Experiences of True Learning

1. Key aspects in Sylvia Bahiga's Learning English;
·        At first she found it hard but later on it was easier and was fun.
·        She did not fear to ask questions.
·        She was ready for corrections and laughed off her mistakes.
·        She associated French words with the English words and worked around them.
·        She used a dictionary once in a while.
·        She did not fear to speak it although she was just learning.
·        She also tried to read literature written in English.
·        She listened to music and it also helped her.

2.Experience from my colleagues
One of my colleagues in the Literature Department was having a problem adjusting from her experience of teaching an A' level class to an O' level class. She had been allocated an O level Class that she had never handled before. She went there the first time and the class was a disaster since she could not bring herself down to their level. She later decided to use the students themselves to control and direct the learning process and indeed it worked wonders for her and for the students. In fact the Class mastered the text very well.

3. My own experience in learning
My learning experience involves the time when I was just getting to know how to use a computer. I learnt how to switch the computer on and off and how to use word processor.

Now I at one time I began to think some of these computers as being funny. You see, it keeps warning you that you stand the risk of getting viruses on your computer especially if you have no antivirus. So at one time I asked my sister who was somewhat more informed about them than me, where the viruses passed to enter a computer that has not been in use. My perception of the whole thing was that like human beings, the computers also caught viruses from the air. When I told her what I thought, she laughed and couldn’t stop laughing. She even shared it with my younger brother who is a computer wizard, and up to now he cannot stop laughing whenever he recalls the incident. No explanation was given to me about the issue. Instead they both told me that I should discover on my own. They kept telling me not to fear the computer since I could not damage it no matter what I typed in. They also told me that the only thing that could happen was that if I gave it a command it did not understand, it would just refuse to respond.

I therefore set forth to find out myself. Each time such a message came on the desktop I would not ignore it but still I failed to understand where the viruses passed. Until one time when I connected a flash disk to the computer and it immediately announced a threat that had been detected. So I was like, they come from attaching a flash disk to the computer, but then where did the disk get them from? Slowly by slowly I discovered that the viruses are got from trying to download information from the internet, and that one would need to scan the flash in order to get rid of the viruses and to also put an anti virus on the computer to protect it from collapsing. So the computers also had viruses, only of a different nature!
Whenever I remember this I feel embarrassed because I thought I had been taught everything but I discovered this through exploring and practicing. Since then I have learnt a lot about computers through self discovery. After Mastering that I felt relieved and better, and I continue to learn more and more each day through practice, collaboration, investigating and reflecting.

Additional ideas from Lombardi's perspective;

• For learning to take place the learner has to be actively engaged in finding the facts. Lombardi refers to this as the 'Real-world Relevance'.
• A learner has to study a task from multiple angles and identify with the task required so as to accomplish it.
• There is always need to give enough time to investigate.
• Investigation includes collaborating efforts
• Some tasks require interdisciplinary perspectives so as to come out with a polished product that is of value.
• There is need to reflect before performing  since it offers multiple interpretations of a task which also affect the outcome.