Color of Learning 

I have developed a system that worked for me when I returned to college after having an injury, which I ended up with an Acquired Brain Injury.  ABI is an impairment of brain functioning that is physically or psychologically verifiable. Common causes of ABI are brain lesions caused by traumas such as motor vehicle accidents, falls, assaults and violence or sports injuries. Other brain lesions can be due to internal events such as focal brain lesions, tumors, cerebral vascular accidents, aneurysm or infections of the brain. (http://www.dissvcs.uga.edu/whatabi.html) 

I was having major problems in my learning skills, and memory.  I was not willing to ask for help and was having a problem in my English course.  My instructor walked me to the office for students with disabilities and had me talk with the director at that time.  After this meeting, then I started to learn about my disability. I learned what could cause me problems and how to deal with then. 

After learning about my disability and how others with similar disabilities have tried many different ways of learning and improving their memory and learning skills, I took a look at my own problem.  After my first year back to school, I started reviewing my notebooks.  As I reviewed my notes, I was having a hard time understanding my own handwriting.  Everything was in black and white.  I had made many errors I would cross them out and fill in the correct words.  I would also have haft a page of highlighting, which would make no sense to me.  I would look at the page as a whole and wonder how I would be able to study from this.  I would then wonder if anyone else could understand what was on the page.  I started to realize that I needed to develop some style of note taking that would work for me.

I looked at my notes for what they were.  To my surprise, most of my notes were not complete or spelled correctly.  I would write in a short hand format but without understanding what the scribble was to mean.  It looked like some words and then a wave line across the page, and some more words and then more scribble.  I would try and remember what the instructor might have been saying that day, but with my disability it would be fuzzy. 

I remembered that some times I would take my micro cassette recorder with me to class.  I started hunting for it.  As always, it was the last place I looked the bottom of my bag.  The next common thing the batteries were dead.  I looked around for some new ones and installed them.  To my surprise, the tape that was still in there was the of that days notes.  I replayed the tape and followed along with my notes.  Within the first two minutes I found 12 mistakes and that was the whole main point for that day.  I could not believe I had half of what the instructor was saying and the rest I had missed completely.  How could I have done that?  How much more did I miss that day?

When I started I had five pages of notes when I was done I had another six!  This totaled 11 pages of notes.  I could not believe the bits of information I just didn’t hear and write down.  Of those that were written down, about half were wrong.  What was I doing wrong?    Well, first thing was I could not hear the instructor clearly I was trying to be male and sit in the back of the room.  I found out that depending on where I sat affected in my note taking.  For those classes where I sat in the middle to the back of the room my notes were incomplete.  Classes where I sat near the front, my notes were better.  Still I was missing notes and comments.  My placement in the room did have affect on my notes, but not as much as I would liked. 

I reviewed my notes from some of my exams. Most of my instructors would return the exam questions. Looking at this one day of notes, I figured that there was one question on the exam from that day. Again I was wrong! There were five questions. The worst thing was I had the correct information on tape, but not written in my notebook. When it came time to review for exams, I would look over my notes I understand now why I had a hard time passing some courses.

How do I learn from this and improve? That is the real goal in college; Take what you know and have learned, and then apply it to the same problem or a new one. That is the key to this whole thing:  Taking what I know and what I have learned and using those skills and knowledge to improve myself and do better in my learning. Well again, I looked not at the words but the way they were on the paper. Again, it’s all black and while and lines running around making no connection to anything else. There is the half page of highlighting which does no good. Last is the blacken areas where I made a mistake, well at least I thought I did. All in all the page was unreadable even to me, and I wrote it all! I am the author of that document and I could not read it or understand it.

So that is when I took a break and when I watched some TV. Which matter of fact didn’t help, because all I was thinking about was my notes. After some time it became late and I when to bed. This is where my idea came from. I am one of those lucky people that sometimes I dream in color. I was laying there in bed thinking about it and I started to fall to sleep. Just then I woke up and knew how to make my notes better. I will use color to break up the different types of notes. How to do that? That is going to take some time to figure out.

The next day I was in my computer room working at my desk, with my notes in one hand and blank sheets of paper in front of me. How can I change these notes from black and white into some type of color version? Somehow make it simple to remember? This was my task. Take notes in color and make it easy even for me to use. Now using color for note taking is not that hard. You just pick up a color pen or pencil and just start writing, right?  Wrong! Then I just have another color instead of black on white and that does nothing good for me. I had to figure out how to use one then another color for specialized reasons in my note taking. So I looked at all my notebooks, I filled my living room floor with just sheets and, sheets and, sheets of notes. Looking at my notes not for what they said but what were there meaning.

I found out that I have just a few common areas of notes and I can use color for each one. Now as I said before, I was in the Computer science major program and was switching to Information Science major program. But this style I was trying was going to be used for all of my courses. As a matter of fact the first few pages that started me on this were for my Astronomy course. So this can be used in many other areas.

Now the most common areas of notes are the following: first what the instructor writes on the board, this is just what he/she writes nothing more, only words; second, is what is the instructor saying at the same time; third, are what remarks or specialized comments the instructor makes like if they repeat something or they stress a point; forth, is any drawing or graph the instructor makes. All in all, that is the main area of note taking I was concerned with. Words, Speech, Stressed Points, Drawing, this is the key to this method. These four areas were where I was starting from.

How do I use color to make my notes easier to read and understand without losing information?  I did not want to use the same old black and white style of writing. I had some color pens in my bag so I pulled them out. I had a blue, red, green, and black. Which color would I use for which area I wanted to relate to? I have always liked blue so I used blue for my main color to work from. Everything the instructor would write on the board would go in blue. What would I use for what the instructor would say? Well this is a funny, because I could not pick a color. I was passing it back and forth which one to use. I just put them in a hat and pulled out a color. Red, that will be used for what the instructor says when they are writing on the board. Now what for comments and those that the instructor stresses?  I picked black for this reason, seeing the written words would be in blue and spoken would be in red, anything that was stressed and commented on would stand out with black. This just left green for drawings.

There was one more thing about the pens that needs to be noted. Most people use a medium point when writing. I have found out that using a fine point pen makes the notes clearer and easier to work with. At the same time you are writing and you make a mistake you would blot it out by crossing it out three to four times and looks ugly. If you make a mistake just draw a line through it. When you have time later, you might find out that you have been asking a question as you write and did not realize it. You can then always white out that mistake later on. Don’t stop taking the notes because of a mistake.  You will lose time and information by doing so.

Now am I ready? Wrong! I was half way there I still need to figure out how to write in two to three colors at once. Plus most books and web sites are all talking about using white space. How to use space on a sheet of paper to take notes? Now there are many different ways of taking notes, such as lines down one side or splitting the page into two areas. Each one has its own way of working.  I wanted something I could use and keep it simple. So I looked at how my English instructors have us turn papers in double-spaced. Why could I not take notes like that? Write something every other line. Or write some thing in blocks and leave a space in between them. Now we are making a plan, it was something I could follow and simple to use. Now I am done! Wrong again!

Remember above I took out my micro recorded and whet from five pages to eleven pages of notes. That is the next step. The difference of where I was sitting made a difference in my notes. Well, these two areas make up the next half of this method. So let’s look at the position of sitting in the room.  Sitting in the middle or back of the room, I could get interrupted by others talking or just by them fooling around. We all know this does happen in a classroom!   I had to start sitting up front. This took care of that problem. By sitting up front I could hear better and see more of the board without looking around a group of people. This also made for better tapes because I would get a louder and clear recording of the class. Wow, that is it I am now done! Wrong again!

It is great to have figured out what colors I was going to use, and that I am going to sit in front of the room. Why am I not done now? I have colors to be used in the section of notes.  I understand what each one is to do for me.  I am sitting up front to get a clear and load recording. Why am I not done with my method? Well it gets to the following saying that all college students hear but seldom do, for one hour in class to do two hours out of class. That is the next step. Replay my tape and follow along in my notes. This is where I pick up most of what the instructor says in class and fills in the blanks. It is also a great review of that day’s class. This is also where I picked up most of the red in my notes and also fills in the blank space on my notes. Remember the double space or the block writing. The reason for leaving that space, gives me room to write the instructor’s comments and things they stress that I might also not have picked up on the first time.

Wow, this is now coming together I have color notes, spaces to fill in from the tapings, and I review my notes. This method is now done? I don’t think so!

When I am reviewing my notes, remember I said that half of the page was highlighted? I use highlighters too, but not as much and not in the same way. I just use the tip of the highlighter to underline the area I wanted to give more meaning to. Instead of covering over the ink, I underline it. This leaves the color method intact and the underline is a better eye catching tool then covering over. My eye would pick up on the underline highlighter and I would still know if it was written or spoken or stressed notes.

Now I bet I am done? Close but no winner here! Writing in color and reviewing my notes and highlighting them are great.  When the notebook is closed there is no difference between that one and my old ones. So how can I look at my notebook and know this will help me learn and study better.

There are two more steps that will help when making this notebook work better and faster, a table of content and flags. Let’s talk about the flags. There are many different types and styles of flags. There are the ones that point, and those that you can write on. It doesn’t matter which you use, as long as you stay the same. If you use the pointing ones, use them to point out very important facts and notes to find them fast. Next is the table of content. This will help me in searching for the information faster. If I numbered the pages, I can build a table of contents to give my notebook chapters just like the textbook. Also I could break up the notebook into areas, such as notes, handouts, exams, and other areas as needed depending on the course.

So I am done. I am so glad. Everything is done. You didn’t think so, did you? No there are just two more steps overall and then I am done.  I bet your are thinking that I said the above paragraph there were just two. That is for the notebook. These are two steps in education.   The last two are the hardest for most people to do and understand how valuable they are. These steps make you a better student and learner all around. Talking to your instructor and arranging study groups. I know what you must be thinking! He is nuts! He wants me to talk to my instructors! The answer is, YES!  All instructors have office hours when they will be in there office for questions and help. This is the chance to sit down and talk with the instructor one on one. You have that instructor to yourself for a few minutes.  You can ask them that question that you did not want to in class or get some facts clear. The first meeting is the hardest. After that you will find out that the instructors are human too. Get to know them and talk with them.  You will find them very helpful filling in the gaps you might have. Last, are study groups. Finding people in your course to study with hangout with and learn with. The power of a group is that not everyone hears at the same rate. Not everyone knows the same information.  Others might be better at taking the notes. By working in a group, you will make friends, learn from each other, and be able to test one another. Learning alone is hard to do. Learning with someone else is easier and can make learning fun.

So let’s see. We are going to use colors in note taking, use a table of content and/or flags to find information faster, meet the instructor and talk with them, and make a study group. Let’s review why we wanted to do all this?  To have improved notes, from any courses, to improve my study skills and memory.  What was the reason ABI?   Have I overcome it?   I would say so. I even gain more then what I hoped for.  I made new friends, and developed a method that can work for any course I take.

So now I have given you the method, try it. Use it.  Make changes to fit your own needs. The best thing about this is that it can be changed to meet anyone’s needs. Take the steps one by one and work on it slowly. It took me a whole semester to improve on the basic idea. Now I can go into a class ready and have a plan to learn better then I did before, made my grades improve.

So the color of learning:
            Blue                            —          The written words
            Red                             —          The spoken words
            Black                          —          The comments and stressed words
            Green                          —          Drawing and graphs
            Double space                =          Room for later fill-ins
            Flags or Table               =          Find information fast
            Instructor                      =          Ask questions, fill-in the blanks and clear up facts
            Groups                         =          Learn with and learn from

Now you have the idea. What could happen if you try it? Nothing, or you might just find you like it. Give it a chance. It could make the difference from a C to a B+ or an A.  The best thing about this whole method is that I have a brain injury.  I tried to learn a new way of learning and developed a method that works and improved my study skills.  So what about you?