First, to continue my academic development I must start taking advantage of all the resources that are available to me so that I can enhance my learning. I do not need to just depend on information given to me in class (any class not just CD). I need to start expanding my ideas and knowledge about class, to include how they relate and why they are important. I remember last year in Physics (I took it in a Summer class) we did not cover all the chapters that the regular semester did. However, the teacher encouraged us to go ahead and read the rest. Now being burned out from going to this class everyday from 8:00-1:00 I thought that Dr. Orsini must be out of his mind. There was no way ever that I would go and sit and read Physics for “pure enjoyment.” However, after reading the articles that we had to read (information literacy) I realize that we need to go beyond what information we are given. This may not mean that I will sit and read Physics night and day but I will take in the fact that I need to start expanding the knowledge I do know. Also, to continue my academic development I will need to finish undergraduate and graduate school to give me the knowledge that I need in order to become a speech pathologist. Then when I do become a speech pathologist I know that the field I choose (probably children) I will research everything that I am interested (which in children is speech disorders and language) and try to gain more knowledge about them. I understand than as years pass more information can be learned and by researching this I will be able to gain access to this information. I remember my Psy 311 teacher telling me that when he first started teaching this class he never knew a lot of the reasons behind some of the theories etc. but as years went by research was able to answer these unknown things. Now, he was able to include this recent information in his lectures. I also will want to continue my education by going to many conferences. The conference that I attended in the spring (West Virginia conference) was very fun and an interesting experience. I was able to learn a lot of information, techniques, etc. that I did not know before. I really think attending conferences is a good way to gain information that you are interested in, have questions about, or just in general what to learn about. Also, when I become a speech pathologist I will continue to read the ASHA code of the ethics.
I had never really put too much thought into how I meet my learning needs. After thinking for a while I realized I usually learn in three ways. I learn by watching and observing other people, by my own mistakes and new experiences, and by lectures/class involvement. I think without these I would not be able to learn effectively.