Learning Technology In The Information Age

Learning can be enormous during the first few trials, and most times it becomes difficult as you try harder. But the problem isn’t really with the content. Instead, the problem is with how you learn.

The title coupled with the ‘technology’ keyword might strike non-techy individuals as exempt from this content, but the good news is you are not. However, this is a general article, and it is suitable for anyone finding it difficult to learn or trying to learn something new.

To my surprise, the way we learn is shockingly inefficient, and our intuition on how to learn is wrong. To assert this fact, look back on what you’ve learned and ask yourself some basic questions like was it worth the effort?; Did you have a learning strategy?; Did you get as far as you wanted to (beginner to expert)?; Did you choose the level you wanted to reach?; Did you read for fun, or to gain value?.

Being able to answer those questions genuinely will show you haven’t been learning efficiently. In the broadest of sense, we think of learning as a spectrum of how we move from beginner to expert, which is wrong.

No doubt that learning is all about acquiring knowledge. And we are very much familiar with the phrase “knowledge is power and Knowledge is King.” The King is dead. Back in time, these statements were true. Once we study to gain knowledge and knowledge could open the door to opportunities. However, this does not remain the same as before. Thanks to technology.

With the advent of technology, knowledge has become cheap. Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuck Go now index knowledge that is delivered to you quickly at no cost and within a short period.

Do you have a question or need help regarding a problem? The chances are that your questions are solved. If you have a problem to solve and you can solve them by bringing in someone else’s knowledge at virtually no cost, then how important is the knowledge you have?

However, it is essential you gain knowledge, but from an economic perspective, the knowledge needed to solve a problem is most times readily available for free. With this, the value of you having that knowledge is relatively zero.

The above scenario also applies to technology. Today technology is easily accessed, you can learn whatever you want, and you can learn better than being in school or at work. But the disadvantages of this exists. With lots of content flowing around, both good and bad. It becomes tough to filter through them and get started with the right ones, which is where schools and work become useful.

To not deviate from the subject matter, if knowledge and tools are cheap, then the only thing left is skills. The truth is we are no longer a knowledge-based society, but a skills-based society. Most people don’t realize this yet. Once, any college degree guarantees a good job; now it doesn’t. Nobody cares what you know; they care what you can do.

Knowing is not good enough. Being able to understand how to make use of your knowledge is better.

Briefly, to address the school of thought that says ‘Qualifications don’t matter,’ in truth it does matter because it’s not enough to be able to do something, you have to prove it which requires evidence. Formal degrees matter more and less than before because they do represent a form of certification that you know something and it becomes less important if you can’t apply what you know.

Creating A Learning Path

When we think of learning, we think of it as a journey from beginner to expert. We start at the beginning of the path knowing nothing about the subject; then we travel along the path picking up bits of knowledge until we reach the finish line that declares us an expert.

However, In reality, there is no finish line. There is always something new to learn. There is an increase in the emergence of new technologies and many more. With this, it will be unrealistic to start a journey towards becoming an expert. But in the ideal sense, you can grow and become an expert(expertise) in a technology or a subject matter.

Furthermore, taking a broad picture of this learning path, most people assume its smooth and straight ahead, but this isn’t true the learning path is a bit rusty with lots of curves, ups and downs and this best implies that you learn along this path and still come back to pick up some bits you missed and this process continues.

The process of not having a clear path towards learning is as a result of lack of proper planning towards learning. We pick up something new and rev the engine, then there we go, we are learning. This learning style is very much redundant for the information age. Instead, you should rather look at learning as four distinct parts which are:

• Fundamentals
• Information
• Skills
• Innovation

Fundamentals

This is the stage where you learn the fundamental concepts related to what you are learning. From this track, you pick up the basic concepts underlying what you are learning. Concerning programming, you learn data types, arrays, variables and many more.

The fundamental knowledge is very much vital because they are widely applicable and they rarely become obsolete. A good example is Object Oriented Programming and Functional Programming. Learning the fundamentals of OOP and functional programming will make coding easier for you; it also equips you with the ability to learn any programming language in a short period.

However, you may be used to learning a fundamental concept using several different approaches before it sinks in, but once it does, it can last a lifetime.

Information

To learn, you must acquire knowledge and information relating to the subject matter. Your fundamental knowledge may cover a broad concept, but information starts focusing on specifics. For example, Fundamental teaches you how an integer is stored; information shows you how to declare an integer in a language and many more.

A solid understanding of fundamentals gives you a huge advantage when it comes to learning and understanding a particular thing.

Skills

Learning to do things is what the skills path is about. Schools do a good job teaching fundamentals and even some information, but real skills are not taught.

Knowing and not having the skills to translate them into reality is a disaster. The key things to remember is that fundamentals help you to learn and process information. While Information is the specific knowledge, you need to solve problems, and skills are the ability required to use knowledge to solve problems.

Additionally, do note that people pay you to do things, not to know things.

Innovation

Innovators don’t find knowledge, they create it, and they invent it — Isaac Asimov

Learning fundamentals, information, and skills equip you with the expertise to solve problems and with the ability to create more knowledge by inventing it. The innovation track is an extension of every other track which represents the journey beyond competence.

Conclusion

Learning is easy when you plan adequately before starting the journey.

Start by learning the fundamentals, gather information, build up your skills and most importantly, work on a project and create something.

Learning Technology In The Information Age was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.