Hi all,

I am looking for a website or websites that teach how to learn a certain subject. We all are trying all to learn as much as possible. Trying to achieve that in the shortest period of time is the challenge.

Soooo, how do YOU learn? Any tips and tricks...? What is the most effective way to do this...? Any websites that help with that..? I am willing to put up a website with all this information if you are interested.

So, in this new world... How do we LEARN...???

-- STFrancis (STFrancis@heaven.com), September 04, 1999

Answers

STFrancis,

I don't think you can consider the question of HOW to learn without also thinking about WHAT to learn. One of the problems I think we face in our current educational system is that we ask young people to learn things for which the see no practical use. So we can devise myriad ways for them to memorize useless pieces of information, but I'm not sure that's really what we ought to be doing.

There has been some discussion of Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" on other threads on this forum, and it's a topic he discusses -- either in that book, or in one of the two sequels ("The Story of B," and "My Ishmael"). As I recall, he makes the point that when we're discussing "useful" things that need to be learned, you just need to turn people loose and avoid any constraints, and they'll learn it all by themselves.

An example: how on earth does an infant learn the complexities of natural language? What they manage to accomplish, largely on their own, before they go off to any kind of formal "school" is truly remarkable!

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (HumptyDumptyY2K@yourdon.com), September 04, 1999.

Funny, isn't it..that one should have to ask to learn for a nethod o learn. Isn't the "public school system" in place to teach "how to learn"? Of course he newsmedia answer is yes and the smart answer is no. Public schools are in place to teach how to be "citizens". My significant other was told that "he was not in school to learn but in shcool to be taught HOW TO LIVE>.

To learn you must seek out information ane knowledge...you must look in darkened corners where the mainstream sayas you will not find learning....you must read a lot...talk a lot to every kind of human being....experiment with all kinds of behavior....It is not what the mainstream said I was to teach my children... but I did my best.....

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), September 04, 1999.

I am not of the religious..but I know some quotes......St. Augsine said: "Beware the man of one book."

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), September 04, 1999.

Well my spelling and proof reading is garbage....St. Augustine.....and previous posts.....Gnostics,....those who sought knowledge...those are the people to read...otherwise..get out there and live....On a real evolutionary scale...human beings are JUST out of the cave.....intellect and understanding...we might as well be neanderthals.....Barely out of the cave in 1999. Come on all who disagreee with me. It is a religionists' hayday, those who wish to disprove evolution....!

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), September 04, 1999.

No one needs to try to disprove evolution, it has already been disproven over and over and over. Funny, but then someone comes up with a brand new theory and asks that it be disproven also.

-- Kimberly Hott (ckhott@urec.net), September 04, 1999.

Hi Donna,

How nice to see you here, back at Ed's place. Nice feel to this backroom, I think.

"Barely out of the caves in 1999." No argument from me. I've always enjoyed and agreed with the conjecture of Paul Shepard (and countless others)that we are STILL in the Pleistocene, still freighted with the physiognomy, physiology and psychology of our hunter-gatherer forebears, and trying our best to adapt to an ecology of our own devising, however ineptly. [sigh]

As to how we learn---does anyone not feel that they've learned more since leaving school than while in school? Learning is such an individual, personal thing. If what we learned had more immediate bearing on our individual and group survival, I'm sure we would be more highly motivated. Do I see motivation on the increase around here?

Anyway, STF, the knowledge is out there, to be picked from the tree like so many mongongo nuts (!Kung Bushman ref). The question is less, "How do we learn?" but more, "What should we be learning?" Learning is easy, almost osmotic; everyone does it whether they mean to or even want to. "What" we need to learn is a philosophical question for the ages.

Hallyx

"Perplexity is the beginning of understanding" - Kahlil Gibran

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), September 04, 1999.

"Funny, but then someone comes up with a brand new theory and asks that it be disproven also."

That's called the "scientific method," Kim. It's one of the ways we learn.

Hallyx

"If you don't learn anything from your mistakes, what's the sense in making them?"

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), September 04, 1999.

Hal,...thank you for your support...I suppose I was hoping for others to chime in.....I went to "aphorisms" today...

I still put forth that humans at the end of the 20th give or take a year...cannot claim the corner of the market on it....Blah, blah blah....

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), September 04, 1999.

I agree Hally, it's just one of my pet peeves that our children are taught evolution as fact in school and the "facts" are constantly disproven. I didn't mean to step on anyone's toes.

My only suggestion for this thread is that we could back to apprenticeships. Learn by doing.

-- Kimberly Hott (ckhott@urec.net), September 04, 1999.

Mortimer Adler and another fellow wrote a book, How to read a book. I recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671212095/o/qid=936504067/sr=8 -1/002-0202413-0757647

Synopsis: No one reads all kinds of books the same way. 'How to Read a Book' is a guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. The author provides help in understanding how to read literature, history, poetry and fiction to name a few of the various types of reading discussed.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 04, 1999.

there was a thread on this forum about 2 months ago about a study done at MITin regard to learning. It cannot find it, or perhaps it reference a web site. If someone could find that , it was very enlightening in that it revealed that our minds perceive information in quite different ways. 4 modes were discussed and we fit one or the other.

Bob P

-- bob P (rpilch99206@aol.com), September 05, 1999.

Once upon a time I trained adults as a living. I was taught that there were visual, auditory and tactile learners. This is why it is important to deliver your message as a trainer in a manner involving all three styles.

Ever drop a memo in someones bin and later wonder why they never seemed to get the message? If they were an auditory learner, then your message would be better delivered by reading it to them or talking about it. The tactiles are the hardest. Often having them take notes while you speak helps them.

My son has a learning disorder, but is actually brighter than the rest of my family. When he was little, I had to "draw" out his chores and the order in which they were to be done. He thinks in pictures. His mental file cabinet is not keyed by alpha numeric sounds or symbols, but by actual pictures. It takes him far longer to read than most people as he has had to mentally work around abstracts for which there are no pictures. On the other hand, his thinking is extremely creative and innovative. He is one of those who has always thought outside the box.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 05, 1999.

I am finding that Y2K is forcing me to SWITCH my normal mode of learning. I've always been comfortable getting information from books, but Y2K has forced me to admit that while I "know" a whole bunch of stuff, I don't know how to "do" much. While I could find about a bizillion sources of information on raising rabbits, what really helped was a local woman who not only sold me some rabbits, but let me attend a butchering demo she was having for her 4H kids. Now I have butchered, skinned, cleaned, and cooked ONE rabbit (and am in the process of brain-tanning the hide). It ain't much, but I feel more confident that I can provide meat for my family (if I have to) now, than after a ton of booklearning. Same with gardening, and shooting.. two other things I am trying to get practical knowledge about.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if schools taught the "3R's" in conjunction with learning practical skills. It would make school a whole lot more interesting, and you wouldn't have people like me who have a whole boatload of booklearning, but no practical skills.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 05, 1999.

P.S. to St.Francis.. another advantage of hands-on learning is the development of community. While its really swell that we can share all this information on the web, when the chips are down what will matter is the connections you have made around your community. Whatever you are trying to learn, look for a local expert. Ask their advice. Make a friend.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 05, 1999.

Every year our local high school seniors have a "senior project." They select something to learn to do that they have never done before and produce a product of some kind for a show in the spring. They have to find a local mentor to teach them. My daughter did a stained glass window. My son is repairing and refurbishing an antique grandfather clock that was his great grandfather's. (Now a shell with works in a box.) Some kids have done taxidermy; made gun stocks; whittled; rebuilt engines; restored antique tractors and cars; written music; learned to barber, etc.

Too bad the media and government didn't participate in the idea of preparing for y2k. We could have had all kinds of community courses in gardening, canning, etc. with hands on participation/demonstration project.

Another issue that comes into play here is the change in competition. For instance, we have maybe two blacksmiths in the valley. If transportation changes significantly to include more horse-dependent transport, the need for blacksmith's will rise, both because of the modal change and because the range of traffic will change. There will be a need for stores and services much closer to small settlements than is current.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 05, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

Yes. No doubt. When we leave school is when learning really takes off. I'm sure many of us are suffering from information overload about now, wondering how in the world we're ever going to be able to remember everything we need to know, or learn enough in time.

There is a wide variety of theories about different kinds of intelligences. One of the most well known, in recent years is that of Harvard Psychologist Howard Gardner, as described in his book Frames of Mind : The Theory of Multiple Intelligences/Tenth Anniversary Edition. This book is rough going for the non-academically inclined. A more popularized version of the same theory is offered by Thomas Armstrong in his book 7 Kinds of Smart : Identifying and Developing Your Many Intelligences, in which he tells all about how different people learn in different ways: auditory, visual, logical, verbal, kinesthetic, etc.

I'm not too sure I buy into these theories, entirely. What I find is useful for my own learning is to realize that in order for something to stick, it has to have something to stick to. Think of facts and bits of knowledge as being like collage or puzzle pieces with bits of velcro on the back. You have to have a framework in place so you'll know where to find the stuff when you need it, and lots of little "hooks" so it will have something to stick to to keep it in place. These hooks would be the foundational knowledge. The more ways you can hook the new stuff to what you already know, the better you will be able to remember it. Like Gilligan and the Lilliputians, the knowledge can't get away from you. If it's something very important, you'll want to nail it down as many ways as you can: reading, hearing, talking, touching, forwards & backwards, etc.

So, knowledge begins with the familiar, and builds from where you are.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), September 06, 1999.

"The sum total of what a man knows is vanishingly small. What seems in the end more important is that one should pursue knowledge." Bertrand Russell

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 06, 1999.

Hey Dancr

I think you meant to say "Gulliver" and the Lilliputians!!!

Some of you think we have to learn everything before January 1.

I kind of think even if I live to be 100 I will have a lot of things to learn.

One good way to learn is to believe that someone other than you is an expert and start asking some questions.

Another way is just to believe you are an expert and jump right in. Try to invite someone to join, so if it fails, you can laugh together about the mistake.

What did I learn this year? How to maintain and use a chain saw. How solar electric panels and inverters work. How to install a hand pump well 12 feet deep and how is would be hard if the well were much deeper. A lot about fractional reserve banking.

I look forward to the years when I can once again learn what is going on at the forfront of technology...because that is where we continue to explore.

-- Thom Gilligan (thomgill@eznet.net), September 06, 1999.

Thom,

Good points. BTW, what's the secret to the chain-saw? What's a good chain saw? What brand and models do you recommend? Gas or electric?

Bardou,

Frederick Copleston does a better job at the history of philosophy than Bertrand Russell, but Russell was not without any achievement.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish."

- F. A. Hayek

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 07, 1999.