The motivation behind this article is to provide computer instructors with insights into the inner workings of the human brain and how humans learn best.
The problem with many computer instructors is that due to their long relationship with computers they tend to treat students as if they were machines or computers. This web site aims at laying out he differences between the human brain and the computer ‘brain’ and how humans should be treated in a completely different way in order for them to reach their full learning potential.
Humans forget, computers don’t forget. Humans get bored, computer’s don’t. Humans get excited, computer’s don’t. Humans can get creative, computers cannot. Humans can learn easily from examples, computers most easily follow clear instructions. Humans can be curious, computers won’t.
Computers can store enormous amounts of information without loosing any bit of them and retrieve them instantly when needed. Humans may take time to remember and can easily loose information from their memory. Repetition tends to refresh human memory and make it store things more prominently. Computers store what is given to them without need for repetition. Computers can follow hard solid logic instructions. Humans can get lost in long dry solid instructions. Humans have imagination, computers do not.
The above was an attempt to touch upon the differences between the human brain and the computer ‘brain’. It is unfortunate that many a computer instructor tends to treat his students as if they were machines. Such instructor may get mad at a student who forgets what was told in a previous lesson. Such instructor treats that student as if he was a computer that does not forget. An instructor might provide information to his students only once, not paying attention to the fact that human brains can benefit from repetition.
A bad instructor would try to pour out information to students as if they were machines with memories that need to be filled. Humans need to be excited about he subject matter and love to ask questions, guess answers and discover things on their own. A good instructor would take all such human factors into consideration while delivering training. Before providing the information, a good instructor would ask questions to keep students motivated and start their minds thinking. A good instructor would give plenty of examples, human minds tend to work best with practical real life examples and work much less efficiently with hard and dry rules.
The human mind understands complete wholes, the computer ‘understands’ tiny components but not wholes. Human minds deal less efficiently with a whole that has been dissected to smaller elements.
Understanding the differences between the human brain and the computer can help a trainer deliver much more engaging courses and provide a better and more lasting learning experience to students.
- nice article from Born Trainer-
