I remember learning about World History, various time periods, specifically the 20th century; we spent a long time learning about Japanese history from 1900 to the present, and a bit about world religions. I learned this from my 8th grade teacher, Mrs. G. While she relied on the history textbook at times, where we had to read through the chapter and then create an outline of its key points, she also utilized videos (we watched Gandhi and The Last Samurai, for example, as well as some shorter documentaries and PBS specials on student life in Japan), we also used a lot of worksheets, read articles, she shared diagrams and used a projector to write notes and explanations on pictures or maps to help us connect ideas. I was learning this information because that was the order in terms of curriculum that we were supposed to be learning about history in middle school (6th grade was Ancient History, 7th grade was U.S. History, and 8th grade was World History)--I found most of it very interesting, but the ultimate goal for us as students was simply to absorb the information cognitively. Theoretically, our corresponding Literature classes were meant to have content, books, etc. that corresponded with whatever topic on which we focused in history class, so that was the reason we were learning about World History at that point in time.

In college, I remember learning GIS mapping skills and basic earth science/biology from Professor M. T. at my small liberal arts college. This was very hands-on learning--we went out and physically used GIS mapping tools while we walked on campus, exploring the landscape and ecology and botany of the area. We were learning the skill of GIS mapping practically, and then we would follow it up with in-class learning, pulling up our findings from our in-person work via computer and practicing the actions our professor told us to do, while she was doing them--so there was a strong component of experiential learning. Taking a biology class was a required component of my liberal arts education, which was part of why I was taking the course; I also was trying to hone in what my interests were to determine a major, and this introductory course gave me that initial sense of what biological sciences work required.

I have practiced and learned a number of proprietary online systems to edit, upload, share, and publish articles, text, event information, and other related online details and files, which I've done at my last 4 jobs. I was taught usually by an IT or Digital /Marketing professional, and at times, was self-taught. I learned this information best through practice and through simultaneously watching and then copying what a given trainer was doing, so I could build the "muscle memory" of practicing a particular task and in turn testing its capabilities and extra features in real time; I also learned from videos, webinars, or other kinds of training videos, or I learned through repeated trial and error, or just googling how to utilize a particular system or write (extremely basic) HTML code. I was learning this skill in order to enhance the ways my department or group publicized or shared information and resources (which was a part of my job to do well).