Reflection of Lecture 3 !

In Week 3 lecture, I have learnt several new things that are quite complicated and difficult. I would like to share my opinions of some topics, like Kolb Learning Cycle, the application of Chaos Theory and the concepts of Learn-Unlearn-Relearn.

Kolb Learning Cycle:
According to a four-stage learning cycle, there are four distinct learning styles.
For example, I thought of my swimming experience that’s suitable to apply to this cycle.
1. Diverging: you use imagination about swimming, like imagining yourself as Michael Phelps and watching him swim in Olympics, in order to gather the information and improve the performance.

2. Assimilation: you know well about the theories of several swimming types and have an accurate understanding of the breathing and posing concepts with concise explanation, like you can read some reference books about swimming to grasp the concepts.
Reference:
http://www.active.com/swimming/Articles/Balance_Your_Blades__3_Corrective_Shoulder_Exercises.htm (Assessed on 13th February)

3. Converging: you obtain some useful tips about swimming from your friends and swimming expert. For example, there are varied teaching videos in you-tube to teach you about the techniques of swimming.
Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSXcp8z3n8&feature=PlayList&p=C43BB5B46BEAF1DB&index=2 (Assessed on 13th February)

4. Accommodating: you go to the swimming pool and step down the legs into water to practice for a trial based on your intuition.

My Style:
For me, I used the learning style of converging to learn swimming. It’s quite helpful as I could receive some techniques by my friends and cousin. When I made any mistakes, my friends told me immediately and let me understand the correct gesture. Also, I tended to think out some new ideas, like some funny swimming styles.

Moreover, as we all know that there are only four learning styles in Kolb Learning Cycle, how about the combination of feeling-thinking and doing-watching? (Trista asked in the lecture) Why can’t we experience and then think deeply to achieve performance? Why can’t we observe other people’s performance and then have a trial?

Organizational Learning:
In my opinion, an effective organizational learning can lead to a big success. What is organizational learning? I think it doesn’t have a specific meaning, but one thing I am extremely sure is that it’s beneficial to the organization and its employees. Through organizational learning, the employees can perform themselves more efficient and thus make an extra profit to the organization.
For example, according to the news from Sing Tao Daily, Mr. Lau, who was the employees of Microsoft, obtained several opportunities for practice before being the employee. He discovered that Microsoft took care of its employees as the office possessed various snack food and some massage chairs for the employees to relax. Furthermore, when Mr. Lau had some problems and asked the head quarter from American for help, the superior concerned with his jobs and consoled with him friendly. It made him feel that he was respected by the company.
This example actually expressed an effective organizational learning. Microsoft planned to lengthen the practice period for the employees to gain more experience and to understand deeply about the operation of Microsoft. It not only could give a valuable opportunity to let the employees to some knowledge of technical aspect, but also facilitate them to express their opinions actively and enthusiastically. Microsoft made sufficient use of employees’ capabilities and performed an efficacious human resources management, like providing a practice period to the employees to improve their skills. It allowed a thorough communication and interaction between various peoples in order to activate the performance and the employees made sense of what they learnt clearly.
Reference:
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/081218/3/9t8m.html (assessed on 13th February)

The concepts of Learn-Unlearn-Relearn:
The meanings of Learn-Unlearn-Relearn are changing according to different era. We always heard of learning, how about unlearning and relearning? Nowadays, there are dynamic variations in the world, thus we need to learn and adapt to new things so as to increase our value. In my point of view, relearning is the most important because everyone should have the ability to relearn based on the modifications. Unlearning is not a necessity as you just need to forget the useless part of what you have learnt when necessary. Besides, it’s essential to integrate some old knowledge that you have learnt previously with the novel knowledge that you have learnt recently. Hence it can help to perform your task more efficient and effective. It may lead to assorted innovations as well.

For example, I had a friend who previously worked in a restaurant as a waitress, which required high efficiency and high response to customers. Later, she changed her work place in a high-class restaurant. She couldn’t adapt to the new environment for the first month as the mode had totally changed. Thus she tried her best to unlearn some worthless things of what she learnt in the restaurant and relearn the new skills that was useful to apply in the high-class restaurant. Lastly, she was successful and she enjoyed the job very much since some of her opinions were accepted by the manager of the high-class restaurant.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Alvin Toffler

Paradigm shift:
I would like to talk about three paradigm shifts in the changes of dominant thoughts from 1980 to 2000.

Newtonian to Quantum Physics:
Firstly, the physics changed from Newtonian to Quantum. In the past, learning was just a systematic change in routines. Also, learning is just the total sum of the individual learning. Unlearning was something that seemed negative and caused harmful results because it represented forgetting. Relearning had already become a vital factor for an organization to success based on the extent of original learning.
The thoughts seemed it only related to the cause and effect. If a person was willing to learn and study (cause), it’s advantageous to his/her organization in the future. (effect) Besides, it’s a linear thinking that learning is a systematic process with accustomed procedures.
Nowadays, the dominant thought of the Learn-Unlearn-Relearn have completely changed. For learning, it emphasizes much on group learning rather than individual learning. For example, many schools encourage collaborative learning which allows interactions and feedbacks mutually between students.
Its purpose is to gain adequate ability to deal with the dynamic environment as there are continuous changes in the world of different aspects.

Products to Knowledge:
Nowadays, several organizations not only emphasize on its products, the most significant factor is knowledge. The degree of success depends on how much knowledge you have and how you grasp it. If you prepare and learn more, you can survive in the market and get ahead of your competitors.
For the post 2000, teamwork is so important as you can summarize your own ideas with your classmates or friends’ to widen the perspectives. Everyone’s idea is unique.
Also, talking with others is not enough; you should collaborate with others as well, like exchanging various ideas and finding out whether it’s sustainable or not.
Unlearning is not negative now, on the contrary, it’s advantageous and positive.
You only need to forget when necessary, like the knowledge that’s already improper to apply. However, if the knowledge that has learnt before is beneficial for recent use, why don’t you use it amply? It may lead to an unpredictable achievement.

Manufacturing to Mentofacturing:
In the past, many people had wrong understandings of learning, unlearning and relearning. They felt that learning, unlearning and relearning was boring and tedious as the three processes were relatively performed in a systematic way. They knew that relearning was indispensable because it facilitated them for adaptation.
In recent years, many people no matter how old they are wish to increase their values, thus they attend several courses to learn varied knowledge,
Learning is not the thing only advantageous for organization, it also valuable for yourself. For example, you join a course about communication skills and you not just apply this technique on your work, you can be more confident to talk with your friends in your daily

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCB4i7GJuM&feature=related

The above video was about three steps for 21st century learning. It expressed that competition, cooperation and collaboration were the skills for the students learn to be literacy. In my opinion, the ideas are novel and interesting. For example, tranforming the classroom into a creative learning space in order to study in a nice condition. It's a good suggestion as a nice condition can provide a suitable atmposhere to study. Furthermore, I liked one of the idea that the students should be taught to compete with themselves and cooperate with others.