Guide to self-education Part 2

Somehow, I had the task to convey the skill of drafting educational programs. And here I stood in a standstill. Tried to reflect on the experience, but was not specific universal techniques, algorithms writing programs. The yield was found to be “the Glue” in the process of the interdisciplinary skills (systemic thinking, creativity), and the pieces of the puzzle — different techniques based on what I’ve seen/tried that are integrated with each other, rethought and changed.

The same happens with the development of their “musical vocabulary”. At some level, the most effective way is to listen to good songs, to disassemble any moves, knowing their logic, how they work, why here, what makes them sound cool, what emotion they convey as they relate to the fret, and so on.

Same with English: the greatest stylistic breakthrough happens when you start reading books, analyzing sustainable design, idioms, and knowing how and when you can use them.

Look at the experience of others, disassemble it into components, understand how it works, and put the mechanics in your Luggage.

Open resources

This is a great section, which some mistakenly consider the entire content of self-education. Once again I will remind that open resources are not the only source of knowledge. But they give a lot.

I have not seen people who have achieved professionalism in something only because of the Internet. But these resources are very useful to expand their picture of the world and dive into a new topic from scratch. Here are a few cool options use online:

Factual information. Hello, Wikipedia, and sites questions / answers (like TheQuestion) and just the search engines. As said Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “the most important is fact-checking and verification of information”.

Video tutorials: their huge variety on YouTube, EdTed, niche sites. You can find anything to suit your professional interest: to explain fractions to a child and instructions on how to use the slow cooker to the General Theory of Relativity and the history of Ancient Greece.

Article. Prefer longreads (long analytical materials) short pop notes, attracting the attention of the screaming headlines. First, they have much more potential for learning, and secondly, such a tactic will cause you to count time and carefully choose which texts are worth your attention. It’s a good defense against procrastination on the Internet under the guise of “I don’t just sit back and read the article”.

Speeches of important people. Of course, it is everyone’s favorite TED.com and broadcasting and recording of conferences, seminars, presentations — those people who Have so much you can give.

Online courses

Even though they are “online” I still took them in a separate category. Yes, I have many claims to modern (honestly, I have 10 started different courses, but not passed before the end of none; though the monotonous two-hour lecture with the important unique material I can sit through).

However, online platforms are now actively developing, is inserted into the options of interaction with the teacher and with each other, even in group project work. In my opinion, most of the is ideal for exploring the subject at a basic level.

Controversial question for me — the viability of a paid certificate. In my perfect world, the transition to the self, also means the rejection of “chasing paper”: I would prefer to prove to a prospective employer/partner/customer their competence and not a diploma. However, you choose.

Books, movies

If six centuries ago, one of the reasons to go to school/University was the access to books, then with the spread of printing (and especially the Internet)… well, you know.

For self-education you can use the documentary and scientific journalism (book “Debt. The first 5000 years” by David Graber was for me a very deep work to understand the economy; the movie “I am other” with the text “Social psychology” Myers allowed to take in behaviorism and cognitive distortions); the special literature; and even works of art.

Two tips to get more from an iconography and media stories:

When choosing the book/movie try to be guided not fun (exciting plot, favorite actor, cool special effects), and education. Ask the question “what can this teach”, “what question to ask”, “what make you think”. Many will say that sometimes you need to give yourself a rest and read books just for fun. But to be honest, I was just bored to waste time on something that doesn’t make me evolve.

Ask for recommendations. The most useful part of any online course for me — a reference list. At every conference there are people who will ask the speaker a question “what is your favorite book”. Discuss this with friends and colleagues. Follow film festivals and book awards. Find texts that will help you answer your questions (or set new).

So, practice and use of public resources — two more big set of ways that you can use in your education. In the last article, let us examine less-common methods: how to develop your thinking, what role education plays in travel and when it is worth to think about University.

By the way, since we are already “topic”, I have a question for you. How better to call this approach? With the word “self” leads to confusion — many people understand by this “to be self-taught”, “learn by books” or “study online”. And we are talking about a whole set of ways that are deliberately chosen to form their own educational path. We are talking about the fundamental perception of the entire world as an educational resource. We are talking about the end of dependence on, the standard of education. While I use a combination of education as a carbon copy of the English self-directed learning.