How I Use Learnist: a Virtual Textbook
Vivian Kerr
Learnist is a community of people sharing what they know and learning from each other. This “How I Use Learnist” blog series spotlights various ways people use Learnist in their lives to share their expert knowledge on various topics. Our first contributor, Vivian Kerr, explains how she uses Learnist in her personal and professional life.
As a test prep tutor and a serious travel enthusiast, Learnist’s breadth of offerings has benefited me both as a board creator and a consumer. Working with my SAT and GMAT students, it has been so helpful to create individual boards to target each specific aspect of these tests. For example, if I’m Skyping with a GMAT student and outlining the basics of the Integrated Reasoning section, it’s so great to be able to walk them through the IR: Table Analysis board I’ve created. It’s my virtual textbook, including the most-useful YouTube explanations, chapters from GoogleBooks, and practice questions all in one easily-accessible place. As a tutor, I’m choosing the content, but Learnist is giving us a medium to present it in a clear, easily accessible manner. I’ve even started assigned boards for homework, and I find students are actually much more enthusiastic about “doing a board” then simply reading a chapter from a book. The combination of audio, visual, interactive, and yes, some reading, makes Learnist more powerful than any 2-D textbook.
As well as using it for test prep, I love that Learnist allows me to indulge my love of travel, especially European travel. My favorite travel blogs do a great job of sharing a personal perspective on a place, while also highlighting classic must-see attractions, and I love to be able to type up some personal recollections in the captions underneath the curated content. Travel is all about what’s personal to us, and I’ve been amazed how many people are curious about the same things I am! When I needed to overhaul my packing technique four months ago, I created How to Pack a Suitcase Like a Flight Attendant and started piecing together the best ideas I found online. With over 190,000+ views and counting, I’ve gotten so many great suggestions from other travel-geeks that this board is one of my favorites I’ve made, and I keep adding to it!
Learnist is definitely community-building in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Now I find myself creating boards based on comment suggestions, and obsessively clicking on Dave Standcliff’s travel boards. I love his city-specific ones, highlighting places I’ve never been but would love to check out, such as gorgeous Savannah. When I first started using Learnist, I really only anticipated using it for education or travel, but there are so many interesting boards now, that if I’m not careful, I find myself losing an extra 20-30 minutes out of my day to read through one of Lauren Atkins Budde’s latest cake recipes or watch one of Farb Nivi’s rocking TedTalks suggestions. And perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing? This is what learning should be: following our curiosity, clicking not because we’re compelled to, but solely because we’re interested. Learnist is definitely getting it right.
Follow Vivian’s boards on Learnist to get test prep strategy and expert travel tips.
