Sometimes when I'm out in public with my friends, we will pass a group of people speaking other languages. I'm often asked if I can understand what they're saying and generally, the answer is "no". My friends are usually surprised at this, since my Bachelor's degree is in Spanish. At this point, I have to make a very clear point to them: I can speak and understand Spanish very well and very easily, IF I'm involved in an actual interaction. When somebody is standing right in front of me, expecting me to understand what they're saying to me, I do. When I'm passing a group of people, there's no expectation and there is no pressure on me to grasp what they're saying. You could say that there is nothing to keep me focused.
Along those same lines, I noticed that the same thing happens while I'm engaged in a video lecture. Even though there is technically a live person "in front" of me, it feels too much like I'm watching TV and my attention wanders. I liked it better with the video feed, even though I felt like a jerk walking in fifteen minutes late because I missed the bus.
The audio-only presentation was near impossible for me to retain. There was little for me to focus on, save for the audio itself, so I didn't get much out of it. Perhaps if I were more accustomed to that type of learning I wouldn't have such trouble with it, but for now, I prefer live, face-to-face instruction.
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1 comment:
Funny, I had the opposite reaction. I didn't like feeling as though I had to keep looking at the screen (it made me a little sea sick). I preferred to have a power point to look at to focus my mind on key words and concepts that were being lectured on. I'm not one to maintain eye contact, so maybe that's just one of my own personal shortcomings I need to deal with. :)
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