What is Your Learning Style?

We’ve all heard stories about high school dropouts who become multi-millionaires. What’s up with that? Well, Learning Styles are probably ‘what’s up with that’. Drop-out millionaires most likely did not have patience or simply could not cope with the types of learning styles offered them in school. Experts usually agree there are three styles:

[1] Listening
[2] Seeing
[3] Experiencing

For example, officer worker #1 is told not to use the freight elevator simply because it may be more convenient. He listens, understands, and obeys. That would be an example of a Listening Learning Style. Office worker #2 watches his supervisor catch his buddy use the freight elevator. The buddy has done this several times. The buddy is fired. This would be an example of a Seeing Learning Style. Office worker #3 decides to test his supervisor’s warning and uses the freight elevator himself. Exposed, he is ushered into the supervisor’s office and given a written warning. This then would be considered an example of an Experiencing Learning Style.

You might want to amble to Vark.com and take their Learning Styles questionnaire: What Learning Style Do You Subscribe To?
Okay, so here’s the meat of it: is a learning style deeply entrenched in your DNA or can external forces affect it, change it? I would vote for the latter. I used to be a book learner. I would gobble up product documentation and user manuals like Goobers and Raisinettes. My office walls were lined with 700 page user manuals on HTTP, Adobe Illustrator, Macintosh OS, etc. For me now, those listening, reading days are gone. I’ve metamorphosed into a visual (seeing) learner.

Visual learning is as close to actual doing as education can get. You might opt for Experiencing, but that style is all about trial and error with no coach around to set you straight. Life would be close to perfect if every furniture kit from IKEA came with a step-by-step instructional video. Maybe now you’re starting to get my point.

I’m a big fan of Lynda.com and ScreencastsOnLine.com – two popular hangouts for visual learners. At Lynda.com, I can take a four hour comprehensive class – broken up into 5 – 7 minute technical bites. Thirty minutes into the online session, I’m already productive. At ScreencastsOnLine.com, I can review ‘casts on the latest Macintosh technologies in just minutes.

Why is it that many teens need to listen to music or the television in order to study? It’s generational. Go ahead and complete their trinity by giving them visual training. There’s not one textbook publisher that does not have some type of online visual learning project on the boards. Recently a new product, Screenr (Articulate Global, Inc.) let’s Twitter users send short video bursts to friends and family. Students can now use Jing to record parts of lectures online.

Kids with this type of visual learning background will soon be knocking at your company for jobs and careers. If you don’t have the types of training programs they like, these new workers will either fall behind or leave. And they may eventually become multi-millionaires for some other company.

So what is your learning style?