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1. Introduction

Proakatemia’s primary source of individual knowledge delivery is essays. Later on, these essays can turn into pajas or solus, but that is how it mostly starts anyway. Essays are a great way to learn many different things that build up into one, final composure. Learning things such as research, drafting, referencing; practicing both creative and academic writing, and many other things, all while learning about something interesting to the person. As a bonus, by putting it out on the internet we can also spread the knowledge we gained in the process to the Proakatemia community and to the outside world. Essays also help with feeling more confident when it comes to writing the final thesis.

2. Challenging

There are all these benefits of writing essays, and here I am setting a challenge for myself to (try to) stop writing essays for a while and come up with new but similarly engaging ways of delivering knowledge to myself, my team, and anyone else. Although it has been officially mentioned in Proakatemia’s essay policy that different ways of delivering learning are allowed and encouraged, not many people see value or interest in pursuing, other than podcasts and essays. Essays are a very traditional and easy-to-come-up way of delivering learning. There is little place to be creative with them, it is methodical, straightforward and easier to research. That is probably why we stick to it.

3. Learning different ways

However, we need to keep in mind that everyone learns differently based on their unique ability to attain and then convey information, that we can observe more using the learning theories: behaviorism, cognitive, constructivism, humanism, and connectivism. There are also other suggestions of learning theories that are less talked of, which are the transformative, social, and experimental learning theories. (Fairbanks 2021) Fairbanks (2021) also talks about adult learning theories also called andragogy.

4. Delivering knowledge in different ways

Although essays, as we established, as a straightforward way to learn and show what one has learned, there are other ways. Before starting to complete your point for essaybank, think of what you want to accomplish.

• Do you want to practice academic writing? –> Great, an essay might be great for YOU!
• Your goal is to reflect on what you have learned? –> How do diaries or blog posts sound?
• Do you want to learn how to summarize effectively? –> Have you thought of making a poster or a pamphlet?
• Do you want to become more confident in front of an audience? à How about a performance?

Check out what other options there are: https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/alternatives-traditional-exams-papers/index.html

(Indiana University Bloomington n.d.)

Chat GPT can also be your friend when it comes to gathering ideas. My favorites from there have been the recipe analogy and making a trivia board game.

5. Why do we deliver knowledge?

At the end of the day, the method of delivery or even the topic of what the knowledge was delivered of isn’t the most important part, but the cognitive ability that will allow the author (or teacher, artists, etc.) to use that knowledge in more than one context later on. This is called transfer. Transfer is a result of learning and understanding, which then be translated into different situations. (NRC 2000) Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning gives great examples of transfer in real-life cases, which can be found here: https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/TransferKnowledge

6. Conclusion and reflection

I think I am a pretty well-rounded writer when I look at the outcomes that I put out there, however, it isn’t an enjoyable process most of the time. Now, although this was meant to be an essay, by not limiting myself it became a blog post and one of the best writing experiences (probably not the best quality) of my Proakatemia journey. I have learned new terms such as transfer and learning theories and I had the chance to look at what opportunities I have outside of writing essays.

References

National Research Council. 2000. How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school: Expanded edition. National Academies Press. Read on 9.10.2023 https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/9853/chapter/1

Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. n.d. Transfer of Knowledge to New Contexts. Read on 9.10.2023. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/TransferKnowledge

Indiana University Bloomington. n.d. Alternatives to Traditional Exams and Papers. 9.10.2023 https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/alternatives-traditional-exams-papers/index.html

Fairbanks, B. 2021. 5 Educational Learning Theories and How to Apply Them. University of Phoenix. Uploaded on 9.9.2021. Read on 9.10.2023. https://www.phoenix.edu/blog/educational-learning-theories.html#:~:text=At%20a%20glance,transformative%2C%20social%2C%20and%20experiential.

Fairbanks, B. 2021. 7 adult learning theories and principles to enhance your education. University of Phoenix. Uploaded on 28.8.2021. Read of 9.10.2023. https://www.phoenix.edu/blog/adult-learning-theories-principles.html

Other sources:

chat.openai.com

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