How do YOU learn best?

[RyanMTaylor]

This is a little text heavy but I feel it's worth it. Give it a chance please.


I've always been interested in how people learn; the whole psychology of both what makes people learn quickly and what holds them back.

It's become more and more apparent to me the more different "things" I pick up that you have to learn how to learn.

Running on this idea I thought of starting this thread to see how all of you guys and gals learn.

For me, It's a combination of learning by doing, seeing, reading technical and non-technical books and watching video tutorials, regardless of what I decide I want to learn.

Here's a breakdown of something I do frequently for Photography that helps me out a great deal. I would LOVE it if you could leave a brief description of one or 2 things that you do. In my opinion I think this will open a huge avenue for decisions and ideas on how to learn.. anything.

One thing I do:
For technical information online I will read through an article and when I see a word that I don't understand such as "aperture" I'll open a new tab and look that word up. Now there's a pretty big chance that I will find another word within this text describing what aperture is, so again.. when I hit that word that I really can't figure out, I open a NEW tab and look THAT up. I do this about 6 or 7 times and then I backtrack through the tabs so I can understand the previous definition or idea. This is sometimes tedious but for me It helps to get a much deeper understanding of what all these things do and how they work together. As far as technical information and definitions that has worked pretty well for me.

Thoughts?

 

[oesiede]

It's always good to look into any word you don't understand. Especially when it comes to photography, there are so many definitions and explanations that can relate to others and they become extremely confusing.

As good as it is to do what you do, I personally find it easier to focus on one thing at a time. If I got into six or seven different pages of text concerning aspects of photography I would probably feel overwhelmed.

Aside from that....give me something to read, and I can figure anything out. Sometimes watching someone else helps, but more times than not I'm better off with it written out.

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Right on. I agree with the overwhelming thing too though. Sometimes I'm simply not in the mood to do it.
The times that I remember doing it I remember learning many more things than I initially intended to though.

 

[Josh66]

I learn best by actually doing the task to be learned.

If that is not an option, I also learn things well by reading about it.

Watching someone else do it just pisses me off. After a few minutes I'm convinced that I can do it better, and they are messing it up.

I equate watching video tutorials more to reading than 'watching someone else'. For me they're like reading about it, but with the benefit of pictorial descriptions of what you're reading. I guess that only applies to 'good' tutorials though, if the host of the video is not describing what they're doing it's worthless to me.

 

[JerryPH]

There is no one set method that gives best results under all conditions. Therefore, for me, I just open the floodgates to info in all it's forms and take it all in, and then augment theory with practical hands on experience.

Either one without the other is an exercise in futility, however knowledge without experience is not REALLY knowing, is it? There is a huge gap between reading about something, understanding it and then being able to DO it.

I teach for a living, I have to learn what I teach... I never try to limit the ways I can learn anything... and trust me, I spend a LOT of time learning different things different ways.

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Great stuff so far!

 

[TwoRails]

In a perfect world, for me, I read, try it out, then read again as now I kinda know what "they" were talking about, rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, in the real world, I rarely have time to do it that way...

 

[RyanMTaylor]

In a perfect world, for me, I read, try it out, then read again as now I kinda know what "they" were talking about, rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, in the real world, I rarely have time to do it that way...

I know the feeling.

 

[Paul M]

This is an interesting topic but I hate to say there is no right answer. There are 3 types of learners, Visual (can read or see something being done and catches on), Auditory (can have something explained or hear someone describe situations and resolutions), and Kinesthetic (actually doing the task to see how it works for themselves). I personally am a combination of a Kinesthetic and a Visual learner. That's not to say I can't be auditory, but it's much easier for me to see then do. I'm sorry if this reply isn't what you were after, but like usual, I had to add my 2¢ :mrgreen:

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Absolutely. I'm not saying there is one right way to do it. I just want to pull from everyone's knowledge here to get some ideas on different things to try. Btw, have you looked into Neuro Linguistic Programming(NLP)? If not I'm sure you'd like it.

 

[abraxas]

Tenacity--Whatever it takes to learn whatever I want to learn to do whatever I want to do.

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Tenacity--Whatever it takes to learn whatever I want to learn to do whatever I want to do.

Of course.. otherwise you wouldn't stick to it or pursue it. But in order to learn it there are things you go about doing. I'm just trying to pry a little and explore what works best for people. Anything further?

 

[Dweller]

I use a different process than most I think. I set a goal of some kind for myself and learn what I need to learn to achieve that goal. I will go into "sponge mode" and absorb as much information as I can about a subject to understand what I need to achieve my goal, and will usually seek out multiple sources for the same information to be able to compare and contrast and determine the common denominators as well as the alternatives. Books, Online, Video, TV, talking to people I know.. whatever avenue I can find for more information. Over time I begin to get a feel for the good and the bad information on a given subject and begin to prune away some of the sources until I have a core set of resources available to me.

Usually I will have a pretty decent handle on what I am trying to do before I even try it for the first time. If something goes wrong and I do not get the results I am expecting then I know what likely went wrong or know where to go to find out what went wrong. Once I have achieved my goal, then I set a new goal and the process starts all over again.

What set me on the course of photography was waking up one morning wondering how photographers got that blurry background effect. I decided I wanted to find out how to do that myself. That was 5 years ago or so and I have set many new goals along the way and have many goals on the horizon.

 

[abraxas]

Of course.. otherwise you wouldn't stick to it or pursue it. But in order to learn it there are things you go about doing. I'm just trying to pry a little and explore what works best for people. Anything further?

That's easy, I read--A lot. I do/practice--A lot. And, I listen--When appropriate.

In the last 30 years I've had several little mini-careers. I do what I want to do until I want to do something else--Then I study and learn about that and do that.

I've also learned very much while working at my mini-careers. On the job training is so cool. I've always looked at it like being paid to learn.

One thing leads to another;

- Cartoonist
- Technical Writer/Illustrator
- Building Support Systems Designer
- Computer Programming
- Civil Engineering Technician
- CAD Systems Designer
- Network Systems Design
- Information Systems Managment
- Geographic Informations Systems Design
- Aggregate Community Web Site Systems Design
- Regional Geographic Web Modeling
- Photographer

(and currently studying geology, botany, zoology, anthropology, paleo-history, history and whatever else as applies to the Mojave Desert)

All technical, but things I am/was very interested in.

Hm,... I take notes but never read them.

Seminars and workshops are good too.

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Quite a life you've lived so far.

I do the same note thing. Write a ton of notes and never look at em again. Same thing with highlighting things in books. Never go back unless I end up reading the whole thing over again.

Looks like I'm on a similar path of mini-careers too though.

I graduated college in April and then got a job working as a Lead 3D Modeler at a video game studio (where I work now). and 1 1/2 months ago i picked up photography and love it equally(if not more).

Thanks for sharing.