3-1: Choosing Resources
You have a Learning Plan; you have a Study Map; now it's time to set out on the journey. You need to find instructional resources, but how to you select the best ones? It's a complicated topic, and a lot depends on the user.
I'm not going to make specific resource recommendations—I have no idea what you're learning, after all. Instead, we'll review some of the different types of materials available, their benefits and limitations, and how they apply to different areas of Bloom's Taxonomy.
In Style
You may have heard of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, especially if you have school-aged children. The theory roughly states that people have intelligence across knowledge types, such as musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, and verbal. While there is some truth to the theory's spirit, Gardner himself later stated the theory was widely misunderstood. These domains of intelligence, he clarified, are not analogous to "learning styles." That misunderstanding has led to some truly wacky pedagogy in modern education, which we will endeavor to avoid.
So what differences are there? First, let's knock off the most common "learning style." "I learn best by doing," you may have said at some point. Yeah, everybody does. If you feel the need to say that to an instructor, they aren't doing their job. Regardless of subject area, the hands-on version is what creates deeper understanding of a topic, as well as vivid memories rich with embedded knowledge. There is no substitute, but there's also a need for other kinds of learning.
As for the rest, I firmly believe that much of what is described as different "learning styles" is in fact a difference in language processing. Not everyone synthesizes information from the spoken or written word the same way. How you do matters a great deal for choosing your information sources.
The Medium
Do you prefer audiobooks to traditional books? What about YouTube videos to blog posts? How you best consume and retain information is one of the most critical elements in choosing your information sources.
Note that I said "information sources," not necessarily all instructional materials. This is intended for the parts of learning where you have to receive rather than use information. In school, this tends to take the form of lectures. They get a bad rap in modern ed theory, but sometimes, there's no better way to be given information. What you do with it next, well, that's a different story.
A lot of new self-guided learners will make the mistake of thinking that traditional academic resources—or the online equivalents—are the best choice when studying independently. This is absolutely not the case.
You are not in formal school for this learning journey. That makes many parts of the process harder, but one advantage is that you and only you get to decide how you want to learn. Nobody gives you homework you don't want to do. And nobody will make you read books you'd rather not. Every choice along this path is yours to make.
If you're not sure which you prefer, you can try the following: pick a small subject inside one of your target areas—a skill or concept that you want to master. Read a blog post or article about it. After reading the piece (keep it short!), wait for about half a day, then write down what you can recall about the topic. Repeat the same experiment the next day, but this time with a video. Important note: keep the captions off!
From which did you remember more? From which were the ideas clearer for you, and from which could you explain—not parrot—the ideas contained within?
If the blog post did better, then we're leaning toward written material being better for you. If the video did, we have some more testing to do. Video is a multimodal medium. So now let's pick a new video, and this time, start by only listening to it. Again, wait about half a day, then write out what you remember. Two days later (we're waiting longer since it's the same material), try watching normally. Any difference?
This test can help determine component of speech you process more easily: the visual or the aural.
Taken all together, these experiments can suggest the best form of information sources for you.