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>* Interactivity is important in a training setting because you're learning along with others. That initial path you create in your brain is dotted with waypoin

by maus42 10y ago

>* Interactivity is important in a training setting because you're learning along with others. That initial path you create in your brain is dotted with waypoints that everyone in class travels together. I'm sorry, I'm totally lost at what this metaphor is even supposed to mean. I have no idea what the deep mental processes of my fellow students are when they are learning, even if we would talk about the material and ask questions and discuss, and I'm not even sure why I should follow the same "pathways" as them to learn to grok some concept. Most efficient learning method I've found is to study materials on your own (be their written materials, videos, recorded lectures, though I prefer texts), try to apply it (first to some basic exercises if available, then try more independent work), and ask a more knowledgeable person questions about it when I have questions to ask. The last stage is inherently interactive, but at the first stage all and the only action that happens should be you and your brain concentrating on the material.

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
Yes. I think this is how it works for a lot of people. The idea of waypoints etc sounds more like a clumsy narrative about how it should work than how it really does. If I'm "learning with others", I'm putting a lot more energy into being with others than into learning. Unless it's an explicitly social problem, it's a very inefficient way to learn. There are problems with self-directed learning. The most obvious is that because you don't know what you don't know, you can build an oversimplified mental model, which can cause issues later. And if you're not taught best-practices and microskills that people learn with experience, your learning will be incomplete. It's up to course material developers to try to solve both of those problems. Ideally teaching should combine rich and realistic model/overview with useful time-saving rote skills from real practice.

by maus42 10y ago

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago

Yes. I think this is how it works for a lot of people. The idea of waypoints etc sounds more like a clumsy narrative about how it should work than how it really does. If I'm "learning with others", I'm putting a lot more energy into being with others than into learning. Unless it's an explicitly social problem, it's a very inefficient way to learn. There are problems with self-directed learning. The most obvious is that because you don't know what you don't know, you can build an oversimplified mental model, which can cause issues later. And if you're not taught best-practices and microskills that people learn with experience, your learning will be incomplete. It's up to course material developers to try to solve both of those problems. Ideally teaching should combine rich and realistic model/overview with useful time-saving rote skills from real practice.