When you are first learning to cook, following a recipe can be a sensible way to begin. After you have been at it long enough though, you begin to learn the underlying basics that make the recipes work and become less reliant on them.

Eventually, you get to a point of mastery where you can just walk into your local shops, market and/or super store, see what looks good and fresh, and build your menu on the spot.

Great cooks still investigate the latest recipes but they use them as inspiration and not as exact algorithms.

I look at the latest technology, hardware and software in the same way. If I get the opportunity I...

• search the internet
• read reviews,
  
• discover appropriate uses, for both learning and teaching,
• acquire, beg, borrow, download etc.,
  

so that I can...

• experiment, (like cooking, hands-on is important)
  
• work through tutorials,
  
• be creative

Find the time to do this and eventually you start to see the 'eLearning Advantages' and the vast potential of the eLearning 'ingredients'.

Master the basics, and like a great cook preparing an amazing meal with just the ingredients on hand, you can apply them appropriately, in teaching and learning with positive results.

At that stage you have reached eMaturity!

John Dalziel (eLearning Adviser)