Alternative approaches to learning



Alternative Approaches to Learning-76962081280000-247650-39370000Tim Jones & Natasha NewsonContact AssociatesOutlineTOC \o '1-2' \h \zI. Reading PAGEREF _Toc392234191 \h 2A. Changing the look PAGEREF _Toc392234192 \h 2B. Reducing screen clutter PAGEREF _Toc392234193 \h 2C. Reference management PAGEREF _Toc392234194 \h 2D. Mind mapping PAGEREF _Toc392234195 \h 3E. Text-to-speech software PAGEREF _Toc392234196 \h 3II. Writing PAGEREF _Toc392234197 \h 4A. Spell checkers PAGEREF _Toc392234198 \h 4B. Voice recognition software PAGEREF _Toc392234199 \h 4C. Mind mapping PAGEREF _Toc392234200 \h 4D. Distraction free writing PAGEREF _Toc392234201 \h 4E. Text-to-speech software PAGEREF _Toc392234202 \h 5III. Note taking PAGEREF _Toc392234203 \h 6A. Recording and annotating PAGEREF _Toc392234204 \h 6Recording and dictating PAGEREF _Toc392234205 \h 6B. Tablet technology PAGEREF _Toc392234206 \h 6C. Smartpens PAGEREF _Toc392234207 \h 7IV. Revision PAGEREF _Toc392234208 \h 8A. Mind mapping PAGEREF _Toc392234209 \h 8B. Cue cards PAGEREF _Toc392234210 \h 8C. Text-to-speech PAGEREF _Toc392234211 \h 8D. Creating tutorials PAGEREF _Toc392234212 \h 8ReadingChanging the lookChanging the appearance of reading material can make a significant difference to how easy it is to follow, understand and retain. If the reader has to work harder to 'see' what they are reading, because of small text, cramped line spacing, poor colour combinations etc., then more mental effort is required for the act of reading, meaning that less is available for comprehension and retention. Digital text gives the reader the opportunity to adjust how the reading material is presented to suit their own individual preferences. There are many settings that can be adjusted in the computer's operating system to change appearance, or each application may have different settings which can be tweaked. Alternatively, an additional program can be useful in changing the view of everything on the computer without having to change any individual settings. Find out how to change text and background coloursTry: Screen Tinter (freeware)Reducing screen clutterOnline material is a key component of the research process for most students, if only to get a quick overview of a subject area before jumping into the more academic sources. One factor that can impact upon reading from websites is the amount of distraction that many sites bombard the user with. By stripping out the extraneous clutter, the user can then focus on the important content and work more efficiently. This can also be the case with Microsoft Word, which can be seen as overloading the screen with toolbars and scroll bars etc. The solution is within the program's own document view options, but do also users know this?Find out how to change text and background coloursTry: Evernote Clearly (free/paid versions)Reference managementRather than directly looking at the reading material and how that is accessed, an alternative strategy is to consider the wider research process to see where efficiencies can be gained that will free up time for the reading element. To achieve this, their are a number of free reference management applications that allow the user to create their own personalised database of reading material that they can then add highlights and summary notes to, create cover notes, add meta data and can quickly search through to locate not just the article, but the specific word in the text.Try: Mendeley (free/paid versions) / HYPERLINK ""Zotero (free/paid versions)Mind mappingMind mapping is usually first thought of as a tool to help with planning and structuring writing or projects, but it can also play an important role in tackling the reading requirements of the course by organising reading material. As branches can be created which link to files, mind maps can be created which either use key phrases which then link through to the relevant article or document, or lecture headings, week numbers etc. or any other way that the student wishes to structure the course so that then accessing reading material as it is needed is quick and intuitive.Try: XMind (free/paid versions) / MindView (trial version)Text-to-speech softwarePerhaps the biggest alternative approach to reading is to not read, but to listen, and the use of text-to-speech software allows this to be a straight forward process for any digital text. Using the software the user can then listen to the computer read text out loud and concentrate on following the content and meaning of what is being read, rather than focusing all their effort on the act of reading itself. Additionally, audio files can be created which can be listened to away from the computer on a phone or Mp3 player, giving different strategies to students struggling to maintain attention.Try: Balabolka (freeware) / TextHelp Read&Write / ClaroReadWritingSpell checkersWhile clearly the built-in spell checkers that come with most word processing applications are an useful tool for supporting writers, there are a couple of different approaches to their use which can also be worth considering. The main strategy behind changing the standard approach is that spell checkers can, for some, hugely interfere with the writing process by drawing attention away from conveying thoughts into writing and instead focus attention on correcting. To get around this, the user can either turn off the spell checker's setting that highlights spelling mistakes as they are written, or, using an advanced spell checking program, have corrections automatically made as they are typed.Find out HYPERLINK ""how to turn off automatic spelling checking and automatic grammar checking in Office programsSee: Global AutoCorrect (trial version)Voice recognition softwareIf a writer finds that they are unable to express their thoughts in writing to the same standard as they can when talking about them, or physically finds the act of writing slow or even painful, the use of voice recognition software offers a different way of writing that gets around these difficulties. The software allows the user to transcribe text into a document at a far faster rate than can be achieved by handwriting or typing, and will not make spelling mistakes. Dictation can be recorded on a phone or digital recorder and then fed through the software on the computer to give a flexible option. However, it is not a foolproof strategy; the software can and will mishear what is said, and the user also needs to remember to dictate punctuation. More than anything though, the biggest barrier to the success of this strategy is usually not with the software, but with the writer's ability to successfully put their thoughts into words in a style that is appropriate to a piece of written work.See: Dragon Naturally SpeakingMind mappingMind mapping applications offer a number of potential benefits to writers who struggle with clearly structuring their ideas in writing. They allows ideas to be brainstormed and then organised visually into a more coherent structure. They can provide a visual overview of a piece of work so that an unbalanced assignment or a section where more research is needed can be easily identified. Some have advanced features to support referencing and time management. All allow for writers to break a piece of writing down into lots of smaller sections and then to develop these independently, changing the focus of the work from one 3000 word assignment to a series of much smaller, more manageable written tasks.Try: XMind (free/paid versions) / MindView (trial version)Distraction free writingAs with reading, having unnecessary things on the screen when writing can, for some, prove a significant distraction. We generally try to ensure a distraction free physical environment to work within and so it only makes sense to extend this approach to our computer screen. This can be achieved through built-in settings, such as tweaking the full screen reading view in MS Word to allow for typing, or through using a different ‘distraction-free’ writing tool. These present the user with only a blank screen on which to type, with perhaps some options (carefully hidden away) to set specific background and font colours and styles to really allow the perfect environment to be created.Try: CreaWriterText-to-speech softwareText-to-speech software can be used for many different strategies that support different types of learning activities. When a writer reads back their work it is often the case that they read what they intended to write rather than what was actually written. Listening back to what is written gives the distance needed so that the user can hear when their writing doesn't make sense, is clumsily written, or has a word missed out.Try: Balabolka (freeware) / TextHelp Read&Write / ClaroReadNote takingRecording and annotatingRecording lectures on its own can potentially create hours and hours of unorganised audio material that quickly becomes very difficult to actually use when studying. There are many ways to avoid this by creating folders and implementing naming protocols etc, but while this may help the user quickly identify the specific lecture that may be relevant to the task at hand, finding the precise 5 minute part of that lecture that covers a specific point is still time consuming. Step forward Audio Notetaker, a program that allows the user to link the recording of a lecture to the lecture slides. This means that files can be searched for keywords in the slides and then the audio that was recorded as a particular slide was displayed can be listened back to. The program can also encourage the user to review notes after lectures to edit and colour code key points in the recordings and add additional text notes, tags and metadata. Through this process, the user can create a multi-sensory resource, stripped of any irrelevant or extraneous content that can help reinforce learning or support revision.Try: HYPERLINK "" AudioNotetaker (trial version)Recording and dictatingThe holy grail of note taking for many students is the idea of having a transcript of the lecture that they can then refer back to. The assurance that having a permanent record of everything that was said so that nothing can be missed seems, perhaps, to be as important as the actual information such a resource would provide. On its own, providing transcripts (if it were practically possible) may lead to concerns that it discourages the learner from engaging in the activity and simply turns the lecture into another item on the reading list, however, one approach to creating such a resource may provide additional benefits. While voice recognition software will not transcribe a recording of a lecture (because the software needs to be set up to recognise the speaker's voice), it will allow a student who records the lecture to then listens back to the recording and repeats what they hear into the software. As the student has had to listen back to the lecture, process it and repeat it, there has to be a degree of engagement with the lecture material that may make the process of creating the transcript as useful as the transcript itself.Tablet technologyThe huge developments in tablet and mobile phone technology has implications for all learning activities, and offers some particularly effective strategies to support note taking in lectures. With the multitude of apps available, many different approaches to note taking can be implemented, but essentially what these do is allow the user to incorporate all the different sources of information into one resource, so that audio recordings, pictures, handwritten notes and lecture handouts can be saved as one 'lecture note' to provide a greater depth of information than any one of these resources can give on their own.Try: AudioNote / PaperPort Notes / Evernote / OneNoteSmartpensThe idea to record lectures to support note taking is not new, but the technology with which to do so is something that has developed considerably over the last few years. The smartpens are one such development and provide a way of supplementing traditional handwritten notes with an audio recording, meaning that students can create useful learning resources without having to radically change their way of note taking. The recordings are linked to the notes so that replaying the recording is done simply by tapping on the notes to hear what was recorded at that point.See: LiveScribeRevisionMind mappingMind mapping as an aid to revision is perhaps not the most radical proposal, but it is often dismissed as just making something pretty and thus seen as a bit of a waste of time. There is, however, another way of looking at it - firstly, by having to think about how the notes should be organised into a mind map, the learner has to get an understanding of the relationships between points, perhaps more so than if they were just writing out notes. Secondly, a mind map can make the user summarise points rather than copy sections of text verbatim. Finally, by linking to further notes, reading material, online resources etc the learner can become far more efficient in using their time as they do not have to hunt through files or papers, but can access key resources through one click of the mouse. Try: XMind (free/paid versions) / MindView (trial version)Cue cardsCue cards remain a popular way of revising, and many students describe the benefits of writing out questions and answers, or summarising key points on index cards. When a strategy works, the alternative approach should not be to change it, but perhaps offer a way to improve it and the big benefit of using an online 'cue card' system is that it can then be accessed anywhere through a smartphone. So, waiting for the bus - do a quick quiz, advert break on TV - do a quick quiz, waiting for the kettle to boil - do a quick quiz. Active learning, repeating over and over in really small hits in this way can be tremendously effective.Try: HYPERLINK ""Quizlet / Examtime / Anki (all free)Text-to-speechSuccessful revision can often be as much about variety as having one killer strategy, and being able to turn reading material into an audio file gives the user a choice between reading and listening, perhaps to help reinforce some key information, perhaps to use time that cannot be spent reading (when driving for example) more effectively, or perhaps just to give an opportunity to get up, leave the library and go for a walk.Try: Balabolka (freeware) / TextHelp Read&Write / ClaroReadCreating tutorialsThe best test of whether something is truly understood is often in how well the learner can explain it to someone else. Students consistently find using YouTube videos to support their learning to be a really useful tool, but taken a step further, the real benefit for some lies in swapping the roles so that rather than watching these tutorials, they make their own. In working out how to teach a particular subject, the learner can develop a proper understanding of the material, and also has a great resource to go back to when they need to refresh their memory. See: YouTube Try: Educreations (free) ................
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