3.3.1 Why it might be useful The main similarity between using academic theory and getting feedback is that both can offer you a perspective that may be different from your own. We have already seen how additional perspectives can be valuable in rounding out the understanding that you have about yourself. One possible big advantage with academic theory is that this additional perspective can come from someone who has become recognised as an expert or authority. Drawing on theory opens up the possibility of building on th
3.3 Your learning – what does ‘theory’ offer? The previous section of this section focused on using feedback to enhance what you already know about your qualities, knowledge and skills. This section explores how you might draw on theory in the same way. However, it can be very difficult to include theory with other sorts of understanding. Let’s start by thinking about why it might be useful to pay some attention to what theories about learning have to say. This leads on to a brief discussion about the difficulties that can arise
3.2.4 Johari window This idea is being introduced at this point so that you can use it as you think about the impact of feedback. The Johari window is named after its originators, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingram (for some reason there is only ever one ‘r’ in ‘Johari’). It consists of four different areas which are shown in Figure 15 and looks rather like the separate panes of a window. The open area covers what you know about yourself. You know about this aspect and are happy to shar
3.2.2 What problems might you have with getting feedback? Only you can answer this. However, you might think that you will not find it easy to ask someone else to be a mentor and give you feedback about your own qualities, knowledge or skills. There may be all sorts of reasons for this. You might not feel that you know anyone that you would trust to give you feedback in a way in which you would find helpful. Acting as a feedback giver can put someone in such a powerful position that you might feel uncomfortable. You might feel that you do not know a
2.4.9 Being organised Did you think that the way Shehnaz can think about ten years of her life suggests that she is quite well organised? Being organised is the third skills area on Learning to change. It has been chosen from among the huge number of skills that are talked about, for a number of reasons. It is really relatively easy to adapt and, yes, improve the way we organise our lives. Why is this important? Well, being organised means that we waste far less of the time that we have at our disposal. And
2.2 Everyday learning – what’s going on? This section will start with two examples of the sort of learning that occurs on an everyday basis. The aim here is to start you thinking about the ways in which learning goes on all the time. To illustrate this, read Jim’s story. As you read, you might like to begin to think about whether any aspects of Jim’s story might also be a part of your ‘story’. (In this context, we are using the word ‘story’ to mean what has happened in your life so far. We are not using it to mean someth
1.5.2 Planning your study time One of the most difficult aspects of being a student is fitting in your studying with everything else in your life. This is why this unit focuses on organisational skills including time management. It is important both to find enough time to study and then to try to make the most effective use of your time. Finding enough time can be quite a challenge! It often means giving up some activities you currently enjoy or perhaps negotiating with your family and friends to pass on some of the daily
1.3 Learning through activities The unit has been designed to actively involve you in your own learning. One of the most important aspects of this are the activities that you are asked to do. For each activity, there is a suggested time, for example, ‘Allow about 10 minutes for this activity’. These estimates are intended to give you a sense of the amount of effort required. However, you may find that you spend longer on each activity. That is fine, so long as you feel you are learning. If you come across ideas th
1.1 Welcome Learning to change is a unit for people who are interested in learning about making changes in their lives. We think that you will find the unit interesting and that it will give you ideas that are useful for bringing about personal change. The aims of this section are to:
Acknowledgements All materials included in this unit are derived from content originated at the Open University. 1. Join the 200,000 students currently studying with The Open University.
1.3.2 The development of online learning Online learning is a relatively new phenomenon but over the last few years many colleges, universities and workplaces have started to use online learning as part of their courses. The UK government-appointed Dearing Committee was set up to consider the future of higher education, and in the Dearing Report, published in 1997, made its recommendations. One of these was that all students should have access to a networked computer by 2000/2001 and their own networked portable computer by 2005/200
1.3.1 What it means Most people's experience of learning is in a classroom (of a school, college or evening class). The teacher is there to give guidance and direction on what to do. Activities include reading books, taking notes, answering questions and working with other people. Online learning is completely different. All the direction is provided by the course materials. Activities such as reading, note taking and answering questions mostly take place at the computer. Working with other people is done
1.2.6 Learning new computing skills There are several principles for learning new computing skills: Don't be afraid to try things out and explore. You almost certainly won't do any harm by making mistakes – modern software will usually let you undo errors, and will warn you before performing potentially damaging actions. Look for patterns. Find the differences and similarities between the ways in which things are done in different software, so you can begin to guess w
1.2.5 Coping when things go wrong Personal computing is not a mature technology. It is changing so fast and becoming so complex that it never gets a chance to settle down and become really reliable. You need to learn ways of coping with this unreliability, to learn to laugh at the frustrations you will encounter and find ways of minimising the damage. There are various ways of coping with computing problems: Save your work often – every few minutes, not every few hours.
1.2.3 Computing with confidence When it comes to learning about computers and gadgets, have you noticed the apparent ease with which children learn to use these tools? This may be because they are more likely to use the activist learning style. They try out and investigate rather than follow instructions rigidly or ponder the different approaches to a problem. In this unit we want to encourage you to be an activist when learning how to use computers. We want you to explore technological problems in the same way as a c
1.2.2 Learning new tasks We are about to turn our attention to the approach we take when learning about computers. Over the coming days think about how you learn to do new tasks, and in particular computing tasks. Think about the barriers you have to learning a new task. Do you fear failure? Breaking the computer? Feeling exposed?
1.2.1 Your learning style Imagine you are going to learn a new task. It could be laying a laminate floor, following a new recipe or learning to use a new TV remote control. How do you approach the task?
Approach 1 Do you sit down with the instructions and read them through before trying?
Approach 2 Do you get stuck in to the task straight away? Do you ask others for help and then move on to a new task as soon as this one is complete?
1.1.10 Installing Adobe Reader Adobe Reader is available here. If you do not yet have Adobe Reader installed in your machine, you can download the software at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html. When you have installed the Adobe Reader you will be able to open the learning_styles.pdf file that you saved on your computer in the previous activity. Use My Computer to locate this file, which you saved on your computer's hard disk. If you followed my earlier instructions exa
1.1.9 Managing files Another important skill when working electronically is being able to find files that you saved on your computer's hard disk. Here are some tips for overcoming problems with file management: Give your files meaningful names: ‘notes on studying online.doc’ rather than ‘notes.doc' Use folders to organise your files. For example, I created the following folders for this unit. In My Documents I created a folder
1.1.8 Useful links Here are some useful links to sites relating to ergonomics and to information about using and setting up your computer. What is ergonomics? Find out at the Ergonomics Society website. Health and Safety Executive home page, which is the entry to the HSE website. Within this site is a useful page that provides an alphabetical list of HSE documents including ones on Risk Assessment, Manual Handling, and Working with VDUs.
