By Zo Nicholas

Learning

Many people find learning, the formal style of learning, a real chore, it’s just not for them; others regard learning as a most pleasurable activity and get a real buzz from getting to grips with a new subject and skills.

What is Learning

Learning as defined by Wikipedia is ‘acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information.’

We are all learn something new everyday, even if we are not conscious of the fact. Just coping with everyday life, the changing world around us, every experience increases our learning curve.

Learning through play

However small an action, there is always a thought process behind it. Of course most of the time we are not aware of it as per se only when we come across something a little different from the norm then we are probably aware we are thinking, thinking it through, synthesizing information, coming to some conclusion, a new value, preference or understanding perhaps. It’s all a learning experience.

Formal Learning

With formal learning we actually make a conscious decision to acquire new knowledge or skill. Depending on the topic it may take years, weeks or months to accomplish.  Formal learning can be undertaken in many different ways by going to school, college, university, studying at home and also nowadays learning online. 

Learning Online

 With the internet being more widely available, it is possible to learn many subjects online by attending courses, seminars and utilising various e-course material. E-learning is both for children and adults.  Nowadays learning needn’t be boring. Online technology offers educators so many various media to stimulate the learning process, using both visual and audio stimuli as not everyone learns in the same way.

Informal Learning

Everyday we experience informal learning, learning from our day to day situations that we are involved in. When it comes to young children they mainly learn through play and observation, totally unaware they are learning, understanding the world around them and acquiring new skills.