How I learn

This is a question that I thought I had a definite answer to. I know that I learn by being taught. I like to be in a classroom with a teacher that tells me what I need to know. I take very detailed notes, answer the teacher’s questions (but only when I know I am probably correct), and ask a lot of questions. Sometimes I ask too many questions. I like to highlight, underline, re-write, and discuss the information that I am learning. I also like to have the opportunity to make sure that I understand the content information by reviewing it with my teachers and my peers.

I know that this is how I learn. However, last semester I took a class where we had to pretty much teach ourselves how to do something, figure out our mistakes (and how to fix them), and complete a project using concepts and tools that we may have never used before. I was so overwhelmed by this task, and I thought that I would never be able to do it. I wanted the structure of a traditional classroom, but most of our contact with the instructor and our classmates was through blogging. We wrote about what we were doing and the troubles that we were having, and by reading each others blog postings, we were able to learn from each others suggestions and mistakes.

At the end of the semester I was so proud of myself. I had not only completed my project, but I had learned how to do it without sitting in class every week being told exactly how to do it and what to do. I never thought that I would say it, but it was so much more rewarding to have done it on my own. I did not just need to learn content, but I needed to learn skills, and these are skills that I will always possess.

I thought I knew the only way that I could learn, or at least the only way that I like to learn, but now I know that I need to keep an open mind and try new things. Sometimes, this will allow me to learn more than I could possible learn in a classroom.