Self Directed Learning

This is going to be complicated.

Self Directed Learning has a tendency of being that way, and combining that with a brain injury just complicates the process even more.

Much of this blog will be made up of self directed learning information, but it will be done not from the perspective of researcher, but from my perspective as I make use of it.

I will do my best through out to not make this a collection of really interesting articles and information about what is known and is being done in research facilities.  Rather this will be about what I am doing, why I am doing it, and what I am looking to get out of it and additionally how I have ensured those results.

Now for the complicated part:  self directed learning can be looked at in two ways, as a process and as a goal.

So the first objective in any self directed learning program is to figure out the process that I am going to utilize, and define the goal as being stronger as a person as the result.  And this step can not be skipped particularly in my case due to the brain injury that I sustained.

To some this would seem a bit excessive, but the type of damage that I sustained has affected my ability to conceptualize, and to do this on an unconscious level.  Compared to say what most self education is concerned with and that is the specific content.

For me specifically that is the sporadic and poor quality results that I achieve in relation to the amount of time and effort I put in.  

An example of how this problem manifests itself is when you define two different forms of learning:
 - reproductive
 - transformational

And secondly the difference between
 - learning (no matter the process)
 - doing (consistent output)

The first manifestation is between the reading, and the reproducing of that information, in terms of recall time, quality of what is recalled, and the length of time I can maintain attention on a particular task.
 - And this further complicated by the delay in how the information is to be organized, not just in the delay of the information itself.
 - then of course the even more painful truth, sometimes the method of organizing that information/or actions is no longer there, even though the memory of once being able to do something of that nature is still there resulting in me overreaching and not realizing it.

The Transformational type, that is understanding something and then being capable of changing behavior because of it.  The problem is the word "understanding" constitutes a series of processes that I am not even sure has been studied.
 - then of course the transition from learning to doing in this area as well.

And these can be understood in terms of Cognitive Function.  And to address this issue I have taken a three point approach:
 - Lumosity.com (its what I can afford)
 - Traditional Medial care (which I have found to be painfully slow)  I was able to get disability before I was able to get appropriate treatment.
 - Supplementation (balancing results to financial resources)