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.