Thursday, February 25, 2010

Reflection

- What did you find surprising or striking as you furthered your knowledge about how people learn?
As I furthered my knowledge about how people learn I began to discover, people generally first acknowledge what catches their attention first. I would say that this is a fact of life: first impression last impression sort of deal: Attention makes us receptive to information, which we process together with prior knowledge, until we arrive at conclusions and understanding, which we then apply and test for confirmation. People are also motivated for the most part through extrinsic factors; however, intrinsic factors forms or fuels a student’s desire for autonomy.
- How has this course deepened your understanding of your personal learning process?
What have you learned regarding the connection between learning theories, learning styles, education of the learning theories and perspectives that best describes how you I learn: The behaviorist approach emphasizes that every leaner must have some sort of beginning; in other words, at what level is the learner currently performing successfully? Behavioral theories imply that teachers ought to arrange environmental conditions so that student responds properly to presented stimuli (Ertmer & Nemby, 1993, p. 60). I can only agree with the behaviorist approach up to a certain extent.
After learning more about the various theories, I’ve discovered that I could learn within the realms of all theories depending on the qualifications and factors of the cause.
- What have you learned regarding the connection between learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation?

First, learning styles vary depending on the situation of instruction or desired objective(s). I believe that all learners learn within the means of each learning theory; it’s just not realized yet. Overall, I’m not convinced that people learn by way of only one learning style; I would suggest a melting-pot of learning styles to be exact.

Motivational factors are suggested to influence how attentive an individual absorbs information: for example, in order for students to enjoy a lecture or course, something has to spark their interest in order to trigger a sense of motivation; whether it’s intrinsic or extrinsic.


- How will your learning in this course help you as you further your career in the field of instructional design?
Learning in this course will help me as I further my career in the field of instructional designer: I now have the knowledge of how people actually go through a process of learning and I’m able to identify the characteristics. I think one of the crucial things that an instructional designer can (and should!) do is make sure that students have opportunities to actively practice what they are learning. I’ve always had a desire to develop and build websites to increase how students (people) learn.
References
1. Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Fitting the Pieces Together

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the different learning theories and learning styles, how has your view on how you learn changed?

I don’t believe my view of how I learn has changed much; however, I now have a deeper understanding of the various: I’m also aware that my learning style or how I learn is unconditional, in other words I’m an adaptive learner: leaning that is conducive to the situation. Originally my view of my learning style gravitated towards the Constructivism Theory. According to Etmer & Newby (1993), “Constructivism equates learning with creating meaning from experience” (p. 62). Social constructivist scholars emphasize that individuals make meaning through interactions they have with each other and with the environment they live in (Kim, 2001).

What have you learned about the various learning theories and learning styles over the past weeks that can further explain your own personal learning preferences?

As I continued to study the various learning theories and learning styles, I became more convinced that I learn best using Constructivism, although I may incorporate aspects of other learning styles depending on what I am learning. For example, I recently decided to learn to play the Acoustic Guitar. My initial approach could be describe as using tenets from the behaviorism theory, specifically operant conditioning, which Standridge (2001) states is “the rewarding of part of a desired behavior”. Skinner, the creator of operant conditioning concluded from his research that “people would repeat acts that led to favorable outcomes, and suppress those that produced unfavorable results” Standridge (2001). When learning to play, I would consistently use repetitive actions to produce a desired result, the correct note at the correct time. When I made a mistake, I would stop the behavior that produced the mistake. Consistent practice led to better play. However even in learning to play the Acoustic Guitar: ultimately I would return to constructivism: because I learn and absorb information best where I could learn from watching others play and ask questions. In addition, I’ve discovered that using my previous piano playing experience supported my ability to develop various chords and another musical discipline.

What role does technology play in your learning (i.e., as a way to search for information, to record information, to create, etc.)?
Personalizing technology is a daily routine within my life; from the time that I wake up to performing my job duties and or tasks at work or preparing a recording session in the studio for a vocalist. I utilize my pda (T-Mobile “Click”) to keep track of upcoming events and schedule. I also utilize my phone as an mp3 player with song downloaded form iTunes; however, converted using a song conversion tool.

References:

1. Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50–71.

2. Kim, B. (2001). Social constructivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Social_Constructivism

3. Standridge, M. (2001). Behaviorism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism

Sunday, February 7, 2010

"Connectivism"


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One aspect of connectivism is the use of a network with nodes and connections as a central metaphor for learning. In this metaphor, a node is anything that can be connected to another node: information, data, feelings, images. Learning is the process of creating connections and developing a network. Not all connections are of equal strength in this metaphor; in fact, many connections may be quite weak. Dr. Mohamed Ally at Athabasca University supports connectivism as a more appropriate learning theory for online learning than older theories such as behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. This position rests on the idea that the world has changed and become more networked, so learning theories developed prior to these global changes are less relevant. However, Ally argues that, "What is needed is not a new stand-alone theory for the digital age, but a model that integrates the different theories to guide the design of online learning materials (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism_%28learning_theory%29).

1. How has your network changed the way you learn?
Currently, learning for me totally consists of the internet. My entire life is completely surrounded by the use of technology. For example, my current job title as student services coordinator and it's responsibilities deals heavily with social networking sites such as: facebook.com, youtube.com etc... My network has changed the way that I learn because, whether the information is old or new, each source within my network will be utilized to the fullest extent.


2. Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?
Facebook is a social networking website that best facilitate leaning for me. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.

3. How do you gain new knowledge when you have questions?
We all know that the internet is about knowledge, sharing and giving. Therefore, whenever I have a question I always seek the advice of various websites; site sources, references etc. the internet seems to be the most accurate and or timely source of news to date. Reading books are great; however, the downside of reading a book is, not only is confined to the message of the author of that particular book but there are no link to point the reader to other books and or topics of relation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook).


4. In what ways does your personal learning network support or refute the central tenets of connectivism? My personal learning network supports connectivism by allowing me to engage in online resources conducive to learning and development. Personal Learning Networks (PLN) are the people and resources that help us learn, being able to pick and choose how to learn various concepts gives the learner control of how and what what information is important towards the learning goal(s).

Reference:
1. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism_%28learning_theory%29
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook