Types of Learning
- Details
- Category: General Info
- Published on Saturday, 03 December 2011 13:08
- Written by Justin M. Schwamm, Jr.
- Hits: 183
You may not have thought much about it, but there are different types of learning. Mortimer Adler, who was a great American philosopher of the twentieth century, described three different kinds, which he called knowledge, skill, and understanding. For Adler, knowledge is “the facts” about something, and how those facts relate to each other. Skill is the ability to use those facts – to analyze them, to put them together, to create something new with them. Understanding involves seeing how facts and skills relate to deep, significant ideas and values. In today's test-driven schools, the emphasis is usually on knowledge and maybe a few low-level skills. But with Tres Columnae, we aim for a proper balance among all three types of learning, with a strong emphasis on understanding.
Most schools – and most textbooks – see learners as passive consumers of pre-packaged knowledge. You may even be the “product” that the “factory” school is trying to produce. That may have worked in the twentieth century, but it doesn't work with the Web 2.0 and 3.0 world of today, where people are very active content creators. At Tres Columnae, you get to create – a lot! Even if you choose a free subscription, you'll be able to comment on the stories, images, audio, and video you experience … and we will revise, add, or even delete stories based on your comments. With a basic subscription, you'll be able to participate in the interactive exercises and quizzes. Free and basic subscribers can contribute stories, illustrations, exercises, quizzes, audio, and video, but you'll need to pay a small fee for each item to cover our editing and hosting costs. As a standard or premium subscriber, you'll be able to create and upload a set number of items each month.
Where else can you, the learner, actually create the learning materials? Since there's no static, printed textbook, you'll always have access to the latest version of everything. If some researcher makes an amazing discovery about the Romans, you'll know as soon as anyone else does – in fact, you may be the one who lets everyone else know! So if you're looking for a Joyful Learning Community, and if you want to learn more about the Romans and their language, look no further than “Tres Columnae.”