|
|
You can validate your learning experience at Free-Ed.Net by
maintaining a learning journal. Everything you study, everything you learn, and how
you feel about it should be carefully documented in your learning journal. It is tangible
evidence of what you've accomplished and it can be a priceless reference work for future
studies.
Learning at Free-Ed.Net is a dynamic,
interactive process. It isn't a linear, straight-through, process when you can simply
check off a list of course completions, from the most elementary to the most advanced.
Rather, you get a little here and you pick up a little more over there. You undergo an
exciting breakthrough in understanding one day, then fall into a black hole of ignorance
the next. Sometimes you know exactly what you are doing and where you are going. Other
times, you are lost and confused. But there is always Free-Ed.Net and the vast content of
the Internet to provide the answers or at least the means to your discovery of the
answers. Everyone needs some ways to keep track of these learning experiences, make some
sense of it all, and maintain their sanity.
On the most superficial level, a learning
journal is an account of your personal journey through a program of study. Keep all
your study notes, rough drafts for reports and essays, and any other relevant lists and
comments. When you begin to learn--really learn--at Free-Ed.Net, you will have questions
and ideas of your own. Jot them down in your learning journal. Don't let anything pass.
Make notes on all of it. |

"This is my Free-Ed.Net learning
journal. It shows exactly what I've learned and how I've grown through my learning
experience. It isn't very big, but it holds a big piece of me, my life, and my
future." |
It's your personal learning journal, so you are
free to organize it any way you want. Then as you grow and learn, you will probably want
to revise the way you work with it--to improve it according to the new ways you are
beginning to think, work, and organize your time. (Effective education, you see, changes
the way a person thinks and behaves.)
A good learning journal is also a clear record
of your accomplishment. In a world that is becoming increasingly performance driven, a
thick, worn and dog-eared learning journal can carry a lot of weight with school
counselors, supervisors at work, and prospective employers. A good learning
journal demonstrates what you have already accomplished, and not merely what your
are qualified to begin.
Once you are comfortable with the real purpose
of your learning journal, you will find that it is your guide, your lifesaver, and your
trophy. |