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)
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