3.4.2 ‘Real world’ skills Although we are describing these as a separate set of skills, we hope that you can see the value of these skills in supporting your learning, as well as being important for many other aspects of your life. In this unit we have been focusing on: The next activity is similar to the one you have just done, but here the focus is o
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
3.2.2 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
3.1 Introduction This section is the second step in using learning to help you achieve your own personal goals for change and development. This second step is really about developing additional ways to build on the evidence you gathered about yourself in Section 2. In particular it considers how other people can help you change. There are two main aspects to this. The first is about involving other people so that you can get feedback from them and increase the depth of your own self-understanding. The second
References 2.7 Conclusion This section has asked you to do a great deal of work on gathering evidence about what qualities, knowledge and skills you already have. There are two main reasons why this is important if you are going to use learning in order to achieve change. First, it is really important for you to have the self-confidence to know that you can achieve change. The activities in this section have been designed to provide you with opportunities to build up this much clearer picture. Another important aspect 2.6.1 Referencing Referencing is a good way to illustrate this similarity. You will have noticed that when the unit refers to someone, the name and some other details (often a year and a page number) are given. An example in this section would be: Allen (2001, p. 24). Here, the year (2001) and a page number are provided because reference was being made to a particular aspect of this book. If the discussion had been about the book in general it would have been fine just to give the year. If you look at the list 2.4.6 Your communication skills The next activity is an opportunity to reflect on your own communication skills. Recognising which skills you already have and use is an important first step towards being able to value and develop them. If you are considering embarking on significant change then you will need to communicate with other people at some point. You may need to explain to people who are close to you what changes you are thinking about. Or you may need to use communication skills to enlist the help of other people. 2.4.5 Reflecting on communication skills Communication can be approached in terms of the skills needed to get a hoped-for response. By seeing communication in terms of skills, it is easier to focus on what skills you already have and use. Once you have a reasonably clear picture about this, it is much easier to see where you might want to act to increase your communication strengths and decrease any weaknesses. It can be useful to try assessing what you see as someone else’s communication skills before you think about your o 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 2.1 Introduction This unit is about using learning to bring about personal change. This assumes that learning can help achieve such change. Section 2 aims to be the first step in showing you how this is possible. This section has three separate but related aspects: 1.6 Conclusion At the start of this section, there was a list of what we hoped you would get from your study of this section. To save you looking back, the aims of the section were to: It would be useful to think back over this list before moving on to section 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 1.4 Study skills, other skills You will find many references to ‘skills’ in this unit. Before we explain how we will be using this word, we would like you to think about what you understand is meant by ‘skills’. 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. 1.2.5 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 1.2.1 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?
Activity 2 What’s in a word – skills?
