Some questions and comments by a new coaching client about how they learned best prompted some introspection into my own learning style. It caused me to realize that the way I first learned to play D&D was perfect for me. Are you learning in the way that is best for you?
I took on a new client this week, and she was asking me how we would structure our actual coaching sessions. This is a tough question for me to answer because I am driven to tailor my coaching to the individual client. Many of my clients are located far away (sometimes different continents) and that limits meetings to phone calls or video chats (I much prefer the latter in those cases - I like looking people in the eye).
This new client is local though, so I wanted to make sure we met in person if at all possible. I mentioned another local client whom I not only meet in person but while we walk, because fitness is one of his personal goals. She responded by saying she was the kind of person who learned best while doing a physical activity, so she liked the idea of walking while coaching. No problem.
It got me thinking about how I learn best. I don’t think I need to walk while doing it, but I’m very focused on practical application ahead of theory. So it’s important to me to get the chance to employ whatever it is I’m learning as soon as possible. Perhaps doing so right in the middle of the teaching.
Note: My editor pointed out to me there is quite a bit of research on learning styles. Lots of further information and useful links can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles#Neil_Fleming.27s_VAK.2FVARK_model
Thus, whenever I get a new computer game, I spend just a few minutes (probably during the install) reading the manual. But once I have the very basic stuff understood, I’m gonna crank that sucker up and play. And probably fail. Learning lessons by failure is very effective for me.
Gradually I’ll figure out what I’m doing wrong. I will probably hit a wall where I can’t figure out how to do something. That’s when I’ll go back to the manual or (more likely) do a quick search online. Tutorials by people on YouTube come in very handy, and there are typically tons of them out there. In that way, I can usually get specific advice on the problem I’m having and get right back to having fun.
All of this has me thinking back to when I was first learning about roleplaying. In fact, I don’t think I knew the term “roleplaying” for quite a while. I was simply learning D&D.
My first exposure to the game was during a Boy Scout camping trip. A bunch of the older scouts were gathered in a big tent playing some game, and I got to sit in the corner and listen. I was immediately fascinated by what was going on. There was no game board, but everybody had a sheet of paper with all the details of one particular character. Using a flashlight, they were rolling dice to determine whether their actions worked or not. But there seemed to be no real limits on what they could try.
It was awesome and I wanted to start playing the game right away. One of the friendlier guys took me aside to teach me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but his technique was nearly perfect for me. He spent no time trying to teach me any rules about play. I’d already observed that anyway and had some idea of how it worked. Instead he said, “You need to roll up a character.”
I got right down to business and rolled up my very first D&D character, a Thief named Mognol Stickyfingers. As an aside, Stickyfingers is a terrible, terrible name for a Thief. It doesn’t engender trust with the rest of the party. Regardless, I now had a character and the guided creation process enabled me to learn much more quickly than if I’d sat down and read a chunk of the rules.
Over the next few months, I got a chance to play a few sessions here and there with the group of players who had introduced me to D&D. I would later come to realize terms like “power gaming,” “Monty Haul,” and “adversarial DM” were invented to describe these guys. But it didn’t matter yet because I was still diving right in, learning, and having tons of fun. Soon, however, I started to feel like I would run the game differently if I was in charge. The aforementioned adversarial DM wasn’t about to give up any of his power, so I had to look elsewhere for people to play with.
I began gaming with my little sister, who was a captive audience at home during the summer. I had received a Red Box for my birthday and jumped right in to being her DM with only the vaguest of ideas as to what I was doing. I was probably doing a pretty poor job by my standards today and my sister started losing interest. So, I was forced to go back and read whatever I could from the book. It wasn’t much and I was not sure where to turn next.
I was rescued from being stuck by a great guy named Wes Ives (he was one of the authors of the Chivalry & Sorcery RPG from WAY back). He held a D&D camp in the summer at the local Jr. High School and I got to finally play D&D in more or less the style I’d eventually think was best for me. He ran games for a group of kids from about 9 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. I was frequently late getting home from these sessions because I stayed after to ask him a whole bunch of questions.
He was very kind and generous in taking the time to answer what were probably fairly tedious inquiries from a chattermouth of a 12 year old. But I was learning fast and in the very best way for me: A small amount of instruction and a whole lot of Just Do It. I doubt I’ve ever learned so much, so fast, about gaming than I did that summer.
I have seen this pattern repeated for me in almost every skill I’ve ever successfully learned. It has reached the point where I won’t bother trying to learn via more didactic methods where I don’t “get my hands dirty.” I know what works for me.
Do you have a good handle on how you learn best? Did you learn gaming with methods that worked well for you or did it take a while to grab hold of you?
I took on a new client this week, and she was asking me how we would structure our actual coaching sessions. This is a tough question for me to answer because I am driven to tailor my coaching to the individual client. Many of my clients are located far away (sometimes different continents) and that limits meetings to phone calls or video chats (I much prefer the latter in those cases - I like looking people in the eye).
This new client is local though, so I wanted to make sure we met in person if at all possible. I mentioned another local client whom I not only meet in person but while we walk, because fitness is one of his personal goals. She responded by saying she was the kind of person who learned best while doing a physical activity, so she liked the idea of walking while coaching. No problem.
It got me thinking about how I learn best. I don’t think I need to walk while doing it, but I’m very focused on practical application ahead of theory. So it’s important to me to get the chance to employ whatever it is I’m learning as soon as possible. Perhaps doing so right in the middle of the teaching.
Note: My editor pointed out to me there is quite a bit of research on learning styles. Lots of further information and useful links can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles#Neil_Fleming.27s_VAK.2FVARK_model
Thus, whenever I get a new computer game, I spend just a few minutes (probably during the install) reading the manual. But once I have the very basic stuff understood, I’m gonna crank that sucker up and play. And probably fail. Learning lessons by failure is very effective for me.
Gradually I’ll figure out what I’m doing wrong. I will probably hit a wall where I can’t figure out how to do something. That’s when I’ll go back to the manual or (more likely) do a quick search online. Tutorials by people on YouTube come in very handy, and there are typically tons of them out there. In that way, I can usually get specific advice on the problem I’m having and get right back to having fun.
All of this has me thinking back to when I was first learning about roleplaying. In fact, I don’t think I knew the term “roleplaying” for quite a while. I was simply learning D&D.
My first exposure to the game was during a Boy Scout camping trip. A bunch of the older scouts were gathered in a big tent playing some game, and I got to sit in the corner and listen. I was immediately fascinated by what was going on. There was no game board, but everybody had a sheet of paper with all the details of one particular character. Using a flashlight, they were rolling dice to determine whether their actions worked or not. But there seemed to be no real limits on what they could try.
It was awesome and I wanted to start playing the game right away. One of the friendlier guys took me aside to teach me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but his technique was nearly perfect for me. He spent no time trying to teach me any rules about play. I’d already observed that anyway and had some idea of how it worked. Instead he said, “You need to roll up a character.”
I got right down to business and rolled up my very first D&D character, a Thief named Mognol Stickyfingers. As an aside, Stickyfingers is a terrible, terrible name for a Thief. It doesn’t engender trust with the rest of the party. Regardless, I now had a character and the guided creation process enabled me to learn much more quickly than if I’d sat down and read a chunk of the rules.
Over the next few months, I got a chance to play a few sessions here and there with the group of players who had introduced me to D&D. I would later come to realize terms like “power gaming,” “Monty Haul,” and “adversarial DM” were invented to describe these guys. But it didn’t matter yet because I was still diving right in, learning, and having tons of fun. Soon, however, I started to feel like I would run the game differently if I was in charge. The aforementioned adversarial DM wasn’t about to give up any of his power, so I had to look elsewhere for people to play with.
I began gaming with my little sister, who was a captive audience at home during the summer. I had received a Red Box for my birthday and jumped right in to being her DM with only the vaguest of ideas as to what I was doing. I was probably doing a pretty poor job by my standards today and my sister started losing interest. So, I was forced to go back and read whatever I could from the book. It wasn’t much and I was not sure where to turn next.
I was rescued from being stuck by a great guy named Wes Ives (he was one of the authors of the Chivalry & Sorcery RPG from WAY back). He held a D&D camp in the summer at the local Jr. High School and I got to finally play D&D in more or less the style I’d eventually think was best for me. He ran games for a group of kids from about 9 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. I was frequently late getting home from these sessions because I stayed after to ask him a whole bunch of questions.
He was very kind and generous in taking the time to answer what were probably fairly tedious inquiries from a chattermouth of a 12 year old. But I was learning fast and in the very best way for me: A small amount of instruction and a whole lot of Just Do It. I doubt I’ve ever learned so much, so fast, about gaming than I did that summer.
I have seen this pattern repeated for me in almost every skill I’ve ever successfully learned. It has reached the point where I won’t bother trying to learn via more didactic methods where I don’t “get my hands dirty.” I know what works for me.
Do you have a good handle on how you learn best? Did you learn gaming with methods that worked well for you or did it take a while to grab hold of you?
