Volatility of Learning Styles: On Footnotes and Hyperlinks

This course has been one big experiment for me. How does one study remotely without a fixed schedule, a dedicated space for learning and/or without the physical presence of the instructor/tutor/lecturer? I am  starting to understand that it is similar to remote work or work from home - that also sounds great in theory, but in practice one finds out that it requires much more discipline and concentration to work at home than at the work place. I do not mean to sound negative, it is great if somebody has the flexibility and can work from one's home, but the home environment can be very disruptive. Strangely enough, working or studying at home requires some learning and practicing. It does not come naturally. After all most people usually come home to rest after being at work the whole day, so some old habits need to be broken and one needs to learn how to work efficiently at home.

I find it similar with remote study. I normally study material one document at a time, one after another - if I do not find in one document what I am looking for I go to the next one. However, if I find the answer to my question I do not usually read the next document. On the other hand, every time I pick up the manual I always promise myself to read it methodically from beginning to end. It never happens - once the exercises start, I start practicing and playing with examples and as a result find myself skipping sections, pages, even chapters. I usually do not visit pages skipped. Hence, I am learning something, but something else is usually missed. Those may be the perils of learning through creativity and experimentation.

With this class it is different, I am trying to read everything which has been assigned, but it is a challenge, especially the lectures. They provide a rather dense summary of the subject matter with external links to more detailed material (I have no problem with Wikipedia entries - they are usually well structured and the content is very informative. They include external references, as well). I like to think of these links as a form of footnotes, which represent for me the same dilemma - will I read them all once I finish the page/chapter, or will I read them as they are marked in text. I am still not sure what's the best way, in the end it depends on the text and on the character of footnotes. If I am more familiar with the content I tend to check the footnotes (or hyperlinks) as they appear in the text, otherwise I focus on the text and leave the footnotes for later. However, sometime when the footnotes are too long or too detailed I skip them entirely and read them after I finish the chapter, similarly I usually leave out podcasts or links to video presentation and watch/listen to them last.

Videos often repeat a lot of information covered in the text of lecture or in the reading, so they function as a good summary and represent another way of looking at the issue at hand. However, the fact that they often repeat material covered in the lecture or in the assigned reading is very irritating, so I often watch videos impatiently waiting for something new. Videos and podcasts are difficult to quickly scan for content. Out of the learning tools presented so far, they work the least well for me. Yet, I still enjoyed the Warriors of the Net.