Stephen Downes

Nobody cares how I learn and listen, but bear with me. One of the things I learned while learning French was how little of what I 'hear' I actually hear. When I am listening to someone speak, although all the sound goes into my ears, what I'm actually doing is 'hearing' only a few words (or word fragments) in each sentence and filling in the rest cognitively. It's natural in English, but of course in French I didn't have the vocabulary or skill to fill in the words I'm not actually hearing. So my focus has to be that much more intense, and the environment a lot more quiet, for me to comprehend what is being said. It makes me wonder how other people listen, and whether they 'hear' by hearing or some other process. "Hearing," as Ann says, "is not the same as listening." Anyhow, that's why when I give presentations I'm careful to add enough text to the slides to help people get past limitations in hearing. "Keeping the barriers to hearing, and the different ways that listening can be supported is one way to get to the possibility of learning in accessible pedagogy."