Fitting the Pieces Together

Psychology has been studying learning for more than 100 years. Researchers are focusing on what is going on inside the head and also how teachers, instructional designers, anyone who wants to help people learn how they can design instruction to make those cognitive processes work well for the learner. To teach effectively, I believe it is vital to understand some of the different learning styles and have some understanding of how students learn.

I am a visual and hands-on learning. I can read something and read it again and not always have a clear understanding of what I've read. However when something is demonstrated to me or if I am involved with the demonstration (by doing) I have a clear understand of everything I have read.

According to Bill Kerr blog “Learning theory is like politics, is full of isms: constructivism, behaviorism, cognitivism and now a new one, connectivisim. "The idea is that the learner is a complex information-processing system and to understand how learning occurs, one must understand how information processing occurs within the human brain... in the cognivitist's view learning occurs internally and through the social interactions with others."

The mind is not like a computer, at least, not like most any computer we've build, and depicting the mind as analogous to (and governed by the rules governing) symbol system processors is to misrepresent it in a fundamental way.

In the world we live in today technology plays a major role in our every lives and if we are not using some type of technology to learn we are living under a rock. We have emergency room doctors using wikipedia to diagnose patients. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/05/poll-should-doctors-use-wikipedia-for.html

According a recent study, 50 percent of physicians who go online for professional reasons use Wikipedia to answer health questions, and the number of doctors who this popular user-generated web encyclopedia has doubled over the past year. Supposedly because wikipedia is updated in real time and this can be useful information.

The best way for me to gain knowledge is to first, ask questions, and more questions, to get the answer. I also, use the computer and the Internet to gain knowledge by searching for the answers. Another way I gain knowledge is through my friends, colleagues, and family. In today’s world, technology is at the front line for information.

Technology has leaded me to pursue a degree online, I can research articles for my assignments, communicate and social network with family and friends across the global. I can research just about anything-using technology. In 2008 I went to South Africa for two weeks and visited a Computer café and was able to communicate with my family and colleagues in the States. I was so excited that they were available when I sent the email. It is amazing what technology can do for us and how much it has grown over the last 10-15 years and continues to advance more daily. I love technology but it is also a little intimidating at times.

Also, According Felder et al. (2002), “people have different learning styles that are reflected in different academic strengths, weaknesses, skills, and interests. Understanding learning style differences is thus an important step in designing balanced instruction that is effective for all students” (p. 3)

Reference:

Kevinmd.com Blog

Bill Kerr: http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html

A reflection on how my connections facilitate my learning:

My network has been a great resource for my growth and development, personally, academically and professionally. I have a network, of family, friends, my job, Walden University, Library, and the Internet, etc. We all need some sort of network in order to survive. If I didn’t have a network I would be lost in the wilderness. Even the animals have a network and know how to use it, to their advantage. The dictionary defines Network as a group or system of interconnected people or things: a trade network. a group of people who exchange information, contacts, and experience for professional or social purposes : a support network.

George Siemens describes Connectivism as a learning theory that integrates technology, social networks, and information.

Life is very interesting. It doesn’t matter our age; we are always learning something new each and every day of our lives. We have always had a network to learn from. Our network changes with each generation. My great-grandparents network, was very limited, it was basically their circle of friends and family; my grandparents, had family, friends, church, radio and maybe a television, my parents have friends, family, television, radio, computer, and the Internet. Since early childhood we have connected and network with our parents, teachers, friends, other students, television, radio, library, and as with every generation, there is advancement and things change and for this generations it is through computers, Internet, websites, social networks, blog, and facebook, etc.

The environment in which I work, live, and play has a wealth of information not only for me as an adult learner but also for my autistic son. My network has changed my way of learning in many ways. What I am doing right now, typing my blog for posting later. I say WOW! I have a blog and last year I didn’t know what a blog was or how it worked. Today, I am writing a blog, now that’s a big change. Also, because of this course “Learning Theories and Instructions” I know more about blog, RSS, mind map, the different types of learning theories and learning styles. I am still learning how to learn and I love it!

The best way for me to gain knowledge is to first, ask questions, and more questions, to get the answer. I also, use the computer and the Internet to gain knowledge by searching for the answers. Another way I gain knowledge is through my friends, colleagues, and family. In today’s world, technology is at the front line for information. I was in a meeting with some colleagues and one my colleagues read somewhere that an emergency room doctor used wikipedia to diagnose his patient. I don’t know if that’s scary or great! Of course we all laughed but really it wasn’t funny.

Julie Conlan, Sarah Grabowski, Katie Smith described four learning theories and they are 1) Action Learning, 2) Experiential Learning, 3) Self-Directed Learning, and 3) Project-Based Learning. The experiential learning theory, best describe my learning style.

The experiential learning theory is the best learning theory for me. I learn and gain knowledge and skills quickly by doing. I learn how to ride a bike by doing it, including falling off and scaring my knees and getting back up and trying again. I learn how to use a computer by first teaching myself how to type and taking computer classes. As, with learning Instructional Design, the best way for me to come up with the right learning tool, I will learn by doing as well as the individuals who will be using the system.

Learning how to use a computer is the best digital tool that has facilitated my learning. The computer gives me access to the world’s largest classroom. With the computer and the Internet, I can become my own doctor, (don’t know if that’s better than going to a real doctor), I can complete my degree in an online classroom, I can research information for my courses, I can communicate with my classmates and professor, and the list can go on and on.

Reference:

Adult Learning http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Adult_Learning

Connetivism Mind Map

Week 2 - The brain and learning theory

I visited the Walden Library and found a couple of articles, one, on Connecting Brian Cambourne’s Conditions of Learning Theory to Brain/Mind Principles: Implications for Early Childhood Educators and Where do the Learning Theories Overlap?

Both articles are very interesting and I hope you can find the time to read both of them. Brian Cambourne’s theory on how we learn and the way the mind work basically boils down to eight concepts and they are, immersion, demonstration, engagement, expectations, responsibility, employment, approximation and response. He first begins by stating that we actually gain knowledge from experiences and environment. He also went on to say that it does not matter how old you are or if you are in pre K or a graduate student his suggestion is that we all learn in the same manner. We must keep the brain stimulated with a wide variety of impulses. The Cambourne model is to help develop the student into independtly learning and he talks about how to stimulate the brain to help students gain knowledge and skills.

The other article is very clear that there is multiple intelligences, learning styles, and brain-based education are distinct fields of study but share similar outcomes in the practical environment of the classroom. What it is really saying if you visit any school for any length of time you will notice similarities and differences in their beliefs and practices, of multiple intelligences, learning styles, and brain-based education.

Reference:

Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1, Fall 2003 ( 2003) Stephen P. Rushton,1,3 Janice Eitelgeorge,1 and Ruby Zickafoose2

Education Leadership September 1997

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=39&hid=111&sid=f2a30160-7840-464c-bdb6-dd9d1b1ad15e%40sessionmgr104

http://content.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pdf10/pdf/1997/EDL/01Sep97/9710053102.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=9710053102&S=R&D=a9h&EbscoContent=dGJyMNHr7ESep7Q4y9f3OLCmr0ieqK5SsKe4SbKWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGss0q1qK5IuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

Great Instructional Design Sites from Fellow Blogger

One of the sites I visited was Instructional Design and this is an excellent site, with great information for Instructional Designers and students. I didn’t know there were different types of instruction design models and most of them are spin off of the ADDIE Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation model. Although this model has some significant weaknesses, it is still a model other instructional design are modeling. I will be visiting this site often; it has a lot of learning tools and tutorials, that will be useful for me.

One can learn a lot from visiting this site. http://www.instructionaldesign.org/models/addie.html



Here’s another site whit a wealth of information, you can find on this sit, awesome. It is another great resourceful site I will be visiting quite often. This site has great information that is going to help me a lot, it offer information, such as what is the definition for Instructional Design, Job listing, LinkedIn.com, (another great site), ID Conferences, ID Forums, and other ID sites and you can see what other Colleges and Universities are offering in the field of Instructional Design. Also, if you would like to know what the pay scale is for Instructional Designers you can find it on this site, as well. http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/

The Rapid E-Learning Blog site is a amazing site that offer resources under the Instructional Design link that gives great examples on passive and active learning, which I found very interesting and also found out I am more of a passive learner. Not that any thing is wrong with that but there is a difference between a passive and active learner. I would recommend you visit the site and see if you are a passive or active learner. I like that this site use actual video PowerPoint sides to give examples of a number of learning tools. Great great site!

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/instructional-design/

My Blogs on Resources and Learning

This Mother’s Day Weekend I was on the Internet researching “Blog” sites and I found a number of great sites. These sites will indeed be useful for me, while I pursue my Instructional Design and Technology Degree. I was truly amazed because I did not have a clue there was so much information available and free. Wow! One of the sites I visited and took a great interested in was eLearning Concepts. This site is full of resource and information on Instructional design jobs, Media Social Networking, Technology Tools, and Web 2.0, just to get you started. I read Christina blog on “Show and Tell”, she had participated in a technology seminar at Bloomsburg University and one thing that was discussed at the seminar was Web 2.0 tools. She said it was the best educational weeks of her life. Here is a list of some of tools she shared on her blog and can be useful in business, personal or educational settings: Flick, Quia, and Googledocs. She even gave her user name and password to try Quia. I will be visiting eLearning throughout my courses and I hope you will as well. http://elearningconcepts.wordpress.com/

Internet Time Blog is another site, I visited and I wanted to use it as example. It isn’t a good site. It had a lot of dated materials on the site and wasn’t as useful. So my thought was why isn’t the site being updated. The site isn’t user friendly and the links on the right side of the home page are virtually imperceptible. However, I did find a link on how people learn and it was interesting to read and the information on the site was what we had in this week’s reading. It is true everyone has a different learning style and there is great information here. Here’s the link just in case you want to check it out. http://www.internettime.com/blog/archives/000023.html

WorldPress.com http://en.wordpress.com/tag/instructional-design/

“Blog about: Instructional Design” - overall was the best thus far for me. I’m sure there are many more great sites out there in the IT world. It is a blog site I hope you will check out and I know it is a site I will visit more often. It is user friendly, clean – I like the white space, not overly crowded with information, is well organized; and great information for Instructional Design degree seekers.

New Blogger

Hello!

This is a new journey for me, creating a blog. I don't have a clue to what I am doing, therefore I ask for help from all those who do have a clue and would be so kind to give me a little direction.

I am a quick learner and whatever help is sent my way I thank you in advance.

Ready to learn.

Terri