Blog Post #1 – Introduction
Hello and Welcome!
My name is Ali Raffi, and I’m an undergrad student at UVic, studying a combined major in Computer Science and Health Information Science. I’m really interested in how technology intersects with healthcare and how technology can drastically increase accessbility and overall efficiency of the care thats provided.
My Understanding of Learning
From module 1, It helped me learn that Learning is basically when your behavior or abilities change because of practice and experience and this new ability/change stays for a lasting time.
A personal experience for me was when I learned to do a break change on my car. I had zero knowledge about breaks, but after three hours of trial, error and following a youtube video, I finally got it done. The car definitely put up a fight but in the end, I not only fixed my car but also only spent 40$ on parts instead of the 400$ the shops quoted.
Learning Theories and How You Learn Best
The main three theories are Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivisim. I possibly connect with constructivism the most as I learn best by trying out different things until i figure them out myself. I don’t think just reading or watching materials are the best way to learn something, I believe that trying out what was there in the materials is the best way to learn.
This approach influenced me as like with the car breaks as example, Watching the video was helpful but what really made me learn was struggling with the process of the break change and understanding how each piece fit together. So usually when I learn, I usually apply it so that it sticks instead of just memorizing it.
Motivation in Learning
The most important part of the ARCS model is relevance. If what i’m studying connects to my life or something taht actually I care about, then I am much more motivated to keep going.
A good example of when relevance played a key role in my success as a learner was when I wamted to learn video editing. As a photographer, I really wanted to create videos but the overwhelming thought of editing demotivated me. Things changed once i started working on small projects that mattered to me. Suddenly a Wedding video shoot wasn’t just “work” to me, but it was rather a fun hobby that I actually enjoyed and egaged with. That personal connection kept me motivated and pushed me to practice until I fully understood how to create visual beauties.
Adult Learning and Prior Knowledge
I’ve realized that prior knowledge and experiences always affect the way I approach new learning. I don’t usually start from zero but rather I try to connect with what I already know about the thing i’m learning.
For example, When I first started learning about videography, my background in photography helped me a lot. l already understood concepts of lighting, framing, composition and so on. So I wasn’t completely lost. Instead of studying everything from scratch, I could just apply the same concepts into videography. This process made the learning curve way smoother and gave me confidence to keep practicing.
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