There are several barriers that may occur when you are trying to communicate, therefore you have to keep them in mind to try and avoid these barriers.
General communication barriers
In general communication barriers such as vision may occur. When presenting a presentation people who have sight difficulties may not be able to see the presentation and may not have the same experience as other people who the presentation is being presented to. Also if the community isn't paying attention to your presentation, then the point will be much more difficult to get across.
To avoid these complications there are several methods of dealing with them that can be put into syntax.
For people with vision difficulties, using the Rainbows audio books would be helpful as the receiver is actually able to hear what you are talking about therefore they will know what the presentation was about. Also the person may have an assistant beside them to explain any images that are on screen so that they can envision what it looks like.
As for the attention difficulties, the only way of dealing with it would be to make the presentation interesting. Tackling the audience with questions and getting them involved always helps to maintain attention and interest.
Interpersonal barriers
The most common barrier for interpersonal communication is background noise. Such things as cars passing by when you are talking on the street may interrupt you, your line of thought and may make it difficult for the other person to hear you. There are also things such as latency problems when having a one on one communication over a medium such as Skype. This may cause difficulties as it will cut out in mid sentence.
To combat these difficulties you could choose a quiet room or a quiet area to have a conversation in. This should cancel out the background noise therefore preventing interruptions, and getting the conversation over with faster.
As for latency problems, if you are experiencing latency problems, checking that you don't have any downloads running in the background or other software that consumes latency, if there are, shutting them down will benefit you.
Also sometimes peak times may affect your connection, therefore interrupting you and preventing you from having effective communication. So keeping in mind when these peek times are, trying to reschedule calls to a different time would be advisable.
Written communication
Cultural differences are a big barrier for effective communication, even in written communication. Some people may not have the same grasp of literature, and may find it difficult to understand certain long words. You also have to take into mind their beliefs so nothing offensive comes out of the conversation.
To attempt and avoid these complications, use of short, common words that lead straight to the point is effective and practical. Jargon is best used when communicating with people local in your area, and not over seas, this is because they may not understand what it stands for or what it means, so not putting it into the written piece would be practical.
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Monday, 14 January 2013
Principles of effective communication
There are several things that are important to remember about effective communication, everything that you tend to do, will improve your communication skills. For a charity, effective communication is important, the employees have to communicate with their clients all the time and even more so for a charity like Rainbow which is based around people who have sight difficulties. Good communication will make it easier to explain things to people as well as getting information out of people too.
General
General communication is how well you can get your point across, and there are several factors that make it easier to do so. Knowing you audience would be the main one. Finding out about your audience is very important as this will affect everything you will be trying to explain. People like to understand what you are trying to explain to them, therefore making it interesting and easy to understand will benefit you greatly.
This will effect the tone of voice and speech methods you have to use. For example, if the room is filled with children you will try to keep the wording simple and with the element of childishness and fun within the speech, where as with adults you are able to be more straight forward and use slightly lengthier words with explanations. Another factor that may affect this would be the size of your audience. For a large audience, you may have to speak up and possibly try to explain (including slang and jargon) the same thing in different methods. You will also need to keep an eye on the audience to make sure that they are paying attention and are not getting bored. For a smaller audience you are able to do more personal approaches, such as 1 to 1 communication and explaining things to the audience individually if it is not too time consuming.
It is important to dig into your mind about the cultural differences that we live amongst at this day. Since we have mixed cultures and each believing into what they have been told, it is important not to offend them in any way possible that may go against their beliefs. Adjusting your communication will benefit you and the people you are talking to and making the experience much easier for both parties. Knowing your location would be a key factor. If it is in a foreign country to you, you must learn about their country so you don't try to tell them something that will offend them. Also taking into consideration that some foreign nationals may not have the same grasp of English (or whatever language) as you do will also affect your communication. Trying to use common words which are easy to learn and are heard daily will make it much more understandable for the listener and maybe if they have a thick accent and you are not able to understand them, using sign language is always useful, although having a translator translating for you would get rid of difficulties entirely.
Most importantly, make sure you are giving out the correct information. People who know nothing about a subject you are trying to introduce to them will believe you (unless the subject is completely, out of this world, unrealistic). Therefore, you do not want to give people out wrong information, because it will have some long term consequences and make communication harder along the line. This can also take a toll on you, since there are new technologies such as Google which is filled with information, people may search up the subject and find out you have been supplying them with wrong resources, further on, making communication even more difficult as they may choose not to listen to you.
On the other hand, including your own opinions isn't bad, but it should be kept to the minimum as you opinion may not be the one that may benefit everyone, and it may not be the most correct one.
Engagement with the audience - By confronting your audience, it not only makes the whole communication more interesting, it also makes sure that the audience is paying attention. There are different ways to execute this, and finding the most appropriate on will depend on the type and size of your audience. One of the approaches that can be used is by singling out a single person and giving them a question related to what you were talking about. If they get it wrong, correcting them would be the best way to deal with this, but they will pay attention afterwards if they haven't been so far. There are different questions that can be asked to the audience:
Single: " What is your opinion on this?"
Single/Multi: "Who can give me the answer to....?"
Multi: "Who has been paying attention?"
Interpersonal
Interpersonal communication is directed towards certain people or one persona in particular. They can effect how you change you communication style and approach making you more dominant in communication and increasing you skill in this area in general. There are variety of skills you should invest some time into mastering to make communication even more effective.
Listening - Listening to the person that is talking will benefit you greatly because you will understand what they are talking about. Sometimes listening to how people speak and what they speak about will show you what type of person they are and what they like and don't like, which you will be able to use the next time you are talking about. For example, if Rob likes cars, then bringing up the subject of cars would be a good method to get to know Rob.
Problem solving - This skill can be useful for you communication as knowing how to solve problems will benefit not only you, but people you are trying to communicate with as well. Problems will arise daily, especially when communicating with people. An example of this would be, if you are not on the same wave length about a subject with the person you are talking to, letting them know that your opinion is your own but taking theirs into consideration and working around it would get you out of getting on their bad side. Also if the person does not know the subject you are trying to teach them, explaining individual parts that they are having difficulties with can benefit them.
Eye contact - Eye contact ensures that the person is interested in what you are talking about and is paying attention to you. Therefore making things easy to explain to them, keeping in mind that they are paying attention, you wont have to repeat yourself. Having bad eye contact has a different effect, if the person is looking around the room will reassure you that they are either shy or are not interested in what you are explaining, therefore, do something about it and confronting them on the issue would be beneficial to you as you are able to use the information they give you in future conversations.
Body language - Body language comes from both parties of the conversation. The person that is talking may use body language to make the point easier to grasp or to make communication more interesting. Using hand gestures when explaining what you are talking about will make people pay attention and they will understand. Not having body language, you will be completely reliant on your voice, you will have to use different tones to keep it interesting, as this is not very practical method, combining both voice and body language will result to effective communication.
Written Communication
When written communication comes into place, it is important to figure out what type of written communication would be the most beneficial to use. Whether it is formal or informal, you may approach each differently. For formal audience such as your Boss, you would need to choose you grammar and language that you will use. Usually using words such as "Sir" and "Mr/Mrs" would be appropriate for this manner. Also taking in mind the type of written communications methods you can use for different situations. If the message is short and urgent, you may need to use e-mail since it is the quickest method. Although for a more formal approach it would be advisable to write a formal letter, for such occasions such as job applications.
IT IS VITAL, when using written communication to have applicable spelling and grammar. Spell checking what you have written afterwards may show that you have made a mistake, therefore correcting any mistakes you have made throughout your written produce would make it more appealing. Also the use of capital letters is a common mistake found. The whole reason of this is to show that you have intelligence and that you look professional. Although this should be more used for when doing hand written letters whereas when composing letters or emails on the computer, auto correct seems to do the job for you.
Having good grammar can also effect your communication, as if the grammar is incorrect it will make some sentences harder to understand.
When composing a letter, it good to remember the proper structure of how letters are meant to be written, and the positioning of all content within the letter.
Here is a good example of a letter : http://www.learnist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/retail_jobs_cover_letter_example.jpg
Keeping in mid that making sure that you involve paragraphs into your letter to be sure that the content of your letter does not simply flow from one subject, to another.
Knowing your audience is also important when composing either a letter or an email. Depending who you are writing to, your writing styles will change. If you are writing professionally and in a business algorithm, you should know to write in formal context. So starting with Dear Mr/Mrs... and finishing off with Your Sincerely etc., will differ from the text you would write to a friend to whom you may start with hello and end with bye.
Finally taking into mind that when writing any sort of written communication, is to be aware not to give any information that may put either you or anyone at risk. This includes giving any personal details or information about someone to other people, as this can be used against you and the receiver of the message will have the option to hold on to that information in written form.
General
General communication is how well you can get your point across, and there are several factors that make it easier to do so. Knowing you audience would be the main one. Finding out about your audience is very important as this will affect everything you will be trying to explain. People like to understand what you are trying to explain to them, therefore making it interesting and easy to understand will benefit you greatly.
This will effect the tone of voice and speech methods you have to use. For example, if the room is filled with children you will try to keep the wording simple and with the element of childishness and fun within the speech, where as with adults you are able to be more straight forward and use slightly lengthier words with explanations. Another factor that may affect this would be the size of your audience. For a large audience, you may have to speak up and possibly try to explain (including slang and jargon) the same thing in different methods. You will also need to keep an eye on the audience to make sure that they are paying attention and are not getting bored. For a smaller audience you are able to do more personal approaches, such as 1 to 1 communication and explaining things to the audience individually if it is not too time consuming.
It is important to dig into your mind about the cultural differences that we live amongst at this day. Since we have mixed cultures and each believing into what they have been told, it is important not to offend them in any way possible that may go against their beliefs. Adjusting your communication will benefit you and the people you are talking to and making the experience much easier for both parties. Knowing your location would be a key factor. If it is in a foreign country to you, you must learn about their country so you don't try to tell them something that will offend them. Also taking into consideration that some foreign nationals may not have the same grasp of English (or whatever language) as you do will also affect your communication. Trying to use common words which are easy to learn and are heard daily will make it much more understandable for the listener and maybe if they have a thick accent and you are not able to understand them, using sign language is always useful, although having a translator translating for you would get rid of difficulties entirely.
Most importantly, make sure you are giving out the correct information. People who know nothing about a subject you are trying to introduce to them will believe you (unless the subject is completely, out of this world, unrealistic). Therefore, you do not want to give people out wrong information, because it will have some long term consequences and make communication harder along the line. This can also take a toll on you, since there are new technologies such as Google which is filled with information, people may search up the subject and find out you have been supplying them with wrong resources, further on, making communication even more difficult as they may choose not to listen to you.
On the other hand, including your own opinions isn't bad, but it should be kept to the minimum as you opinion may not be the one that may benefit everyone, and it may not be the most correct one.
Engagement with the audience - By confronting your audience, it not only makes the whole communication more interesting, it also makes sure that the audience is paying attention. There are different ways to execute this, and finding the most appropriate on will depend on the type and size of your audience. One of the approaches that can be used is by singling out a single person and giving them a question related to what you were talking about. If they get it wrong, correcting them would be the best way to deal with this, but they will pay attention afterwards if they haven't been so far. There are different questions that can be asked to the audience:
Single: " What is your opinion on this?"
Single/Multi: "Who can give me the answer to....?"
Multi: "Who has been paying attention?"
Interpersonal
Interpersonal communication is directed towards certain people or one persona in particular. They can effect how you change you communication style and approach making you more dominant in communication and increasing you skill in this area in general. There are variety of skills you should invest some time into mastering to make communication even more effective.
Listening - Listening to the person that is talking will benefit you greatly because you will understand what they are talking about. Sometimes listening to how people speak and what they speak about will show you what type of person they are and what they like and don't like, which you will be able to use the next time you are talking about. For example, if Rob likes cars, then bringing up the subject of cars would be a good method to get to know Rob.
Problem solving - This skill can be useful for you communication as knowing how to solve problems will benefit not only you, but people you are trying to communicate with as well. Problems will arise daily, especially when communicating with people. An example of this would be, if you are not on the same wave length about a subject with the person you are talking to, letting them know that your opinion is your own but taking theirs into consideration and working around it would get you out of getting on their bad side. Also if the person does not know the subject you are trying to teach them, explaining individual parts that they are having difficulties with can benefit them.
Eye contact - Eye contact ensures that the person is interested in what you are talking about and is paying attention to you. Therefore making things easy to explain to them, keeping in mind that they are paying attention, you wont have to repeat yourself. Having bad eye contact has a different effect, if the person is looking around the room will reassure you that they are either shy or are not interested in what you are explaining, therefore, do something about it and confronting them on the issue would be beneficial to you as you are able to use the information they give you in future conversations.
Body language - Body language comes from both parties of the conversation. The person that is talking may use body language to make the point easier to grasp or to make communication more interesting. Using hand gestures when explaining what you are talking about will make people pay attention and they will understand. Not having body language, you will be completely reliant on your voice, you will have to use different tones to keep it interesting, as this is not very practical method, combining both voice and body language will result to effective communication.
Written Communication
When written communication comes into place, it is important to figure out what type of written communication would be the most beneficial to use. Whether it is formal or informal, you may approach each differently. For formal audience such as your Boss, you would need to choose you grammar and language that you will use. Usually using words such as "Sir" and "Mr/Mrs" would be appropriate for this manner. Also taking in mind the type of written communications methods you can use for different situations. If the message is short and urgent, you may need to use e-mail since it is the quickest method. Although for a more formal approach it would be advisable to write a formal letter, for such occasions such as job applications.
IT IS VITAL, when using written communication to have applicable spelling and grammar. Spell checking what you have written afterwards may show that you have made a mistake, therefore correcting any mistakes you have made throughout your written produce would make it more appealing. Also the use of capital letters is a common mistake found. The whole reason of this is to show that you have intelligence and that you look professional. Although this should be more used for when doing hand written letters whereas when composing letters or emails on the computer, auto correct seems to do the job for you.
Having good grammar can also effect your communication, as if the grammar is incorrect it will make some sentences harder to understand.
When composing a letter, it good to remember the proper structure of how letters are meant to be written, and the positioning of all content within the letter.
Here is a good example of a letter : http://www.learnist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/retail_jobs_cover_letter_example.jpg
Keeping in mid that making sure that you involve paragraphs into your letter to be sure that the content of your letter does not simply flow from one subject, to another.
Knowing your audience is also important when composing either a letter or an email. Depending who you are writing to, your writing styles will change. If you are writing professionally and in a business algorithm, you should know to write in formal context. So starting with Dear Mr/Mrs... and finishing off with Your Sincerely etc., will differ from the text you would write to a friend to whom you may start with hello and end with bye.
Finally taking into mind that when writing any sort of written communication, is to be aware not to give any information that may put either you or anyone at risk. This includes giving any personal details or information about someone to other people, as this can be used against you and the receiver of the message will have the option to hold on to that information in written form.
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Employee Attributes
Employee Attributes
Rainbow Light is a charity whitch bases itself around helping people who have problems with sight or reading abilities and using the computer. The company employs 5 full time employees but mostly focuses on volunteers to work with customers. Working with customers may involve doing such things as creating audio books which are then burnt onto a CD and loaded for the client. this also involves visiting the clients and show them how its done.
IT related skills
It would be advantageous to have knowledge in computing, since most of the things that we do is somehow linked to computers. Therefore having knowledge in computing would be really useful in this situation as they may need to learn new programs, and by having this knowledge, they could pick them up much easier. Since the company bases itself on creating audio books, it will involve having interaction with the IT part. Also having specific skills such as knowing something about recording software would be of great aid to the company because they will know their way around the software making the creation of the audio books so much quicker and easier.
Having knowledge in the use of database would be advantageous as the employees will find themselves filling in and making databases. therefore, having knowledge in using programs such as Excel would not only help the charity but also make the task much more simple and less time consuming.
General and soft skills
We are also looking for general skills that make the person generally better at working. these are what we call soft skills. These skills can apply to nearly any situation. Being communicative and friendly is what we are looking for the most in out volunteers since they will be the ones that will be having face to face interactions with our customers. This can also aid out team since being friendly and communicative can make it easy to get along and more difficult tasks will become easy. Other skills that we are looking for are independent working, as we are reliant on volunteers to go out and work by themselves, as having initiative is very useful as they can combat tasks on their own.
Having good time management is an excellent skill to have. Being on time and getting work done on time is a good personal quality which makes the person much more accurate and well developed. How could this help the charity? We depend on people to be on time, as when working with customers that you will need to visit, it is also important for them that you arrive at the time you told them.Finally we are looking for good listeners. We need people to listen to our customers and listen to what feedback they give us, as this feedback will aid us in future projects.
Attitudes
We cant force anyone to help us do our job, but what we are looking for are the determined people who really want to help. Someone who can really get the work done and want to help a good cause come to life. Having people who are determined to work, get jobs finished and started is more important to us than people who are not. Its a very important skill for us, as we are reliant on people to get things done by themselves because we know it will give so much to the charity and people who it is helping.
It is important that we are working with confident people. We need people to be confident because it is what makes this charity what it is. We need people to believe in themselves and to know they can do the task and feel confident about it. This will make everything much easier as it will prevent any hiccups from happening during the projects. Also in terms of the audio book project, a confident speaker can be useful to have as they can produce a clear audio recording.
Security
In Rainbow Light charity, we follow procedures that ensure security of both our workers and customers. We ensure that the work is done to its best quality and that no harm is done to our workers. We are doing our best to ensure that all the safety and privacy acts are followed by keeping our databases under protection and in external storage. (these databases are the ones that contain the personal details of both parties). We are strong followers of the data protection act as we are worried about the personal safety of people that are linked to us as we want them to feel safe in giving us their personal information.
About the data protection act
The data protection act is created to protect the personal data of people who are connected to us. This involves making sure that data is not handed out to people and/or viewed at any time in content to gain knowledge about personal detail of the person. This means that no randomer can just walk in and ask about where any of our employees live. This would mean that the charity would be breaking the law, which is a serious offense.
To gain more in-depth description of the Data Protection Act 1998 visit:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/section/1
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Learning Styles
Learning styles area all the different methods a person can use to learn things so that they can understand them. Each person has their own learning method which suits their personality and which they find easy and effective. Some people are better at listening, others are better and going out and doing things or seeing things from different prospectives. These area all learning styles or methods.Benefits of learning styles
The benefits of having a learning style can be put as using that style to make learning fun and easier for your self and therefore actually learning the information that is given to you. Once you have found out your learning style you can put it to practice, such things as viewing videos or images which would apply best to visual learners. Reading a book or listening to and audio tape or lecturer, which best suits auditory/verbal learners. Or going out and do the thing physically, such as playing a sport or going out into nature.
This video explains in detail the 3 different learning methods and approaches;
Why is it important to have a learning style?
Having a learning style can dramatically effect your learning skills. This is because you will be able to put things into prospective, and knowing how to deal with different situations easier. Also this will economise your time and effort input towards the learning curve of the subject area. Learning things in your preferred method seems to help you memorise them better; therefore you will be able to remember things when asked them at any time. This also means that you will be able to enjoy and have fun throughout your learning curve and wont struggle and find yourself stuck as often.
3 Different learning styles - Visual, Audio and Kinesthetic
Learning styles are grouped into 3 different categories, each differs from each other. Although these learning styles apply to individual people, some people may have more than one learning style or even all 3. Even though a saying relating to this pops up (jack of all trades, master of none).
Visual - Visual learners are better at remembering things after they have seen what they look like or read about it. These learners tend to be affected by colours, stronger than any other learning style, because it helps them to keep focus on the subject. This type of learners all tend to be great spellers and have a great interest for the artistic field. They gravely benefit from charts and graphs which visualise the information instead of long numbers and notes. They also struggle with lectures which include lots of talking, as there isn't enough visual information to keep them focused.
Audio - This type of learners seem to have a strong liking for lectures and audiotapes, because they explain the subject to them directly and they seem to remember things better once they've heard them. They will find it difficult to sit down and read a book, unless someone will read it out loud for them, although some will benefit greatly from reading a book. They are also good with talking to people and like to get feedback from things they have done and also gain knowledge by asking people what the subject area is about. They can struggle in written tests but like to give presentations.
Kinaesthetic - people who prefer kinaesthetic approach learn by doing physical things. This type of learning style specifies on crafting therefore people in this style tend to be good with their hands and try to fix things by themselves instead of calling for a 3rd party. They find it hard to read and listen for too long, as they loose focus towards the subject. This learning style will benefit by things such as experiments and exercise and finds the best method of approach to be trial and error.Types of learners
Types of learners
Learners can be divided into various different groups, and categories. Learning types are methods and approaches that a person uses in order to take in the information faster and easier. This completely depends on the person and how they which method they prefer to use.
The following are the types of learners
Active or Reflective
Active learners tend to learn things by going out and doing them first hand. The physical method is the best approach for them and since they are keeping active, they tend to take in the information and remember it much better. They also tend to be interested in discussing them and seeing how the specific methods would work.
Whereas a reflective person, would rather think things through first. For a reflective solitude and silence is much better than working in groups as they are able to think through all of different outcomes that could happen. Reflective type learners tend to prefer sitting in lectures and taking down notes, although this is hard for both types, the active type tends to have more difficulty with this.
Sensing or Intuitive
Sensing learners tend to like learning facts and figuring stuff out and figure out ways to solve problems in well known or established methods. If they know that that method is correct they will use a strong pattern of repetition since they know it will give them the correct answer. They are also extremely patient, careful and realistic. They also seem to lack imagination, as they are mostly realists and are very bad at art.
Whereas Intuitive learners tend to do things their own way. They tend to solve problems in new ways and find answers where no one else can. They also lack patience and tend to work really fast to get things done. Therefore tend to get things done quickly due to hatred to repetition. Although they seem to have a lower memory cap to sensing learners and will struggle to remember things.
Visual or verbal
Visual learners learn from things that they can see, such as pictures or images. This helps them focus and keep their attention towards the topic. Reading notes and listening to a lot of information will get them bored and will lose their focus making them divert from the topic. Although there is a limitation to how much they can learn from visual information, as most of the information in written in text. Therefore they tend to specialise in diagrams and diagnostics.
Verbal learners like to talk and listen. If they can hear it, they will learn it. They have good focus towards the topic and like reading notes. They learn from presentations and lectures and seem to remember things much better than visual learners. They also like to take notes which will stimulate their memory.
Sequential or Global
Sequential learners tend to study a specific topic and learning everything about it and then move onto another related topic. They like to cover all the areas of the subject and tend to perfectionists. This is very good for them because they like to gain knowledge over everything there is towards the topic, although this will take a lot of time, therefore they will be slower than the rest of the group. But, they will know a lot about the subject.
Global learners pick what they want to learn and tend to shift between subjects. They take information in quickly and get the over all concept of the subject are, but they don't take it in, in big enough proportions to really gain in depth knowledge about the subject; therefore wont be able to answer many questions about the subject. Although getting the concept of the subject is good, but taking a bit of time to learn it properly is better.
Learners can be divided into various different groups, and categories. Learning types are methods and approaches that a person uses in order to take in the information faster and easier. This completely depends on the person and how they which method they prefer to use.
The following are the types of learners
Active or Reflective
Active learners tend to learn things by going out and doing them first hand. The physical method is the best approach for them and since they are keeping active, they tend to take in the information and remember it much better. They also tend to be interested in discussing them and seeing how the specific methods would work.
Whereas a reflective person, would rather think things through first. For a reflective solitude and silence is much better than working in groups as they are able to think through all of different outcomes that could happen. Reflective type learners tend to prefer sitting in lectures and taking down notes, although this is hard for both types, the active type tends to have more difficulty with this.
Sensing or Intuitive
Sensing learners tend to like learning facts and figuring stuff out and figure out ways to solve problems in well known or established methods. If they know that that method is correct they will use a strong pattern of repetition since they know it will give them the correct answer. They are also extremely patient, careful and realistic. They also seem to lack imagination, as they are mostly realists and are very bad at art.
Whereas Intuitive learners tend to do things their own way. They tend to solve problems in new ways and find answers where no one else can. They also lack patience and tend to work really fast to get things done. Therefore tend to get things done quickly due to hatred to repetition. Although they seem to have a lower memory cap to sensing learners and will struggle to remember things.
Visual or verbal
Visual learners learn from things that they can see, such as pictures or images. This helps them focus and keep their attention towards the topic. Reading notes and listening to a lot of information will get them bored and will lose their focus making them divert from the topic. Although there is a limitation to how much they can learn from visual information, as most of the information in written in text. Therefore they tend to specialise in diagrams and diagnostics.
Verbal learners like to talk and listen. If they can hear it, they will learn it. They have good focus towards the topic and like reading notes. They learn from presentations and lectures and seem to remember things much better than visual learners. They also like to take notes which will stimulate their memory.
Sequential or Global
Sequential learners tend to study a specific topic and learning everything about it and then move onto another related topic. They like to cover all the areas of the subject and tend to perfectionists. This is very good for them because they like to gain knowledge over everything there is towards the topic, although this will take a lot of time, therefore they will be slower than the rest of the group. But, they will know a lot about the subject.
Global learners pick what they want to learn and tend to shift between subjects. They take information in quickly and get the over all concept of the subject are, but they don't take it in, in big enough proportions to really gain in depth knowledge about the subject; therefore wont be able to answer many questions about the subject. Although getting the concept of the subject is good, but taking a bit of time to learn it properly is better.
Learning style test (+my learning style)
There is a variety of different ways you can find out what your type of learning style is. You can go out, find a topic of some sort, something you like, and figure out an approach on how you are going to learn it. There are also different websites that allow you to get a rough idea of what type of learning style best suits you. Most of these websites will ask you to fill out numerous multiple choice questions to determine which one suits you the best. The best way to check if they are correct, make sure that there are more than 10 questions, a good number of questions would fit in between 50 and 100 since the more you have, the better results you will receive. The way they are worked out is, each question being related to a specific learning style, or even styles that intervene between each other, and it may apply to both styles. These results are then calculated and presented to you in a grid or a point system. Wherever you have scored the most, is your learning style.
The website that i used was :
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz
As stated before, in this picture you can see the initial multiple choices that they have presented me with.
This type of quiz provides you with questions to which the answers vary from None to All the time.
I will then go ahead and fill this quiz in, to find out what my learning style is.
I went ahead and done the quiz, it consisted of 4 pages of random questions and it has provided me with the results (below)
As you can see above, these are my preferable learning styles. It shows that my logical thinking is my best area, and that i like to logically go through different scenarios before actually jumping in and doing it. It also shows that i have equally scored high in visual and interpersonal styles. This means that i seem to learn better when i can see what I'm learning about and that i would like to talk out problems if i have any, with someone who knows what they are talking about. I also like to give and receive feedback on things i've done, so that i can improve in those areas in the future and maybe not make as many mistakes.
Here is an insert from the website (where the quiz was based) of what interpersonal and visual learners mean;
How finding out my learning style has benefited me?
I have found it much easier to learn about Photoshop when Mrs Black was showing us how to use a new tool on the programme. As I am a visual learner, observation would be my speciality. I was able to edit an image for my assignment using the tool I learnt and I was surprised with how well it worked out. Also if there is a subject area which I don't understand, I will observer my fellow students on how to complete a task or to use a tool that I haven't mastered yet to get a grasp of it.
I've noticed that before i start a new project I tend to try and work out how I'm going to complete it and how its going to look like, before i start it. I write out my plan and then begin to work on it. Since I am a logical thinker, this has become an important step for me to take. After writing up my plan, I would ask some of my friends how to accomplish my goal, and getting feedback from them helped me to learn new tools and understand how they work.
Also I enjoy getting feedback, because it lets me know it which areas I was lacking knowledge. This helps me to develop those areas further so I can be sure not to mess up in this type of task in the future. This is where where my interpersonal side helps my development. I find that tasks are much easier when they are divided up between groups. This is because I can talk different strategies out with my team mates about how we are going to tackle that task.
The website that i used was :
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz
As stated before, in this picture you can see the initial multiple choices that they have presented me with.
This type of quiz provides you with questions to which the answers vary from None to All the time.
I will then go ahead and fill this quiz in, to find out what my learning style is.
I went ahead and done the quiz, it consisted of 4 pages of random questions and it has provided me with the results (below)
As you can see above, these are my preferable learning styles. It shows that my logical thinking is my best area, and that i like to logically go through different scenarios before actually jumping in and doing it. It also shows that i have equally scored high in visual and interpersonal styles. This means that i seem to learn better when i can see what I'm learning about and that i would like to talk out problems if i have any, with someone who knows what they are talking about. I also like to give and receive feedback on things i've done, so that i can improve in those areas in the future and maybe not make as many mistakes.
Here is an insert from the website (where the quiz was based) of what interpersonal and visual learners mean;
How finding out my learning style has benefited me?
I have found it much easier to learn about Photoshop when Mrs Black was showing us how to use a new tool on the programme. As I am a visual learner, observation would be my speciality. I was able to edit an image for my assignment using the tool I learnt and I was surprised with how well it worked out. Also if there is a subject area which I don't understand, I will observer my fellow students on how to complete a task or to use a tool that I haven't mastered yet to get a grasp of it.
I've noticed that before i start a new project I tend to try and work out how I'm going to complete it and how its going to look like, before i start it. I write out my plan and then begin to work on it. Since I am a logical thinker, this has become an important step for me to take. After writing up my plan, I would ask some of my friends how to accomplish my goal, and getting feedback from them helped me to learn new tools and understand how they work.
Also I enjoy getting feedback, because it lets me know it which areas I was lacking knowledge. This helps me to develop those areas further so I can be sure not to mess up in this type of task in the future. This is where where my interpersonal side helps my development. I find that tasks are much easier when they are divided up between groups. This is because I can talk different strategies out with my team mates about how we are going to tackle that task.
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