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114 Power Up Your Mind

Ways e-learning can be unhelpful—Top 8 %
It’s easy to waste time 46
Computer crashes 32
It’s difficult to find relevant e-learning material 30
Learning programs or software are poor quality 26
Learning programs or software are too gimmicky 20
Learning programs or software are difficult to access 20
Takes up too much time 17
Impossible to learn without other people 11

Does this data accord with your own experience of online learning?
What does the data in the chart above suggest to you about ways in which you could improve
your own online learning?
How much e-learning are you already doing?
There are many new e-learning providers: have you considered trying some?

EXTENDING YOUR RANGE

To be an effective learner you need to be prepared to try new things
and always be trying to extend your range. This is specifically stated
in the skills that Peter Honey and I identified: “Constantly adding new
techniques to your repertoire from all possible sources” and “experi-
menting, on a trial-and-error basis, with different ways of learning.”
The truth is that we all have our learning comfort zones and
that most of us move out of these too rarely. Taking part in an
action learning set—exploring real business issues in a team—or
being mentored may be within the existing range of one person, but
they may be new to somebody else. Only you will know what is new
for you!
This is as true for those at the bottom of organizations as it
is at the top, as the following example shows.

The Campaign for Learning hosted a breakfast meeting for chief
executives of large companies. Our purpose was to interest them in the
issue of learning. Our main way of doing this was through the inspirational
speaking of Charles Handy, who kindly gave his time to help us do this.
We could have simply enjoyed what a man of his insights wanted
to say, had some conversations over our coffee, and then gone our