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#3: Learn-2-Learn Series (Part 3 – Visual and Verbal Learning Techniques)

8/14/2015

Many People Learn in many different ways. Sometimes people prefer to learn through actually seeing the process in action (Visual) while others prefer to have it explained to them in finer detail and ask questions for immediate feedback (Verbal). Most of the time people want and need both as redundancy affects their ability to retain it. Which is why you need to know these techniques to better your ability to learn as both a visual and verbal meta-learner.

*Note – Techniques used by each style can work and be useful to the other styles. Just because one may statistically be better for one does not mean it won’t work for you. Try them all and experiment a little.

Visual Learners have Two Options to Learn

#1: Find a Visual that helps you remember best.

Visual Learners learn by seeing.

For them, it is easier to actually see how the process works by seeing it done. This is similar being told ten thousand times how to tie a knot and you not understanding how to tie it, but if you were shown physically how to tie the knot, you would understand quickly how it’s done and be able to tie it yourself.

This translates to going out and finding try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visuals that help you understand the information you are trying to learn. You should be able to find videotapes or CD-ROM displays of anything you want to learn.

But if you can’t find what you’re looking for…

#2: Build Your Own

Can’t find a visual. It’s time to build your own using a myriad of different styles of visualization tools. Although there are a billion different ways to build diagrams, tables, and charts. Here are 3 commonly used ones that will help build your visuals from a general way to a specific until finally you’re lost in the details. They are…

1.      Mind Mapping – Spider Diagram (General)

Mind Maps are the very useful in summarizing information. They along with other diagrams can be used to build information in a non-sequential way and instead in the way your mind works so it’s personable to you and only you.

How to build a Mind Map

1.     Start in the center with an image or word of the topic at hand

2.     Build out multiple branches from the topic using words, images, symbols, and codes

3.     Branch out using Upper or lower case letters depending on how important they are to the topic and limit them to a word or phrase to keep it easily memorable

4.     Continue to branch from the central image using lines that become thinner as they radiate out from the center.

5.     Use multiple colors to help encode the information and grouping it together.

6.     Develop your own style of map your mind.

7.     Emphasize and associate the words, images, depictions, and concepts to each other.

8.     Maintain a hierarchy to your topic and its subjects to embrace the most important parts of your branches.

See 10 great pictures of mind maps here.

To see more about how mind mapping works, do it yourself with this free software: https://www.mindmup.com/#m:new

2.      Flow Charts – Order Charts (Specific)

Flow Charts are great for showing how one step in a process leads to another. It is great for visualizing the steps in a process by having them go from point to point in a chart chart. Most of the time the information is not detailed on the nitty-gritty of how one step leads to another, but can be. Instead, people use schematic drawings more so to explain to the finest detail.

Here are a few examples.

3.      Schematics Drawing – Inner Workings Diagram (Detailed)

Schematic Drawings show all significant components, parts, or tasks (and their interconnections) and are the most detailed of all these visualizations. Some Examples are blueprints, maps, and more.

Here are a few examples.

If you would like to know more about who a Visual Learner is follow the link: http://www.studygs.net/visual.htm

Verbal Learners – Find people to talk to who know what they’re talking about

Verbal Learners learn by being able to hear other people explain concepts and processes and then saying it themselves in their own words. Because of this, verbal learners learn best through other people. Because of this need for other people it’s imperative that you be able to find them and convince them to converse and discuss with you about the subjects and topics you want to learn.

1.      Find/Build a Group of Others that are trying to learn the same subject.

Therefore, find or build workgroups or study groups with coworkers, other students, professors, or any other subject matter expert. You can find like-minded people through meetup.com, going to school, or finding a mentor who is willing to take you on as a person to talk to and build on. Once you have a group, understand the material by hearing other’s explanations and discussing them to get the whole picture and getting the information to click.

2.      Build a list of Questions to Ask an Expert

When learning a new subject through classes, self-study, or any other medium. It’s important for a Verbal Learner to not write down notes, but to build a list of questions that you want clarified by a subject matter expert. This could be a professor, expert in the field you know, coworker or peer who knows more about the subject, or mentor. The key is to have someone who can answer all your questions when you get stuck.

3.      Using word association to remember facts and lines.

Another great technique for verbal learners is to use past stories, concepts, and thoughts in conversation that describe a very similar system to the new information. This gives the new information a framework you already know. Allowing you to learn faster by inputting new information into old information and building from your foundation of knowledge rather than creating a new foundation every time.

Therefore whenever someone is explaining how a process works. Explain the process back using an old system that you already use to remember information and let the concepts flow across the same frameworks.

For example:

Saving money when your broke is like saving water when you’re stranded.

If I save water each day, I will have emergency water to drink when the stream runs dry as I will have emergency money if my income runs dry. Therefore, saving and conserving money is the same as saving and conserving other materials that could become scarce.

Following this example lets you simply think that saving money follows the sames patterns and rules as saving other finite resources.

4. Recording lectures, watching videos, getting audio tapes, and any other means to hear the information

If you can’t get the real thing (Someone to Discuss with), it’s time to get secondary auditory sources like recordings of lectures, watching videos, and/or audio tapes. Having these available will let you listen and learn anywhere you can take an audio player such as the car, the gym, work, and anywhere else.

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Learn-to-Learn: How to Master Subjects In and Out of Order

7/7/2015

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#2: Learn-to-Learn (Part 2 – Sequential and Global Learning Techniques)

Now that you know a few techniques that work for both Active and Reflective Learners, it’s time to learn the different techniques that best work for you if you’re a Sequential Learner and a Global Learner.

*Note – Techniques used by each style can work and be useful to the other styles. Just because one may statistically be better for one does not mean it won’t work for you. Try them all and experiment a little.

Sequential Learner Techniques

Most learning is structured around Sequential Learners. Because it is seen as the most logical way to learn by building upon a subject step by step, and mastering it little by little. This style of learning is very popular if you have every looked into How-To-Lists and other types of manuals.

1.      Find and Dissect the Fundamentals

Everything can be boiled down into simple building blocks.

Recipes can be broken down from amazing feasts to the basic ingredients of flour, eggs, salt, etc. Cars can be broken down from complex machinery to simple metal pieces all put together to build a something greater than the sum of its parts.

The key is to be able to hone your ability to dissect subjects and topics so that you can find the basics even from the most complex. As everything in life is simple, the only reason you can’t understand it is because someone doesn’t want you to as they would stop being the expert!

Here is how to break things down into their basic parts.

First: Observe it.

·         Everything is connected in one way or another.

Finding how something is connected is the most important part of dissecting it. You have to see how the parts work in conjunction to figure out how it works. Therefore, observe it to see how each part is connected to the others.

Second: Describe it.

·         Everything happens in a particular order.

Once you know how each piece is connected, it’s time to see the sequential order of how they work together. Although many things can work at the same time, the idea is to map out to see what causes what in a cause and effect manner.

Third: Discover The Why.

·         Everything has a purpose

Knowing why each part does in the grand scheme of things is important to understanding something as a whole, instead of just its individual segments. Figuring out what and why each piece operates and affects the others will allow you to see the pattern of something’s function.

2.     Write it out into your very own Sequential List/Outline.

Once you know how something works from top to bottom, it’s time to map it out in your own words as a Sequential List/Outline. You can do this my following writing out what you learned in “Dissecting the Fundamentals” in a easy to understand format such as a flow chart, an outline, How-To- List, Step-by-Step Manual with pictures, and more.

3.     Learn to Fill-in-the-Blanks

People who learn this way love having every step available but absolutely hate when steps are left out or if information is taught out of order. Which is why it is so important for someone who learns this way to know how to fill in the blanks if information is incomplete.

·         Ask a subject matter expert to fill in the blanks from a community forum, a mentor, a professor, a tutor, or any other place where people know the process of what you’re trying to learn. This is much easier than the next one.

·         Figure it out yourself through self-study. This will take longer as you have to find references that you need to cross check for validity. The easiest way to do this is to find YouTube videos of it being done or other media.

Global Learner Techniques

Global Learners like to see where they are going and figure out the details on their way there. Meaning the details come second to the Big Picture. Therefore, if you’re a Global Learner, always know where you’re going and remember the details will come in time.

1.       See the Big Picture Before You Research the Details

Global Learner’s love to be able to see the big picture clearly before they delve into any details. Because they like to see how everything they learn in the future will fit into it.

Which is why the first technique is to skim the material you’re trying to learn to get the general gist of how everything works together before trying to figure out the individual steps from one to another.

Once you have mastered the whole, you can finally learn how the individual details that make it up. This will help you learn by associating the small steps to the story of the big picture.

A great place to master this skill is here.

2.      Associate New Information to Old

Use what you already know to understand what you need to know now.

This technique is taking the idea of what you have learned in the past to describe new information and associate it to the old. This allows you to take the new information and input into a frame of mind that you already understand and eliminates a lot of the redundancy of learning.

For example, you know how to budget yourself. You know that the money that comes in has to exceed the money that goes out. This basic concept can be applied to many different situations such as trying to lose weight (more calories out, than calories in), economics (Supply outstripped by Demand, Prices go up), and many, many more.

This also means taking what you have learned about the subject and connecting it with new information. So you’re filling in the blanks of the whole picture with the details.

An example and very interesting read about how to Study without Studying.

3.      Take What You Learn to Other Subjects

This is the basis of becoming a General Systems Theorist. Find patterns in what you learn and take all new information and apply it to your learning frameworks. As all things when broken down resemble each other either chronologically, process wise, or methodically. A great place to start mastering your own framework is here.

I will be leaving for the next 2 weeks and will submit the next blog coming up at the end of July.

Best,

L. Thomas

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The Meta-Learning Series: Is This Your Style?

6/18/2015

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Reflect upon what you learn and capsulize it.

#2: Learn-to-Learn (Part 1 – Active and Reflective Learning Techniques)

After figuring out your learning-style last week, it’s time to learn the different techniques that work best for you.

*Note – Techniques used by each style can work and be useful to the other styles. Just because one may statistically be better for one does not mean it won’t work for you. Try them all and experiment a little.

Active Learner Techniques

If you are an active learner and you’re creating your own class or in a class that doesn’t meet your needs, then these are some specific techniques that work with your brain chemistry.

1.       Find a way to discuss the subject with others.

This could be anyone, but it is preferable to have someone who knows as much as you do and has an interest in the subject, or is a subject matter expert. This could be someone who studies it themselves or is a professional in the business. The key is to find someone who you can talk with who can expand what you’re studying as well as put it in a realistic perspective of how it works in practice.

A key provision of this strategy is finding a mentor who will consistently work with you to expand your knowledge as you learn the practice of what you’re trying to learn. Mentors are the most important and effective way to learn a subject and make it applicable to the real world. It should be utilized by all learning styles.

2.      Create a Problem Solving Activity

Look for ways you can apply your new knowledge. This entails looking how to use it in your everyday life or artificially creating a situation where you could use it. This could be doing an already created activity (From the Internet) or creating and running your own experiment to verify the information (Also from the Internet).

Good Example:

A good example of this is if you wanted to learn to trade stocks. You could actually trade stocks or you could use free web programs that give you fake money to trade on the real stock exchange so you can learn and test your own abilities and strategies.

3.      Use what you learn.

The final and best way to learn something is to actually do it. This entails going out and doing it. Go to a place where you can use your knowledge and practice what you learned.

Public Speaking = Toastmasters International Club

Engineering = Build a shed

Programming = Design a program that solves a problem you have

Business management = Start a Business

Etc. = etc.

Just do the hands-on work and you as an active learner will succeed.

Reflective Learner Techniques

If you are a reflective learner and you’re creating your own class or in a class that doesn’t meet your needs, then these are some specific techniques that work best with your mental inclinations.

1.       Figure out your optimal ratio of learning to breaking.

Reflective learners are notorious for having gestation periods where they need to take the information and let it develop and settle. These can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.

The key here is to find out how long your gestation period is by experimenting with your own mind. Meaning you research the information and try to learn it. Then take a break to find out how long it takes to digest the information. You can find out your best combination of learning to digesting by choosing to learn something for a certain amount of time and then measuring how long it takes before you know it.

A Good Example:

Study for an hour. Break for an hour. See what you remember.

Repeat using 2 hours of study to 1 hour of breaking.

Repeat using any combination of times until you find your optimal learning to digesting ratio.

2.      Find a good place or activity that helps you learn and gestate.

Where do you learn most comfortable?

Is it at home? A coffee shop? Or library?

Where do gestate the best and retain the most information you learn?

Learn best by finding the place your most comfortable but not easily distracted.

3.      Think of possible questions or applications of what you learn as you learn.

While you think and gestate the information you learn, you need to make connections between what you learned to what you will learn by thinking up questions you have of what you did learn and what you hope to learn in the next bout of learning. This helps connect the information to your mind, storyboarding it.

Another technique is to think of ways you could apply this information to the real world and what you do on a regular basis. This will help cement the information to concrete examples.

4.      Write summaries (How-To Lists) of what you learn in your own words.

Having reflective traits myself, this blog is the epitome of this technique. Taking in new information, learning it, applying it to gain experience, and then finally writing a blog about it to show my understanding. This is the basis of what all reflective learners must do.

If we didn't cover your learning style this week. No worries. All will be covered in good time.

Next Week:

#2: Learn-to-Learn (Part 2 – Sequential and Global Learning Techniques)

See you then.

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The Meta-Learning Series: Do you know how to learn?

6/4/2015

16 Comments

Education is becoming very, very expensive.

Even worse, it is not actually teaching any viable job skills that the workplace wants.

As for most jobs you’re hired for; require on the job training and have nothing to do with the degree you have.

A good example is my friend, Mike. Mike got his degree in Geology.
After he graduated, do you know what his position was?
He became a software salesman. Selling software to small and large business.

This is why formal education is becoming less valuable. The only caveat to this is if the school has a great reputation that will get you somewhere, but then you’re just paying for the school’s brand and not the education.

Which is why self-study and building your very own classes is to the utmost importance in this day of age.

As the truth is, no one will educate you unless it directly benefits them. Big Education will only do it if they can sap cash or student loans out of you. Branded Education will only let you in if they think you are “worthy” or have a rich parent who can add a wing to the school. And Private Schools want your first-born child as payment while teaching information that is just not useful for work. While also not having the reputation to get you anywhere because hiring managers stigmatize it and refuse to acknowledge it as a legitimate source of education.

That is why self-education is more important as the most successful people I know, from millionaires, CEOs, and entrepreneurs are not “formally educated”, but instead self-studied by reading books that told them how to be successful and then going out and doing it in real life, not the academic world.

That is why today I am bringing you the META-LEARNING SERIES, which will teach you the set-up on how to learn any subject on your own by building a customized class that uses your learning-style and schedule.

Step #0: Make sure that a free class doesn’t already exist

For this step, research the internet or library to find out if someone already created a practical class for the subject you want to learn.

A good example of this is when I wanted to learn how to type. Instead of taking a paid class, buying a book, or even practicing; I researched the internet to find a free website that teaches you how to type; taking you from a beginner to an expert.

After finding this website, I set my schedule of learning to an hour a day (2-3 lessons on the site) and practiced over and over. In just a few short weeks, I was typing like a computer hacker and increased my words per minute by 500%.

All because I did a little research before I moved forward.

If you’re interested in learning more about places to get free classes and education, here are 2 websites that have compiled 100’s of websites that may cover what you’re interested in knowing using class formats, videos, lectures, and even free e-books.

1. Formal FREE University Education

2. Informal Courses with Course Building Blocks

Check us out next week for...

STEP #1: How to Figure Out Your Learning-Style.

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Forward>>

#3: Learn-2-Learn Series (Part 3 – Visual and Verbal Learning Techniques)

Learn-to-Learn: How to Master Subjects In and Out of Order

The Meta-Learning Series: Is This Your Style?

The Meta-Learning Series: Do you know how to learn?

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