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The Internet Apprentice

Friday, 7 August 2009

When we fail at a task and don’t know how to proceed it is frustrating. This is a problem that must be overcome when learning something by doing it.

Having an outlet for what we are doing is essential to be happy. I don’t like the word ‘goal’ because goals are often fuzzy and in the distant future. We must live now and do now. An outlet helps to produce a finished piece of work as a result of our efforts.

An immediate response, or at least a measurable response while doing something is important to our enjoyment of it, and a good teacher or mentor who is an expert in what we are learning to do is invaluable. When we are stuck and frustrated mentors can give feedback—an immediate response. They help us get past the difficult stretches.

I learned graphic design concurrently with HTML by creating a website. HTML allowed me to publish what I created on the internet—an immediate result, potentially viewable to anyone in the planet.

My website was the outlet for my learning.1 The internet allowed me to publish my work and contact mentors or refer to their work for help when I got stuck. I learned more in two months than I did during my three years in university.

A website can be an outlet for what we are doing, electronic or not.2 The internet lets us connect to others, to find mentors and to be our own mentors like never before in human history.

1 The HTML and graphic design of my first website were finished. The content was not—it is what I continue to work on today!

2 It also serves as a very portable journal to chronicle work not made up of ones and zeros!

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