Comments on: Do it yourself learning.

By: Ganry70

Ganry70 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:09:43 +0000

There is a whole lot more to discover on his site. ,

By: Andre Malan

Andre Malan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:08:12 +0000

I think the motivation can come from new paradigms of learning. I just read this article which contains the following quote from John Seely Brown:

once you start going to school, in some ways you start to learn much slower because you are being taught, rather than what happens if you're learning in order to do things that you yourself care about…. Very often just going deeply into one or two topics that you really care about lets you appreciate the awe of the world … once you learn to honor the mysteries of the world, you're kind of always willing to probe things … you can actually be joyful about discovering something you didn't know … and you can expect always to need to keep probing. And so that sets the stage for lifelong inquiry.

I think that learning has its own intrinsic motivations as well as some of the more obvious extrinsic ones (for example getting a job). What needs to happen though is for new learning methods to be used that can help to expose our intrinsic motivations.

By: Jared Stein

Jared Stein — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:41:13 +0000

This suggests one of forthcoming problems with open education: even if we open up all our learning materials to the world, who will use them without significant intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? Where does such motivation originate from? How is it sustained?

I know for me, at least, I may think I have significant motivation for using OER and learning independently, however when it gets down to it, Power = Load/Time, and best intentions don’t cut it.

By: Aminollah Sabzevari

Aminollah Sabzevari — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:04:26 +0000

I find it often has a lot to with location. I could never do something like learn a language at my summer home. But if I can force myself to go to the library for 2 hours every day, it mimics the school environment, and once there, there’s not much to do but learn, even with the occasional daydreaming. That’s how I’ve prepared for standardized tests in the summer.

By: Angeli

Angeli — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:03:21 +0000

I know what you mean, although i guess I’m coming from an Arts perspective.

It’s hard to read a book that’s supposed to be a “classic” and really understand what the author’s getting at, without having info about his/her background and context… stuff that you’d normally learn in a class.

It sucks having to slog through Wikipedia articles by yourself in search of necessary background info or history, and then picking out the relevant tidbits from that…

That’s why I’m always incredulous when I hear about those geniuses who teach themselves to speak another language or to do web design without taking a class. Really, who has that kind of motivation? It’s impressive, but I find it kind of sketchy as well…

haha long comment