Sarah Axelrod: January 2010

I've always had an in between understanding of technology. I know so much more than my mom (who still will click on the internet explorer icon thirty times, and then freak out as to why so many windows opened!), but there were always the people who could completely tear a computer to shreds and then rebuild it better than before. I've had three computers so far in my life... and something like six iPods. As for the computers, however, I had an HP desktop from eighth grade until junior year, a Dell laptop for senior year. When I graduated high school, the Dell had all but fallen apart, and my parents bought me a MacBook-- which is probably my prized possession. I don't think I could ever go back to Windows now! I'm pretty good with most of the Microsoft Office programs, and somehow I ended up with Photoshop CS4. I don't do much with the Photoshop, but it's still fun to play around with! I don't think I'm really lacking in any technological information, besides programs I haven't gotten to use yet, or any new operating systems.

Even if I'm not lacking anything, I do hope to be able to streamline my processes on the computer. I know there are about a hundred short cuts, but I'm only really using Control-C and Control-V at the moment. When I found out you could Control-B to bold something while you were typing, my mind was blown... and that was just last year! Hopefully I'll be able to learn how to make more efficient use of the computer. Since most schools do operate with Windows, I also hope to become more acquainted with it again. Even if it's only been a year and a half since I had my Dell, I've grown so used to my Mac's operating system that I need some practice.

My learning style was pretty accurate, actually! I had strong preferences towards Active, Intuitive, and Visual learning... which is exactly how I feel like I learn. I really need to talk a process through before I can begin to understand it-- during senior year biology, my entire class was having trouble figuring out the hormone processes of the kidneys based off of a worksheet we were given. As soon as I started reading it piece by piece and talking it out with my teacher, it all clicked. I'm also really bad about forming relationships between subjects. As an intuitive learner, I'm ALWAYS trying to make some kind of connection before I can fully understand something, which always frustrates people I'm studying with. I can't move on until I have some simpler way of remembering the fact! I'm also definitely a visual learner-- I have something of a photographic memory. When I'm studying notes, I use different colored highlighters for each page, and I can pretty much always remember what part of the page the information was on, as well as the color. My other result was a '1' for sequential learner, which was a little odd. I think I have more tendencies of a global learner most of the time, but I do find myself working in order pretty often too. Especially when I'm writing emails, or something of that nature-- I always have to answer every question or address every statement in the order I receive it!