Much of the artistic process takes place alone. Writers sit alone in a room and type away on a computer or scribble on a pad of paper. Photographers take photos of other people, but afterward, their work is often done alone in a darkroom or on a computer. Sculptors sketch live models, but later they do their three-dimensional work in the solitude of their studios. Regardless of how little human interaction there is during the creative process, though, creating art is inherently a social act.

Some artists are fond of saying that they create for themselves and not for other people, but this is mostly an illusion. Unless the created work hangs on a wall in a private room in the artist’s home, the art becomes a way of connecting with people. Whether it’s a painting in a gallery, a song on the radio, or a book on a library shelf, art’s purpose is to affect an audience—to elicit a response. Sometimes the result is a discussion among academics, and other times it’s an introspective moment in the life of one audience member. Whatever the response, a dialogue has taken place.

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I am a licensed clinical social worker who spent four years counseling in several forensic environments. These settings varied and included crisis counseling in the administrative segregation unit of a women’s prison, leading educational groups to men found incompetent to stand trial, and assessing sex offenders in the death chamber of a maximum-security state prison (it turns out prisons lack conference rooms!) I look back on that work and am still struck by the profound depth of desperation found within those walls.

The stories of those with whom I worked were unique to each, yet the threads of commonality became predictable before my assessments even started. If I had to whittle down the common denominators of our forensic population, I would say they are low socioeconomic status, minimal education, and a history of significant, heinous abuse. Additionally, and I’m sure of no surprise to you the reader, there exists a disproportionate representation of minorities in our prison system.

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This spring, at the age of thirty-four, I went back to college to finish my undergraduate degree. I already had a decent career as a web developer and filmmaker, but given my age, and the fact that I’ll most likely have kids sometime in the next few years, I decided that if I ever wanted to go back to school, now was the time.

I spent most of my first semester studying education—the neuroscience of learning, different theories of learning styles, and assorted philosophies of education. As I sat down recently to write a paper on Horace Mann, one of the principle architects of the American public-school system, I had a realization: over the entire course of my grammar-school, middle-school, and high-school education, I had very little idea of why I was there.

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Have you ever thought you understood someone else’s instructions only to find out later that you needed to hear them again? Have you ever thought you grasped a concept only to find yourself struggling to explain it to someone else? Well, take heart. These experiences, while frustrating at times, are a natural part of the learning process.

As professionals in the world of technological media, we continually need to learn how to use new software, new video equipment, and new coding languages. But despite the fact that there are many ways to learn new skills, including one-on-one instruction, books and articles, and classroom lectures, we can never be sure how much we’ve learned until we engage in active testing.

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In the field of web design, the opportunities to learn are endless. Whether Adobe releases a new Creative Suite or a new project means you need to learn a new programming language, you will always find reasons to expand your skill-set. The question is, how do you go about it?

You could go to a class, read an online tutorial, watch an instructional video, buy a user guide, experiment and teach yourself , or get one-on-one instruction from other professionals. Sometimes choosing a learning method is about money. After all, you can’t always afford to pay for a class. As you consider methods for learning a new skill, though, you should pay attention to the ways that different methods cater to your strengths and weaknesses as a learner. Do you learn better by reading or by listening? Do you learn better by considering and theorizing or by doing and redoing? Do you prefer to start with an overview or delve right into specific exercises?

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