1-forms

Can anyone give me a somewhat simplistic explanation of 1-forms?  For some reason I'm really stuck on this, I understand that they're a linear transformation mapping point and a vector to R.  (I'm guessing they actually map to all of C but for sake of learning I'd appreciate it simplified as my understanding of complex analysis is virtually nonexistant at this point in time.)  I don't even understand their purpose, except that a differential is a type of 1-form.  The wikipedia article was a bit over my head & the wolfram article wasn't much help either.

>>7
How's your linear algebra background?

I notice with some math classes, there's a lag in the 'understanding' of a few months, for me at least. Like, I'll cover something, and be able to use it, but not really feel that I understand it until I've digested it for a while. Maybe that's just me though.