A few weeks ago I set out to transform my straight hair into beach waves/curls. After watching several YouTube videos, reading the associated comments, experimenting with techniques, and practicing, I believe I have finally mastered this skill. While there are endless books, magazines, how-to guides, and real-life professionals that I could have gone to for information, I challenged myself to only use online learning networks to perfect my hair curling technique. This experience was meant to mimic person-to-person contact via a digital medium, giving me the opportunity to “interact” with thousands of individuals via online resources.
Feel free to visit my previous blog posts to see more of my journey (both challenges and accomplishments) as well as my progress detailed in the images below:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3/4
Week 5
After five weeks of practice, I have captured my progress and instructions for creating beach waves in my final video:
Going into this experience with very little knowledge of hair styling (seeing as I have worn my hair the same way for the past ten years), I had to rely on using an online network to acquire this new skill. One advantage of using YouTube videos to learn is there is endless amounts of information. However, this is also the greatest challenge. Given thousands of sources, a learner must sift through many videos before finding a reliable resource capable of providing a clear explanation. Anyone can post information on the Internet, so the consumer must navigate the web to find someone with the proper qualifications.
One of the issues I ran into for my challenge was there were many videos of young women curling their hair extensions. Clearly my hair is not going to hold a curl or have the same amount of body as fake hair. Thus, I had to make small adaptations like using hairspray and other products to create volume in my hair before using the heat styling tool. Learners using digital mediums for educational purposes must take the qualifications of the “educator” and the intended audience into account.
I will continue using YouTube and forums to learn new information. However, I would encourage other learners to view and/or read through various sources to ascertain information. It is important to consider conflicting information, pose questions, and find reliable material. I hope my students use these digital resources as a vehicle for learning with these considerations in mind.
Resources like YouTube provide a wealth of information that students should be challenged to look through. Given this new era of education where students no longer need to visit an actual library to research a subject, they do not always get the opportunity to practice this skill. It takes time and thought to find useful and relevant information for a particular topic. I think it is worthwhile for educators to show students how to weed through information on such a vast database like the Internet. Moreover, I think it’s important for learners to understand that their sources of knowledge should not be limited to their teachers and peers. Web tutorials can be a great reinforcer of materials. For example, I have told my students to utilize Khan Academy for mathematics tutorial videos in the past and will continue to do so because it is a valuable resource.
Resources Used for my NLP:
Claire Ashley. (2011, June 6). Summer Loose Curls Hair Tutorial! . Retreived July 23, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_pqFJRgT28
Garza, Alexandrea. (2014, February 26). Perfect Beachy Waves Tutorial . Retreived July 23, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXLkntX7SQ
RockerBarbiie. (2012, July 27). Beach Wave Tutorial With a Flat Iron . Retrieved July 23, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug6ovEOdPxY
Learning is Alive 