A Quick Note On Motivation - Understanding Your Learners Means Understanding Yourself

As a student in instructional design, it is becoming a lot more obvious that I am learning and unlearning all the time. I went to university a bit later than normal at 30, so I know the feeling of being older than most students in a classroom and the disassociation that come with that feeling. Within the online learning experience, I also know how stressful learning new tools and concepts can be if I feel a disconnect from the learning environment or the material being delivered.

As a quick aside, it seems so obvious that learning online includes a certain amount of disconnect between learners and their instructors. However, as I come into contact with people who have gotten their bachelor's degrees online or have decided to use their adult years using the internet to learn something new every day, I realize that I am simply clinging onto what I wish these learning environments were. I am trying to reform my reality to fit the ideas in my head.  Think about your own frustrations with the learning or social media tools that you use. Remember when you had to use a tool for the first time? How long did it take you to begin using InDesign with some confidence? Did you have to feel motivated to use it? Did you have to find some sort of motivation to finish your tasks? Of course. However, you also know that your feelings, the due dates of assignments or work projects did not always sync up. You started producing material and posting it because you needed to and not necessarily because you wanted to.

Now, after that short pause, I'm reflecting on my current motivations and abilities because they tend to develop with my experiences in spite of my motivation. My interests tend to shift and stretch with each day but I know that when I am curious about something, it is because I am trying to reform my past experiences into something intelligible for my learning brain and for the problems I am trying to address at work, at home or in class. Those are always in sync because they are ever present. It is my comprehension that is lagging. When in doubt, produce. You can always reflect and think about what you have done afterward.

I've chosen these two pictures to help illustrate understand that this motivation for development will not go away. It is influenced by how you take control of your learning experiences and whether or not you can dedicate enough of your passion towards incorporating it into your own life, no matter your age. The people in these pictures are learning something new, but it is their ability to join their abilities and experiences with what they are doing that makes it effective, and not necessarily how they feel or the mistakes that they make.

Adult Learner Training on Computer Skills

Children in Library using Learning Software