for jumping back and forth between 1st and 2nd person so wildly) Not to mention what professor Batchelder emphasized in our very first class about the technology we are learning changing so rapidly that we will have to be able to continue to learn the rest of our lives to make it in web design.
I am currently using only a small portion of the learning tools listed in this article, but I hope to be adding more tools to my learning arsenal as I find the ones that work best for me. Even in the 2 and 1/2 weeks since we have started class the way I use the internet has changed drastically, adding del.icio.us, google reader, worpress, and netvibes has aided in the way I search for, and compile, data. In my free time over the next few weeks I am going to go over this list in more detail and see what else I can add to my “frequently-used-sites-list” to expand my learning experience even further.
jlphannah said,
April 17, 2008 at 7:27 am
I like how you classify your learning tools as your “learning arsenal”. Exploration of the materials (tools, knowledge either taught or learned) is the best form of learning. I agree with you that its important to teach yourself something new and pick up as much information through your life as you can find.
usernumber said,
April 18, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I use google like a pacifier.
“I feel that having to go out and find the answer to your own questions makes the answers to those questions more valuable to you once you find them. The more valuable the information is to you, the more likely you are to remember it, right?
Very well put!! I agree.