Course reflection

For the past ten years I have worked as a high school teacher.  On a daily basis I have been challenged to apply learning theories to my instruction.  It has been some time since I have had to focus extensively on the theory of learning and I have learned a number of things that I hope to incorporate into current and future learning experiences I will design.

      Although I have taken classes in the past on learning theory, it was an enjoyable experience to revisit some of the theories and to expand my awareness of newer theories.  The concept of connectivism stands out as being new and striking about how people learn.  I appreciated the concept that people learn through the networks they are connected to since learning does not take place in a vacuum.  (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008)  In the past ten years since I did my undergraduate training to prepare me for a career in education much has changed regarding technology.  Connectvism describes how many learners get their information from many different areas of their learning network and then create meaning.  As a future instructional designer I feel that learning how to connect to learners through their technological networks will be an important and marketable skill in education.

      Connectivism also has made an impact on my own learning process by creating a framework that explains how I learn has changed.  My previous learning experiences often have centered on going to someone or somewhere and then have information imparted to me.  The concept of a learning network made a lot of sense because it defined something that I was already using in more concrete terms.  In future learning experiences I take part in I will be more conscious of the different parts of my own personal learning network.

      Motivation is a key aspect of learning.  Regardless of the learning theory or learning style of the learner, motivation needs to be taken into account.  If motivation is not addressed it is possible that the learning outcomes will not be met regardless of theory or style of the learner.  For adult learners, previous experiences and usefulness of the material is important.  (Conlan, Grabowski, & Smith 2003)  I was struck by how similar adult learners can be to teen aged learners in these two regards.  Although teen aged learners may not have the same depth of previous experiences, they come into a classroom with many preconceived notions about topics that can be used to scaffold further learning on, although in some cases the previous knowledge they have is incomplete or incorrect.  Like adults, teens become more motivated when learning is tied into things they find useful.

      In the future this course can serve as a base of knowledge to design future learning experiences around.  I have always felt that the benefit in learning theory is to be able to apply it seamlessly in a transparent nature.  An instructional designer needs a solid framework in how people learn in order to create learning experiences.  In my experience as a high school classroom teacher, it is not the content that is necessarily the challenge to deliver, but the delivery itself.  This class will be useful in helping decide how to teach material and to who it is being taught, since the “what” to teach can change from job to job.

References

Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Connectivism.

Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K. (2003). Adult learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved October 30, 2011from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Adult_Learning.

Fitting the Pieces Together-Week 7

After analyzing the major learning theories in this class my view on how we learn has not changed much in regards to the big three of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.  Newer learning theories regarding adult learning, social learning, and connectivism appeal to me since they strive to explain how we can learn successfully using technology and connections with others.

These three theories explain my own personal learning experiences today.  As an adult leaner I appreciated the emphasis on differentiating instruction for adults based on their life experience, their motivations, and making sure instruction is relevant and usable in their professional or personal lives.  Social learning theory and connectivism are related because they focus on finding meaning from our connections.  During my time working at Walden I have often  found inspiration and help by reading discussion responses from other peers.  Although we are not physically in the same room collaborating together, there is still a sense of group meaning being created.

The integration of technology to search, create and record information in my learning is becoming seamless.  Whether it is working in my home office, doing a discussion reply from my laptop away from home or organizing my work load from my mobile, technology has become how things get done.  While constructing my learning network I considered making each part of my network a different size to reflect how much I rely on that section.  If I had done that, the part of my network representing technology would have been the largest.

During this course I noticed how often I utilize a digital projector in class to stream media clips or have my students go to a particular website in order to gain access to visuals and information.  At my previous job I had an in class projector, but I had to go to a computer lab for student computer access.  At my current job I have small class sizes and ten computers in the room.  The transition from direct, traditional instruction to the technology is seamless and quick.  I have always strived to use technology to bring learning experiences to myself and my students.  This course helped create some terminology to label things and has given me an opportunity to reflect on how to design better learning experiences in the future.

Reflection on my learning network

Central to connectivism is the belief that people learn through the networks they are connected to in order to obtain knowledge.  To analyze my learning network I divided it into internal, external, technology and learning tools and life experience.

My network has changed the way I have learned, especially as an adult and a professional.  The technology and learning tools section of my network is very important to me today.  As a child, organized learning took place at a school where I physically went to in order to receive instruction and to access the tools I needed to learn.  My college experience was similar to that as well.  Today, I am learning as part of an online community.  Many of the tools I use are accessed through the internet using a computer.  The interactions I have with my peers are also facilitated through technology as well.

The internet is the main digital tool needed to facilitate my learning today and it is also the first tool I turn to when I need to answer questions in order to gain new knowledge.  Without it I would be cut off from my access to information and the ability to communicate with my peers.  It also allows a certain amount of instant gratification regarding my learning.  If I want to work on something right now with the internet I can simply sign on and work.  Traditional methods would require planning to travel to a research library or to arrange a face to face meeting with a peer.  It does not matter what time of day, or how long I have to work, the internet facilitates it.

Connectivism believes we learn through our connections and I feel my network supports that.  Although technology is a huge part of my network, it does not do everything for me.  My life experience provides ways to apply new knowledge to prior learning.  Personal, professional and family connections allow me to talk about my learning and to gain different insights into my current learning.  Finally, my internal motivations to learn and to better my career opportunities drive my learning network.  Without the internal motivation the network would not be able to support my learning.

Connectivism

A quick summary of my learning network.

Week 2 application

This week's topics are the brain and learning, information processing theory, and problem-solving methods during the learning process.  Here's two resources that expands the discussion on these concepts and comments on their value from my perspective of teaching secondary students.

http://pequotlakes.k12.mn.us/userfiles/file/AEP04_2_6-1.PDF
This is a pretty easy to digest article that gives some general information about how the brain is structured and functions.  Judging from the source, I would bet it gets used in a high school level psychology class and would be a good resource for that age group.

What really interested me about the article is the comparison of the brain's capacity to the Internet, especially when you consider the date of the article from ten years ago.  According to the author, "The brain's interconnections exceed the Internet's by an astronomical number."  I wonder if this is accurate today or will the Internet exceed the human brain in this area in the near future?  It is a fascinating, science fiction like question, what will happen when our tools reach levels greater than our own?

The next article I looked into was "An Informational Processing Theory of Ambivalence" which I found using the Walden Library search features.  I had mixed feelings about how this article could be used in a secondary education situation. (Pun intended)

Basically the authors wanted to analyze the sources of ambivalence towards political parties.  With how polarized the political world seems today I felt this would be an interesting application of information processing theory and great way to blend civics/government with psychology.  This is a very complex article, especially compared to the other and I would be hesitant to use it for high school learners unless they were very advanced.

Content wise, their study had some interesting points that grabbed my attention.  First, they acknowledged previous studies that showed that systematic processing requires motivation.  To define a problem, identify alternative solutions and then select the best choice requires a lot of work.  You need to enjoy being engaged in thinking in order to be systematic about your political choices.  Because of this the authors believe that when we have mixed feelings about something, ideologically based voting tends to increase.  The current political climate seems to bear this out.  Voters are getting polarized because of the lack of clear solutions makes it difficult to choose a good candidate, so instead voters are turning towards ideological choices.

I believe you can find the article here...although I have never posted something from ebscohost, so it may be blocked.  Your welcome to let me know if the link works.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2039bdc4-c196-4f28-b07d-179d65c7be56%40sessionmgr110&vid=4&hid=112

Week 1 application

A blog is a simple, but effective way to create a professional learning community.  Like any tool, a blog may not function to its full potential unless it is used properly.  I have been teaching high school students for almost a decade, so my critiques focus on how these resources would work in a high school.  Let’s look at three links that can offer more insight into blogging.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI

This YouTube clip provides a cute, but basic explanation of what a blog is.  This clip serves best as an introduction to blogging to people who are not familiar with the concept at all.   In a classroom where some learners may have previous knowledge and some may not, the clip would also serve as a way to create a common base of terms and knowledge.  If you are planning to use blogs in a classroom it is important for your student learners to have a common frame of reference.

http://edublogs.org/

The edublog.org site is one example of the many different free blog services out there.  Did I say free?  Few things are truly free.  To get full functionality you may need to upgrade to a paid subscription.  The upgrades would be most beneficial to an instructor who needs complete access to student blogs, more customization options and storage in order to create a more immersive online learning experience.  However, the free version would work just fine for students who need to create an online blog cheaply and quickly.

The company’s name suggests a close tie with education and they seem to have addressed concerns many schools have regarding online content.  They claim access is only provided to educators and mentions the ability to block adult content.  Without an extensive test of these claims I have no way of knowing how effective they are, but it may be a selling point to some that they are at least addressing some common issues.

As stated above to get advance features you need to pay and I would advise anyone hoping to make blogging a part of their day to day classroom to research carefully what each level free to pro to campus provides.  The free version does seem to provide enough options to use in a classroom to introduce the basics of blogging to students.

http://ideas.blogs.com/

My final example I am sharing is what I would call a true professional blog made by Ferdinand Krauss about e-learning and instructional technology.  The author shares many different reflections and ideas regarding the subject and judging by the number of comments to some posts, there is a small group that follows and contributes to his discussions.  I am not going to comment on the subject material, which would be the reader’s job, but instead on the overall set up of the blog.

The first thing I noticed is the clean interface.  The background is simple and it is easy to tell where one discussion starts and ends.  Having a clean interface is important, especially if you are hoping to have serious and substantive discussions.  A web page that is crammed full of color pictures, advertisements and windows can become difficult to navigate and tiresome to view.  The easy to find links are also a plus since often the author is referencing other work to support his own ideas or to provide further learning. 

In a high school I would not necessarily choose this blog as an example of content since much of the information might be a little too difficult for high school learners, but it is an excellent example of how a scholarly or professional blog should look.  This is an important lesson for younger potential bloggers to learn since much of their previous experience with media like this may be through sites like Facebook.  Besides the clean interface I would point out to students that the author does not waste the reader’s time with status updates about what he is doing Friday night or had for lunch.  This lesson serves to remind students that the online world has many facets beyond their social life.  If you want your blog to be taken seriously professionally or academically your choice of content and interface needs to reflect that.