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reinforce the message with pictures and sound. So check out whether
simple video or audio tapes are available on the subject you're studying.
And if you have family members who are not great
readers, encourage them to start with their preferred learning style.
If one's an auditory learner, make her car into a
university with a cassette-player. If one has a visual learning style, then seek out
picture books, videos, digital video discs, and interactive computer programs.
11. Learn by doing
We can't stress enough the need to engage all your
senses. We give practical suggestions in other chapters.
But for do-it-yourselfers, when you check out
introductory courses - or advanced ones - make sure they provide hands-on experience.
You learn to cook by cooking. You learn to play tennis
by playing tennis. And even when you take golf lessons, every good professional gets you
right into action.
Education
is generally ineffective when it separates theory from practice. So make an effort to
learn through more than one sense. If you're learning a foreign language, try to picture
the scene you're learning, try to imprint the information through other senses.
To learn to count to ten in Japanese, for instance, try
miming the words with actions (see routine, page 34).
Good teachers and accelerated learning courses use many
other techniques, as we'll explore later. But for do-it-yourselfers, interactive
technology can now help greatly. Let's take two of the most complicated non-physical
games: bridge and chess. You can learn both by playing - especially with a good coach.
But bridge or chess masters don't really want to spend
hours playing with a novice. So some of them have now worked with software programmers to
put their knowledge into interactive computer games. So, as well as playing with your
friends, you can "play the computer."
At
bridge, you can see your cards on the screen and, if you win the bidding, you can see your
partner's hand to play it. The computer will play your opponents' hands. And when each
hand is over you have a choice of seeing all hands - and checking how the cards should
have best been played.
In most computer chess games, you can choose your
level of competency,
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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