Learning By Doing

As you get into the training modules in SkillwiseGO (Word Processing, Spreadsheets etc.), you will encounter exercises called SimuView and SimuTry. These are examples of Simulation-based learning. This is a very powerful way of learning how to do things, and it enables you to learn real computer skills rather than just acquiring knowledge about the computer. Working through these simulations, you learn to make the right choices, to click the correct buttons on the screen, just as though you were working in the real program. At first, you will be given instructions telling you exactly what to do, and then, as you practice it again, you will start to do it on your own. When people eventually move on from doing simulations to work in a real computer application (program), most find it really easy as they have practiced all the moves so often before. Simulations are an ideal tool for skills building, because you can keep trying as many times as you wish and no matter how badly you mess up, you can’t damage the program! You do these simulations at your own pace, taking as long or as short a time as you need. There is no sense that you are holding the rest of the class up, nor do you have to wait for the slow ones if you are finding it so exciting that you just want to keep going! Another advantage of this way of learning, is that it uses images (pictures) of real screens rather than word descriptions. Most of us learn from images more easily than we do from words, and this particularly applies to people for whom English is not their first language. So, enjoy the simulations, have fun, and aim high as high as you can! In the course done in the SkillWise CONNECT and GO programs, a student will work their way through over 16 000 simulation steps, and that is just on the first run-through! The number climbs every time you decide to repeat a bit. That may sound hard, but amazingly, because most people keep trying until they are satisfied with their scores, the average success rate is 90%! That’s proof that the system works, and it can work for you!

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