Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Prep week 3

Hello there,
 Today is Tuesday and I am working through my Prep Skills for University today. I have just finished reading my first reading for today and want to answer some questions before I go on any further. I am really enjoying this part of the course as I have had some negative experiences with learning in the past and this module is giving me some insight into those times and helping me to overcome them. I loved all the information on Optimal Learning (page 53 Cottrell, S 2008, The Study Skills Handbook). These are all fairly basic things that really most of us already know but having them there written down brings them all together and makes it easy to say exactly where we are going wrong.

In the past especially at school I have not been able to use my 'whole' brain - UH do you remember those times tables. Yukko just repeating them over and over and over, no wonder they didn't stick in my brain perhaps if our teachers had been a little more creative and come up with some more fun ways of remembering them I would now easily recall what 7 x 8 equals instead of having to stop and work it out.

But then I can also recall a time in my life that I gained new knowledge easily and that was when I worked for a particular company and I can now see that they had a wide variety of ways for us to learn the new information. It was given to us then we where given different ways of remembering it, reinforced with videos and other useful ideas.  I look back on these days as very rewarding and fun, it didn't feel like I was studying. Obviously I have to remember these ideas to keep my learning journey fun and refreshing this time.

So three things that I need to do to acheive my optimal learning are going to be:
  • Use both sides of my brain, read the information and then be creative about a way to remember it.
  • Use mediums that work for me. Take notes, talk out loud, recount information and tell someone all about the information (someone real or imaginary)
  • Make it fun, enjoy each moment
Ok so if you happen to walk past my study room and I am rattling away to myself - you will know that I am not crazy (although some may disagree) I am in the learning'zone'. Thoroughly enjoying myself, chatting away, recounting all of the things that I have learnt in my current session.

Ok well you have a good rest of the day
talk soon
x joy

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