Hi Everyone!
Even though we didn't learn a new tool this week, I still learnt something. I didn't know what a 'Personal learning enviroment' was and I had never heard of a software called FreeMind. Sarah told us a very interesting curiosity: 80% of our learning process takes place outside of the classroom in different periods of one’s life. I was very surprised at it; can you imagine how many hours we spent in classrooms at school or university? I actually can't because they are really too many. Furthermore, can you think about how much money governements and institutions spend for formal learning? It is kind of disappointing to know that most of energy and money are put into formal learning, which is just a small part of our learning process.
As regards my study-path I think that informal learning is more effective than formal learning. Personally I can memorize new things better if they require my active partecipation. How many times did I look up for a word in the dictionary and then forgot it simply because I couldn't use it? It often happenes to me. On the contrary, I can learn new words, new structures or new puns by listening to friends when we are having an informal conversation in English. I realized that I can keep them longer in my mind because I can also recall the context in which something was said or done.
While I was drawing my mindmap I could think about my learning system. Of course it is not stable, I mean it can change as we grow up. It made me reflect upon how important the way one learns can be. The system we devise and the tools we use are fundamental elements that help us in our learning process.
I'm looking forward to seeing your opinions.
CU
Even though we didn't learn a new tool this week, I still learnt something. I didn't know what a 'Personal learning enviroment' was and I had never heard of a software called FreeMind. Sarah told us a very interesting curiosity: 80% of our learning process takes place outside of the classroom in different periods of one’s life. I was very surprised at it; can you imagine how many hours we spent in classrooms at school or university? I actually can't because they are really too many. Furthermore, can you think about how much money governements and institutions spend for formal learning? It is kind of disappointing to know that most of energy and money are put into formal learning, which is just a small part of our learning process.
As regards my study-path I think that informal learning is more effective than formal learning. Personally I can memorize new things better if they require my active partecipation. How many times did I look up for a word in the dictionary and then forgot it simply because I couldn't use it? It often happenes to me. On the contrary, I can learn new words, new structures or new puns by listening to friends when we are having an informal conversation in English. I realized that I can keep them longer in my mind because I can also recall the context in which something was said or done.
While I was drawing my mindmap I could think about my learning system. Of course it is not stable, I mean it can change as we grow up. It made me reflect upon how important the way one learns can be. The system we devise and the tools we use are fundamental elements that help us in our learning process.
I'm looking forward to seeing your opinions.
CU
