Can you learn what you aren’t taught?

I had an argument with someone about whether or not one could learn something by reading content that doesn’t explicitly give the message the author wants them to learn.

So, for the sake of argument, we discussed this blog post: Life Lessons Tied Up In a Bow. For fun, go read that article. What do you think the message of this post is supposed to be?

Don’t read ahead and cheat.

by United Nations Photo on Flickr

I’m hoping that if you got this far you did actually look at that article. If you didn’t some of this might not make sense. For me, the highlight take away is that like the presenter in the video (and the little girl and the author), I have been tying my shoes the wrong way for years. Actually watching that video really turned me on to TedTalks, which is why I attended the Monterey TedX last spring. Another take away one might get from this article is how stubbornness can hold you back. Another might be my main point of this article about whether she would have eventually figured it out even having not being taught. What was the author’s main take away: The value of one’s elders.

Ok, I can see that and it’s a valid lesson. Does it make any of the other ones I’ve mentioned less valuable? Not especially. Did you come up with some other lesson I didn’t mention? Probably. We all draw on our own childhood experiences and learning to draw the conclusions we will. Unlike school, we don’t all have to come to the same conclusion to find value in something we’ve read. Now, revisiting something later can provide us with whole new insight. In particular, I’m thinking of great books like Gulliver’s Travels and The Little Prince. Both of these are phenomenal stand alone stories which a child could enjoy, but read as an adult can offer so much more. I should mention at this point that I absolutely love A Modest Proposal, but would strongly recommend against reading that to young children.

As I’ve mentioned, I have a degree in Instructional Design. One of the types of learning theory I studied is called Constructivism. In constructivism, one is given a foundational amount of knowledge and then asked to solve a problem which requires the learner to reach beyond what they’ve explicitly been taught to make the connection of the lesson. Some believe this is a more effective form of instruction because the learner determines the path for getting to the final answer, instead of being shown exactly how to get there.

The problem with constructivism is that the person reading has to want to make it a learning experience or to dig deeper. I maintain that if that is the goal of the person, they can make the deeper connection; if not, then they enjoy a nice story and take away from it what they will.

Information Overload and Managing Expectations

© Reuben Staton. SJ, Melbourne, 2005.

I’m sorry that I haven’t posted for the last two weeks. I started a new program that is supposed to be “10 minutes a day of learning” plus regular exercise. I figured I could handle that. Unfortunately, it was closer to 90 minutes a day of learning, 1 hour + of exercise, and two Wednesday ago when I should have posted my first missed post, a day at the doctor’s office because I was allergic to the supplements recommended.

At the end of the first week, I emailed my Coach and told her that I was done with the program and wanted my money back. That week it was all I could do to work all day, work out at night, and do all of this assigned reading. Plus, I had lost a full day of work and been terribly sick. She assured me that the first two weeks of the program were the most information-filled, and that I should stick with it because the certification at the end would be worth it.

I am 16 days in at this point and I’m not sure I entirely agree with her. I guess you’ll have to find me next July to see if I’ve really stuck with it. The worst part of this program so far is the complete inability to manage my expectations.

My Learning Expectations

1) 10 minutes a day of learning

Unless this program magically has a bunch of days that are learning-free, that definitely isn’t happening. I’d say that this week the lessons are 10-15 minutes, plus there is a weekly video from the Coach for another 10 minutes or so. And the emails. And the discussion boards. And the check-ins. You can see where I’m going with this.

2) There wouldn’t be additional costs beyond what I’m paying to be in the classes

I read the lessons, usually late at night, and they’ll say to buy supplement x or get this workout equipment and at that point in the day, just assimilating the materials, let alone making shopping lists- and in some cases- trying to get those materials the same night is frustrating. Not to mention incredibly expensive.

There are weekly reviews on Sunday. I wish they included “here’s what you need for the coming week” since on Sunday there is a passable chance I’d be able to pick up the items, or if I ordered them on Amazon, would get them by Wednesday and not lose the whole week of instruction.

What I’m taking out of this for the courses I design

To those of you out there in the eLearning industry, I can’t emphasize this enough- no matter how good the instruction is, if it isn’t what the learner was expecting, they won’t recommend it. For my part, I’m not going to name this program right now. I did research before I started it and I know it’s something I want and that it would be a financial and time commitment. I just had no idea that I’d struggle so much right at the beginning. Had they said “This is 3-Hours a Day” and it ended up only being 2 (about what I do now including the routines), I’d probably be much happier with the whole situation. For what it’s worth, the information is interesting. While I intensely dislike that each day the lesson is just one long website page with tons of scrolling, the designer at least had a sense of humor and there are images and videos to break it up.

Quality, Not Quantity

2012 was a year all about trying new things. I needed to get out of my funk from being laid off and generally being depressed. By setting a goal of learning something new each month, I forced myself to “get out there.”

Starting 2013, I knew it was less about trying everything and being busy and more about self-discovery and improvement. Instead of reading 80+ books that were silly romance throw-aways, I’ve set a more modest goal of 30 books, of which I hope the majority will be business or improvement related. If you’re interested, I keep Goodreads (widget on the side here) up to date with what I’m reading.

I’m really reassessing my life, as in May I will hit one of those “big” milestones of turning 30. There are certain things I haven’t done and I made a little bucket list to do them. Some are less immediately achievable than others, but at least putting it down in writing holds me responsible for them. To that end, I’ve also started journaling. Don’t worry, I have no intention of putting my daily thoughts/emotional baggage online. This is just for me and about clearing my head. Speaking of clearing my head, one of my favorite things to do is swing. I found a park near my house that’s always empty. Here’s a picture of the view, complete with my shoes, for your enjoyment. If you swing high enough, over the dune in front of me, you can see the Pacific Ocean. I love this park.

In the interest of self-improvement, I’ve started a few online training classes. From a professional point of view, I look forward to seeing what instructional styles have been chosen and how I might have altered the training had I been its designer. From an educational point-of-view, I hope this training will improve my life.

The purchased (all from Groupon) classes are:

• iOS and Android App Design
• TESOLS.com- TESOL certification
• Cisco IT Network Training Package

The free instruction classes are:

• Duolingo French
• Duolingo Spanish
• Skillcrush.

I like to think that I’m fluent in Spanish, so for Duolingo Spanish, I’m actually just taking all the tests to pass out of each level. If you aren’t familiar with this program, and want to learn a language, you need to check it out. I found it from Timothy Ferris (someone who I’d love to meet if anyone wants to set that up for me). He mentioned it on his blog, so I signed up. Today I received this email about how it’s more effective than Rosetta Stone (ironically how I originally started learning Spanish) and college courses (where I finished learning Spanish).

Over the course of the year, I’ll update on how my training with each of these is going. Right now, I haven’t started any of the purchased classes. In French, I’m level 2 with 85 points and 36 words. In Spanish (which I did in one afternoon as opposed to several days of French), I’m in Level 7 with 1048 points and 272 words. I discovered Skillcrush yesterday and have only done the first unit.

From a personal interest/professional development standpoint, I’ve also signed up to attend TedXMonterey in April. I can’t wait to see all of the inspiring speeches there. So, it’s not about all the things I can do this year, now it’s about how I’m doing things to make myself a better, happier person.