Coming off of Reclaim Open, one of the things Iโm thinking about is online resources for self-teaching beginners. When we were interviewing people for the documentary, we asked people what they were glad the internet had now, in the present, that it hadnโt had in the past. And a lot of people โ not everyone, but a lot โ talked about how thereโs a plethora of learning resources for beginners on just about any subject. Which got me thinking about the learning resources that Iโve used and the tutorials Iโve tried to follow.
There are so many things that I want to learn. Iโve got a post in the works about teaching myself to draw. About a month ago, I hit a milestone on my Duolingo streak (800 days!). I used to practice guitar, though Iโve fallen out of that habit in the past year. For a while I was experimenting with some of the beginner guides to Unity. I have an abundance of tutorials and resources on various topics bookmarked โ a beginnerโs guide to Ruby on Rails, Codecademy, HackerRank, etc. โ which Iโve usedโฆ at some point in the past. I keep a list of topics to research that only gets longer and longer.
All this, and I still feel like a dabbler in everything. Part of it is that Iโve put aside topics for long periods of time (almost everything except Duolingo, honestly). Thatโs naturally led to skill atrophy and forgetting what I was doing, which means difficulty picking up where I left off. But for the one thing I have stuck with, I donโt feel like Iโm getting any better โ my Italian is beginner-level at best, with a poor grasp of grammar and difficulty remembering vocabulary when I need it.
So Iโm thinking: what are the differences in the resources Iโve looked at? What do they require? Where do they go together, and where do they fall short?
The framework Iโve got in my head right now for self-teaching is structured vs unstructured learning resources.
Structured resources are things like Duolingo or Codecademy, a series of tutorials designed to build on each other. Unstructured resources are more like the Youtube video tutorials that exist for drawing or guitar, and their related practice tools (guitar tab websites, figure drawing photo banks).
Structured resources are designed methodically by one group in a way that emphasizes logical progress from point A to point B to point C. Thereโs a general focus on fundamentals first, then building up to more advanced concepts, with exercises designed to practice each new topic. The exercises are usually short and easy enough that lessons can be completed in 5-10 minutes max, to encourage making learning a routine and habitual practice. The focus is on progressing through the course.
Unstructured resources means that thereโs a wide range of sources from various unconnected groups, which all specialize in different topics. Learning is self-directed, since thereโs no clear path connecting everything, and there are few if any pre-built exercises (a given resource might have 2 or 3, but none of them hang together). Learners can focus their studying in their weakest areas, or specialize in the topics that most interest them, and the lack of pre-built exercises means that their learning goals shape what theyโre working on โ which means that thereโs more intrinsic motivation to learn, since theyโre tailoring their practice to their own interests. The most common advice I hear for people who want to learn guitar is โPick a song you like, and learn to play it.โ Thereโs simplified versions of just about every song out there so beginners can learn the most basic version, and once they have that, they can try something more advanced. Itโs learning by doing.
With structured learning, thereโs issues of pacing, attention span and motivation. Short, easy lessons are designed to keep attention and build routine, so you can do a little bit every day, but if you do only a little bit every day it might feel like youโre taking months or years to get anywhere. That damages motivation, which is doubly bad because youโre working towards proficiency but not a specific intrinsic goal; that makes it extra-hard to measure progress.
Curated and designed exercises may also not be right for all learners, or self-structured online learning may create certain pitfalls. For example, one major issue I have with Duolingo is that because of the way its lessons are structured, thereโs no way to have exercises strengthening true composition (written or spoken). Thereโs options for translating back and forth between your native language and your target language, but thereโs nothing along the lines of โWrite a paragraph about your favorite bookโ or โTalk about your most recent vacationโ. Thatโs a major barrier to fluency, since being able to read and listen in your target language is only one half of communication, and itโs the less challenging half.
With unstructured learning, though, you still get pacing, attention span and motivation issues. This time the issue is that itโs hard to know how much time to spend on certain topics, and where to start or how to build on them. Dumping time into something while feeling like youโre stumbling in the dark trying to figure out what you need to do next is a sure way to damage motivation, which can in turn make your attention focus elsewhere.
Exercises for unstructured learning can also feel repetitive, since your resources only give you a few. Everyone says the way to get good at drawing is to practice figure drawing, which is true โ I have definitely improved as a result โ but I donโt know how to vary it up to keep learning fresh or which details to pay attention to in order to practice most effectively. And if itโs not repetitive, itโs chaotic โ everyone has an opinion, and everyone disagrees. Who do you listen to, and how do you cut through the noise and really decide how to spend your time?
This is a long way of saying: Iโve never learned to teach, and I donโt know how to learn to learn. Because self-structured learning is way different than learning in a classroom, or in a group, or with a mentor. Thereโs no external framework to keep you accountable, or to provide feedback, or to provide any of the other benefits that come with a learning community.
When it comes to self-directed learning, thereโs so many principles I keep hearing about โ resilience, goal-setting, failing forward, varying your practice, etc. โ but all the resources Iโve found assume learners are coming to them with those principles already well-developed, and that all thatโs left is the skill-building section.
Which makes sense! Teaching your learners how to self-teach before teaching them what they actually came to learn, is an absurd thing to ask. But for pretty much everything I learned in school, I learned from other people; I almost never got practice teaching myself.
So thereโs a lot of beginner-friendly resources out there. And theyโre great for if you have one or two specific things you need to learn. But for people starting in total ignorance who want to work their way up to overarching mastery, how beginner-friendly are they really?