The Art of Learning

               This week, our discussion basically comes down to how we learn. In class, we talked about  Personal Learning Environment (PLE) and Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) which at first glance one might think are the same thing, knowlege and learning...they're all the same, right? When I consider these theories in more detail it turns out they are actually two very different things but they are closely linked. I'd like to define them separately so that anyone reading will be better able to understand what I am rambling on about, and also so that i don't confuse myself in the process. For me, PLE is literally how we learn things; how we study, how we remember facts, how we engage with them and we put them to use. PKM on the otherhand is learning in a broader sense, how we bring everything we have learned and need to learn together in one place and in a way that caters for our individual needs.

               I think that our Personal Learning Environment changes over time as our capabilites improve and what is excpected of us develops. In secondary school the teachers always asked us were we doing any "study". Study in this sense ment acting like a sponge absorbing everyting from 7 or 8 huge books and regurgitating it in 7 or 8 different exams. Honestly, during the year of the Leaving Cert I cant remember doing any study that wasn't a necessity because of a class test or something along those lines. If I did study, I mite be walking around the house with a book or hanging upside down on the bed with the music blaring. I really didn't put in a whole pile of effort when I think back on it. My method was to predict the questions and study the answers, usually at the last minute and using little scribbles, ryhmes and keywords to help me remember. The teachers were fine with this, our entire honours English class went into the exam with Sylvia Plath as our only option in the poetry section because our teacher was convinced she would be on the paper. Thank God she was, an we all rattled our prepared essays into the answer books merely changing words here and there so it sounded like we were answering the question.

               My undergraduate degree was an extention of this type of learning but with a lot more effort and for the first time, a little engagement with the topics. When writing assignments in first year, the aim was to answer the question being asked. Your own opinions were important but not if you couldn't back them up with the work of real academics. Personally I thought we were better off keeping in mind who was correcting the papers, best not to tread on any toes when you're new to the university environment. Exams will always be the same, especially when studying humanities. You're given a question and you give a long winded answer based on what you can remember on the day. The only thing that I noticed was really giving us a chance to develop our learning and our learning environment were the essays and assignments given to us in final year. It's probably a terrible and extremely immature analogy but the longer the word count, the more opinion and effort expected. Our history dissertation helped us to understand and engage with independent research, if we hadn't done that, we would really be thrown into the deep end trying to complete masters research.

               If I could describe my personal learning environment in one word it would be "pressure". Back in my school days I left everything until the last minute and I must admit that I still do. It's not because I'm lazy, I think it's because I work best under pressure. I have started 4000 word essays at 10pm the night before a deadline and gotten on more than ok. Granted the room would be akin to that of a maniac by the time I'm finished; spider diagrams stuck up all over the wall and multiple piles of paper or books all over the floor. I spend more time on the reading than the writing, I'm not saying it's healthy, but it is what works for me most of the time. It looks like mess but I know where everything is. Then I'll hand in the finished product and get feedback from whoever has corrected it. If it is a presentation to my peers, I'll try to make sure it is accessible and that we are all on the same level and of course, take any of their comments on board. The best way to learn is from other people.

                In relation to Personal Knowledge Management, mine is extremely simplistic. I make "to do" lists of assignments, their due dates, meetings with peers and supervisors and any recommeneded or additional reading that might be of interest. I've never used the many Google apps that are available; calendar, search alerts, tasks, blog. My computer is a liability, I can never predict when it will turn itself off, and the administrators in the Boole won't let me install radom apps on computers that aren't mine! Hopefully after Christmas that will change, if the recession hasn't hit santa that is! I regurlarly use Jstor and other online arcives and find them to be a great help, and I will definately be adding Google Scholar to my searches. Filtering out the random and unreliable hits that search engines often throw out is a great help to my research, and I'll sign up for email alerts as soon as I finalised what it is I'm researching as I am currntly in the process of changing topics. As for facebook and twitter, I would never have thought of using them as academic sources if we hadn't discussed them in class. Everyone I know uses them to keep in touch and to share pictures and not much else. Although I must admit that the first place I heard about the notorious bail out was on a "like page" that said RIP Ireland's Independence 1916-2010. I bet all the History students laughed at the inaccuracy.