Learning, Motivation, & Theory: Peer Blog Comments

Comment 1:

Life-Changing Learning Experiences by El_Why

I really enjoyed reading this ranked list of learning experiences by El_Why. I found myself relating to their experiences and thinking about what an impact activities like art, video-making, and cooking have had on my own life. More specifically my own experience learning video-editing. I was doing a summer co-op and my employer approaches me asking for an animation, not just any animation, but a fully-animated, educational, 10 minute long video, and I had no prior animation experience! It was so hard, but so rewarding, learning a whole new software and discovering animation for the first time. Seeing a character I had created move across the screen for the first time was nothing short of magical.

I think overcoming what seems like an impossible task in the name of progress is what learning is all about! So I really relate to how El_Why was forced to learn how to cook, and how they rise to the challenge.

Comment 2:

Blog Post 1: Learning, Motivation, & Theory by Capri

I thought Capri’s blog post on tailored learning to keep up motivation was really insightful. I know it can make all the difference when you have an instructor or mentor that takes the time to evaluate how you would learn best and enables you to do so. Keeping the balance between challenge and reassurance. I’ve seen teachers in the art field be too harsh too fast with students, because the difficulty scales too quickly or the student is challenged too abruptly, they end up giving up instead of rising above the challenge. They lose their motivation to participate, and in some instances that kind of discouragement can end up being permanent. So I think its really really important to make sure you allow whoever you are teaching to adjust to new challenges, and to aid and keep up their motivation so that they do not give up.

After all if the answer to “Why were you so invested in seeing it through?” is “I don’t know anymore, it seems too hard” why would they bother to continue? I manage an online community and I see this a lot. If we make an event we have to be sure the event looks fun, and that the learning curve to participate is not too steep. It comes down to understanding who you are making the event for (common interests), what age they likely are (difficulty/accessibility), and the completion reward (primary motivator). If at any point one of these is out of balance the community event will fail, and people will choose not to participate because it’s “not worth it”.

I think learning and teaching is a lot like this. If the reward is not compelling enough, or if the requirements to unlock the reward is too difficult or uninteresting, how can a student be expected to try their best to succeed?

I am glad Capri got to have a good experience teaching the children, and that their mentor pulled through for them in the end. Thank you for sharing your experience with us!