Jenkins: Repetition is the key to learning

Donnie Jenkins, Tech Talk

In the Tom Peters’ book “In Search of Excellence” the author quotes a saying he attributes to IBM: “Information overload equals pattern recognition.”

This sounds very technical and complicated, but it’s really quite simple. On one level it means that repetition will bring insight.

I have applied this idea in different ways through the years and it has been helpful. I’d like to share how knowing this principle can benefit each of us, especially when it comes to technology.

Every discipline or area of study has a few fundamental ideas that form its base. Anyone learning a new skill has to be willing to practice to gain that skill. Practice uses repetition to embed new knowledge in the mind of the learner.

I can recall learning the multiplication tables as a child, as well as learning how to diagram sentences. I know I must have practiced these skills for hundreds of hours on end. Now there’s some information overload.

It was only years later that the pattern recognition came into play. It dawned on me at some point that I could apply what I had learned in math and English to many different areas. When I began to learn to play guitar and had to practice scales, I was first reminded of the multiplication tables I practiced for so many hours. This was helpful, because it gave me the patience to know that I would benefit from the repetition, no matter how boring it was at times.

Later the diagramming practice came in handy when I realized that music had an underlying structure and flow that I could learn, just as sentences had a basic form underneath the words. It’s hard to describe how valuable this insight was, the knowledge that very different disciplines share some things in common.

This idea was especially valuable when I began to study computers in the 1980s. Because no one around me was familiar with computers, I decided to subscribe to several magazines and try to get familiar with the basic concepts of computing.

I read endlessly about the technology of the day, staying more confused than anything else since I didn’t yet even own a computer. Even after I bought my first computer, it was quite a while before I could actually do anything with it.

I often felt overwhelmed, but I persisted. All of us who use computers can tell a version of this story, the need to be able to tolerate confusion and frustration so that we eventually succeed in learning. In fact, a computer user will have to tolerate occasional frustration as long as computers exist, since problems will come up from time to time.

One of my most basic jobs as a computer tech is to teach coping skills to my clients who are frustrated or overwhelmed with a computer problem. I often draw analogies or use metaphors to make the learning process easier.

For example, one client who was trying to learn an early version of Windows was endlessly frustrated until I suggested that he think of Windows as a bunch of boxes all stuffed in one big box. Because it made sense to him, he had no more trouble.

Actually the only reason that I thought to explain it to him in this way was that I was reminded of the diagramming “box” I used in my mind to parse sentences in school. So here again the principle we’re discussing came in very handy.

Finally, if you’ve ever seen the children’s television show “Sesame Street” you have seen our principle at its best. The writers of this show have mastered the use of repetition to teach children the basic skills they need. We can learn a lot from this show, because it shows the effectiveness of repeating basic ideas in an interesting and non-threatening way.

E-mail Donnie Jenkins at donniejenkins@yahoo.com

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