note to self, in re trying to figure out tricky stuff.....

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When I'm watching a MOOC video, and can't figure out what the professor means, I should take a break, and when I come back to the video to approach it again, I should start before the confusion point.

Because -- while listening to the confusing sentence (or three) over and over may not help, listening to the few minutes before the confusion, and then the confusing place, may help.

I should try to pay attention to the information in the bigger picture, when trying to understand the details.....................



The inability to ask questions of the prof is definitely the most frustrating thing about the MOOC way of learning. 

And when Google doesn't respond usefully to any of the ways I can think of to ask my questions, there's no help there, either.

I think that the thing I'm confused about today is not really well-understood yet.  I think we're being told about what is currently thought likely, but not generally accepted as true (which is why there's not much supporting evidence out there on the web.............)

It's cool to be learning brand-new stuff, but it does make it harder to find another source saying what she's saying in different words (and with different pictures) that might make more sense to me at this moment in time.....

At least I think I know what she was telling us, now, and I'm not as confused by it as I was, though I still have half a dozen more questions about it that I would absolutely go see her about in office hours, were I paying brick&mortar prices for her time!



Another thought for today is that Mother Nature is amazingly canny!  This week we are learning (in The Brain in Space) about how we can tell where something is in space from the evidence provided by our ears.  Are you aware that we constantly move our heads to get more information (up-and-down-wise and front-to-back-wise) about the location of a sound?  I wasn't, either.  And yet all of us are constantly doing it........................

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