This week's Digital History class almost seemed like a Philosophy lecture, as it focused on our personal learning environment and personal learning management. The lecture examined the traditional ways students are taught, and the informal methods of learning not usually found in the classroom, before asking us to consider what contributed to the way we learn, and how we access and filter information, to be used in our research.
Most learning seen in education continues to be the old method of formal lectures, with a learned individual speaking to a number of passive people, who take notes or listen, but do not actively engage in the process. The information passed to the class is then regurgitated in essays or exams, because little worth is attributed to finding additional, or contradictory, readings on the topics covered. This problem is especially prevalent in second-level education, where memorisation is emphasised, rather than active participation in learning. This means that a good memory is confused with intelligence, and the ability to understand or interpret information is dismissed as secondary to learning off by heart.
My own learning experience largely followed this trend before starting my first postgraduate degree last year. In school, given the focus the Leaving Certificate has on memory, no system was in place to either expand or criticise the material which pupils are expected to learn wholesale. Since virtually all grading was conducted through examinations, there was no desire on the part of my school to encourage questioning of the material, and no attempt was made to evaluate how any knowledge learned by pupils was applied in our education or in real life.
To a large degree, undergraduate study is quite similar. With the huge numbers of students taking undergrad courses, lecturers have no time to engage in small group sessions, or to see if students are engaging with the material. Exams are, again, used more to evaluate a student's memory, rather than whether they bothered to actively engage with the information.
At postgraduate level, one is forced to engage with material, and must find it themselves. Having being forced to do this, I was able to gain a better understanding of what I read, because I had to rationally think about what was being presented, and question aspects of what I read that I didn't agree with. This gave me a better understanding of what I was studying, because I had to actively engage with the subject material, rather than simply passively read it and store it in my memory for exams, after which I could promptly forget the information that I had learned simply for the process of regurgitation on an exam paper.
Of course, what I learn in college isn't the only way I learn about the world, in fact, it's probably smaller than I had ever realised. Every day, I access the news through one or more types of media, though the convenience and zero cost that the Internet provides makes it my main source. I frequently use Facebook and Gmail chat to engage with other people, their thoughts and the links they post, often through debate. YouTube provides video footage which might never be seen on television, because of either timing constraints, or editorial policy. I probably became more aware of the unfolding national chaos of last week via social networking groups than I would have anywhere else. Social networking sites, like Facebook, are mainly for entertainment purposes but, as Juche observes, they can also encourage "accidental" or serendipitous learning, where the user receives an education without realising it, an grown-up example of "edutainment" programming aimed at children, if you will.
The spread of the Internet has enabled an expansion of a dual learning process outside of the formal setting of a classroom. The first aspect, independent learning, allows me, or anyone, to access information at any time, from any location, quickly and inexpensively. Through search engines or news organisations, one can acquire information which compliments, or contradicts, information the user already holds, challenging them to think about what they have learned before. The second aspect, shared or collaborative learning, encourages people to interact by commenting on posts, sharing links to interesting web pages or by instant messaging. This allows for the development of a shared learning experience, where knowledge is gained equally, and at the same time, by the participants in the discussion. Both aspects force the user to engage actively with what they are reading or discussing, allowing them to react positively or negatively, and to draw their own conclusions about the topic they are learning about.
The key to successful learning, I find, is through making sense of the material. We are able to access copious amounts of information, physically and online, and we must decipher valuable information from the nonsensical, in a process called knowledge management. As Juche observes, once you find the information you need on a certain topic, you must then study it, observing what is being covered. Then, one must challenge the material, to see what flaws exist in the arguments given, before evaluating the overall worth of the document. After this process is complete, one can use the information to construct their own arguments and beliefs.
Knowledge management is a skill which I have learned rather recently, in the main because it is not a skill required when one is in second level or undergraduate studies. Advancing beyond these levels, however, a student must find material themselves, without the comfort of being spoonfed information by a lecturer or tutor. Without the recommendations of lecturers, I had to find books and articles myself, learning to differentiate between useful and unhelpful sources, and pick up the ability to filter arguments and quotes, customising them to suit my approach, in order to assist me in constructing a discussion in topics I found interesting.
In a world where any slant can exist on any topic, it is important to be able to engage with material and see what parts you find believable, in the first instance, then adapting it to suit one's own arguments. Knowledge management, therefore, is important in creating a stronger, more independent, personal learning environment.
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