Msg: 2265 *Conference*
04-05-92 22:35:05
From: RICHARD HANSON
To : LEX JENKINS
Subj: RTFM
As the subject suggests, RTFM... Read The Friendly Manual, or, Read The Funny Manual, or, Read The Funkey Manual, or, from a support person's point of view... (naaa... I had better not say this...) We all, including myself, have read good and not so good manuals and still did not get it right; or get it at all. There are times when, after reading the manual, you get it, and do it--whatever "it" is--then come back to the manual and discover (gasp!) something else!!! And, you even read it before but it didn't hit home. My point, if there is one, is one of the value of written communication. It works, but not 100% perfectly. I must add, however, that voice and video work, as well as observation, and even tutorial and practice, but nothing works 100% perfectly. Which means that "schools" both don't work and do work but the results are mixed; which is ok, except that educators don't think it's okay. Thus, the eduactors are screwed up, not the students, and tests and grades are stupid pressures imposed by legislation, and certinly not for to the benefit of the learning. There are exceptions to my last point but generally it is true. No one likes tests or grades because of the WAY they are used against us not by us, for us. I liked your defination of "expert" being someone who has forgotten what it was like not to know. There is suppost to be a "beginning" time for all things, or so we feel. A time when we learn the "basics". Then, so the story goes, we move onward through the subject matter or skill. But, what if there really is NO beginning period, but rather a contining advancement of the knowledge and skill, leaving all who come "now" to fit in at the "now-moment" without the opportunity to start at the beginning? Without dragging this into an essay, I'll loosely tie my two points together. I firmly believe that there is no perfect learning method, but rather an individualized random collection of encounters, activities, opportunities and happenstances that occure within a time-continuum. These collectively comprise our knowledge and skills, individually. Thus, there is no beginning to personal learning. There is no one best learning style, or learning age, or time, or place or anything else. These exists only the here and now of all things, and we simply addapt as necessary to fit in. If I believe the above as true then "learning" is the process of constant exposure to a subject matter in practice. Thus, a business based on providing knowledge or skills--and products and services--must provide contunal working models of those knowledges or skills, etc. This then becomes the basis on which I intend to explore the next phase of Club 100... or whatever I will eventually call it. What do you think? -Rick-