Learning Theory and Instruction – Reflection

As a novice instructional designer, I have listened to and tried to use generalized assumptions about what it takes to make a good lesson plan. Having taken this formal course about learning theories and instruction, I feel that I can more intelligently weigh design strategies and techniques to facilitate learning that have been verified with adequate research and study (Ertmer and Newby 1993). I was most surprised and pleased by the emerging technologies uncovered in the connectivism part of the course. I like that I’m better able to view the uses of things such as Smart Boards and web community learning more analytically than when we first started the course. That is, I feel that I’m better able to connect some of the tools with the relevant strategy. I especially liked the project learning platform introduced and exemplified in the latter portion of the course, presented in the videos showcased on Edutopia.

This course has deepened my understanding of my personal learning process by helping me to reflect on methods I’ve used in the past that either worked or didn’t work and understand why. It has also helped me to better understand the various factors that apply to my own learning process with more clarity and focus. As an adult learner, it is important for me to be able to connect material to practical usefulness in my environment. I can now better see how the cognitive processes become more enhanced when moving from entry level data engaging behaviorist learning (through practice and memorization) to more complex, problem-solving application (engaging more cognitive and constructivist processes) to even more advanced analytical applications (utilizing connectivism and adult learning strategies). Also, this course has helped me modify how I gather and use different resources in the learning process, and even how to find resources specific to my learning goals. (Davis, Edmunds, Kelly-Bateman) One of the adult learning strategies that I think I don’t use enough of is monitoring and self-regulating (Flavell).

Before this class, I believe I placed too much importance on catering to different learning styles and pushing the uniqueness of the individual teacher and learner. In this course, I see that there are many factors that can simplify instructional design and enhance the effectiveness for each phase of the design process. Thinking about how learners attend to, perceive, and process information is helpful in structuring how to present data for effective learning. Moving into online instructional design, being able to understand applicable learning theories, learning styles, educational technology (for design and delivery platforms) and motivation to keep the learner engaged and actively learning act as essential guides to helping all participants achieve success. I believe the learning theories, from behaviorist to cognitive to constructivist to social learning, connectivism and adult learning – all seem to build and contribute, often times acting together, as a learning task and application become increasingly complex. Also acknowledging the concept of learning styles and multiple intelligences can help the designer assist the learner in using strategies that can broaden that comfort level and enhance the learner’s confidence in the process. (Ormrod 2010)

My learning in this course has broadened my scope of what I thought about instructional design, adding depth and texture and in some cases new definition to my previous perceptions of the learning process. It has helped me view the learner and the design process more intelligently and with more confidence and guidance when choosing a strategy, technological platform and motivational approach. I better understand the need to, not only build something that in theory will work, but also to incorporate tools to facilitate strong communication, collaboration and feedback into online course development.

Resources:

Ormrod, J. (2010). Learning Styles and Strategies.Video Program.Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved on June 8, 2010 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4118625&Survey=1&47=6650234&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

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

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

Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906 - 911.

Ormrod, J. (2010). Learning Styles and Strategies.Video Program.Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved on June 8, 2010 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4118625&Survey=1&47=6650234&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Changing Perspectives of How I Learn

Now that I have a deeper understanding of the different learning theories and learning styles, I still consider myself to be essentially cognitive and constructivist in my learning processes. I realize now that I don’t have to be limited to a particular learning style to be an effective learner, and that it’s advisable in this ever changing environment to look at new and emerging strategies for learning that I may not have used but help me improve my effectiveness.

The behaviorist theory, I believe, will always be core to learning new and basic material, just as stimulus and response is core to social learning and is interwoven in general human experience. Take, for example, the call and response in poetry, in religion, in parenting, verbal and nonverbal communication… in law and social order run a red light, get a ticket, pay a fine – don’t do it again. In the work force, there’s performance evaluation, client feedback – we will always measure how we’re doing and what we know or think we should know on the basis of this theory. It’s tried and true and will always find relevance, I believe in the human learning experience.

After the basic behaviorist theory, things start to get more complicated. I begin to fear that, as a cognitive and constructive learner, my data can become as jumbled on the inside as my work desk on the outside if I don’t pay careful attention to what’s happening as I learn. The problem is that oftentimes information comes fast and furious, and I’m not always sure of how to organize it so that I can recall it in a meaningful way. This is true especially now that I’m so blessed with technological tools that can give me so much access to copious amounts information in a relatively short period of time. I’m a heavy user of networks and diverse resources. This is why I say that it’s time I stepped back and looked at more learning strategies that can help me with this.

As we’ve begun to think about how we think and how we learn, applying all the relative ‘learning theory speak’ in the appropriate context, I still believe it’s very important to me as a learner to be able to pull the bits and pieces of information that I’m learning into a meaningful context, and to be able to transfer that knowledge to relevant situations. In week 1 of the learning theories course, I understood how I learn, even though I didn’t speak the LT language the way I do now. Now, through video instruction, reading different group opinions, discussion threads, blogs and text book data about learning theory, I’m much more comfortable discussing how I learn in relation to different learning theories.

I still hold to the premise that the more information I have, the less I want to store in my internal database – and why should I, with smart cards and thumb drives, internet bookmarks and other such tools available for use? High level concepts are important, connections are important… but what I want to know most about the ‘stuff’ that goes with it – resources, details, supporting data, case studies and research trials – is where to access it when I need it. This is one role of technology for me. The other is how to use these amazing tools to have a meaningful exchange with others about the concepts and the stuff to gain a deeper understanding as I move forward.

Connectivism

Connectivism A VERY interesting week for us, as we studied this topic.  For this post, I didn't include my parents in my connectivism network.  Even though they have both passed on, I wonder if I should have.  Much of what they taught me, either by example or by words and simple interaction forms the foundation of my approach as I acquire knowledge, so they are very present in my processes.  This mindmap tool, by the way, is way cool.  Should you decide to make one, here's the site:  http://www.text2mindmap.com/ - Connectivism at work!

I'm a bit of a loner, so initially, I thought of myself as quite the self-directed learner; however, after this week's lesson, I realize that the categories pictured here have many branches.  Friends and family, for example, have positively contributed to my learning process...sometimes through encouragement, mentoring, and by example.  And that learning, those life lessons that one tends to get from friends and family, certainly has elements of complexity that I sometimes wonder at.  For example, a family member who smoked and died of cancer indirectly taught me (though not just by dying) that I didn't want to carry smoking (even second hand) forward in my life.  The older cousin who attended college and seemed to have everything in order gave me another perspective on the benefits of the college experience.  From that person, I learned about different opportunities and broadened my scope past my immediate environment. A friend who won the lottery and left her husband made me look at my own marriage more appreciatively and relationships in general more critically.  From that experience, I'm able to try new things to celebrate the closeness of my family.

My network, which includes books that I read at the library, not all academic, has definitely changed the way that I learn.  I can look beyond my immediate environment, for example, and know that there are other experiences to be had and shared even though I haven't yet had them directly.  I use Google most often for search - it's automatic.  However, bing is a happy tool for me as well.  Yahoo, not so much.  When I have questions, I like to use How Stuff Works, and I frequently visit TED to see new technological innovations. As I move forward in this course, I'm using more RSS feeds and blog resources, with favorable results.

I think diversity of opinions sometimes confuses learning and knowledge. Of course, one has to be mentally strong in this day and age - as my grandmother said, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." I have seen how some people are swayed by what they see on the internet, on YouTube, etc.  Like commercial advertising, 'It's not all really real.'  I don't believe that all connections are meant to be for the long-term.  Some connections are just meant to trigger an interest, or set one on a particular path to learning - these connections don't necessarily have to be maintained for learning to continue. 
In my experience, many connections that I made years ago that set me on a particular path have outlived their usefulness, still I continue to evolve in the things that I got from those past experiences, finding new connections all the time.

The network pictured here will likely change as I change; and (I hope) I'll never stop learning!

Evaluating and Identifying Online Resources

Eric P. Jensen’s article “A Fresh Look at Brain Based Education” , which can be found at http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v89/k0802jen.htm, presents a compelling review of more than two decades of debate about the practical usefulness of brain based research in an educational environment. While this week’s ID assignment has been largely about the brain and learning, this article provided some clarity for me on why this has become so important. Originally, at the beginning of this week’s study, I was a naysayer, thinking, “I don’t have to know how a car is constructed in order to drive one.” Similarly, “I don’t’ have to break down the chemical and natural processes of the brain in order to construct a valid learning experience.”


This article argues that, while neuroscience is not exclusively the factor that will make or break a lesson’s construct, it’s certainly a factor, and shouldn’t be ignored. After reading this article’s arguments, I have to agree. Certainly, some of the strategies of application mentioned here, for example, incorporating physical education and music into the environment to strengthen the learning process – even meditation and stress reduction (which I find equally as useful) – not only make logical sense – but scientific sense.

Sometimes things have to be said in a certain way for all the pieces to click into place, right? So for those of you who could use a different presentation to understand the issues related to brain based education, this article is certainly one that I would recommend.

"The Information Approach to Cognition" provides a summary information processing concepts. It reviews the stages of memory, discusses knowledge organization, and concept formation, all concepts that we have just gone over and now know that, by repetition and looking at different representations of the same ideas, we stand a good chance of enhancing our learning potential here.

What I like about this article, too, is how it cleanly ties each principle of the direct instruction model to practical use in the classroom. For example, to gain the student’s attention, the article suggests that the instructor use cues to signal the start of the lesson, and move around the classroom and use voice inflections to get the class engaged. This is very simple and basic information that I find useful as I try to look at how to become a better instructional designer. I can’t move around the classroom, because all of my classes are online; however, I can look at parallel strategies to enhance that online/classroom experience. Nothing new here, but certainly useful all the same.

Source: Huitt, W. (2003). The information processing approach to cognition. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved 05-16-2010 from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/infoproc.html

User Access: Unlimited!

When we’re looking for a job, most of us make it our business to know what’s going on in the field we’re trying to pursue. We’re up on government laws that impact our business practices and norms. We’re savvy about emerging trends and innovative opportunities. But when we get the job and have been in it for a while, we can allow ourselves to get bogged down with just day to day business… you could even say we get complacent, and we forget about the value we wanted to add to the nature of our business by staying informed. What about the time it takes to do research?


In this day and age, we don’t have to worry about time consuming research – most of the time someone else is already doing it for us. I enjoy reading Making Change, because Cathy Moore offers different ways to look at planning and implementing an instructional project, truly lively ideas for elearning. It’s not extremely technical, but offers a real world perspective about the practice of instructional design – putting it into context. I work with a small business, and I’m relatively new in the field, so this is huge for me in my daily activities. Also, if you go to the site and scroll through the categories, you’ll find some very insightful tips and helpful reading.

Another resource that I adore for now is onlineteachingtips.org. A great number of contributors are linked to this site, with online courses that you can actually go in and view. I could spend a great deal of time here, because my company’s focus is on the adult learner who has little time and often takes our courses outside their normal daily routine. I peruse these sites to look at how some of the big guns are teaching online and delivering nontraditional material. This site doesn’t have live feed, so it doesn’t deliver me updates in real time, but who cares? It’s great to visit it, and I can do it just by clicking the link right here on my blog. (So can you)

Finally, because I work with a company called Parentpoints, and we make it our business to know how parents and educators are communicating or not communicating…and what they’re considering to be priority issues, I have a link to PTA Community. Unlike PTO, which is geared more toward fundraising, PTA focuses on the issues that impact the family and, consequently, children and education.

Five, ten years ago, information would never have been so accessible as it is today. Yes, we have to be careful and decide on the authenticity of some of the information we’re getting, but wasn’t that always the case? (And isn’t Myth Busters, along with countless organizations continually proving that we didn’t do such a good job of that in the past – say, hundreds of years). As a jumping off point, I have to say the information accessibility is phenomenal! So use it!

Wii Came, Wii Played, Wii Learned!

When we first took a look at Wii, my husband and I were skeptical. The Mii characters were childish looking, and we strongly judged the game by its avatars. Further, we were against the concept of our teenage boys becoming addicted to playing games, when they could be learning to design them instead – since they both expressed an interest in game development and design.

We shrugged and bought it anyway, since the family grapevine has labeled us strict and extreme in our parenting. Extreme parenting? Puhleez!

In our Wii exposures, my husband and I both agree that Nintendo has caught onto something. The simulation feels so real, and engaging. Not only that, but the game variations are incredible!

The Wii experience opened my eyes to something I hadn’t thought of before. Simulation, previously relegated to government training agencies and deep pocket companies is now possible for the average Joe. Not only is it possible, it’s happening. Virtual worlds have been around for more than a decade now, and not just for big companies like Google, but for brokerage firms, advertising agencies, car manufacturers! Many companies are establishing a virtual presence and they’re taking advantage of the millions of players who frequent the virtual worlds.

What does this mean for instructional design? Well, it’s a virtual plethora of available opportunities to engage users outside our normal reach. Simulation technology, like the IBM computers of old, is now becoming more readily available to enhance a user’s learning experience.

This appeals to users on all levels, and allows instructional designers the kind of delivery flexibility that is mind-boggling! I for one can't wait to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty in this emerging arena.

Generational Order

Generational Order is a funny term.

How did Parentpoints come up with it? What does it mean?

Why should you care?

Well, Generational Order is just two words put together to form a concept about what used to be in place in the social scheme of things, and what seems to be out of place today.

Here's a few Encarta definitions to get your mind working:

Generation - 1) a group of contemporaries. That is, all of the people who were born at approximately the same time, considered as a group, and especially when considered as having shared interests and attitudes. 2) Stage in descent. A single stage in the descent of a family or a group of people, animals, or plants, or the individual members of that stage.

Order - 1) The way things are arranged, classified, or patterned.

And here's the Parentpoints official definition:

Generational Order - The natural law that is core to regulating the cycle of procreation, the balance of human existence, and the effects of human interaction on the continuous evolution of a civilization.

There are three terms in this definition that you should be concerned about:
Natural Law, Balance, and Human Interaction

It's important that we hold these key terms in mind, because we live in uncertain times. The past fifty years have carried us to rapid technological advances, including inventions designed to keep us connected, but also to keep us engaged, entertained, and therefore disconnected as a result, particularly from our elders who are no longer in the workplace and don't have as much access to the things that engage their progeny for much of the day.

The past fifty years have also seen a jump in family instability due to stress factors and the overall confusion of just trying to keep up in this fast paced world. This instability has opened the door to more and more elements like drug addiction, alcoholism, mental instability, incarceration and other related situations that continue to threaten our family structure.

These are things that a strong and focused family could detect, intervene, and eliminate, and a scattered family will likely not detect or act on until it's too late in the game not to suffer consequences that could have been avoided.

Generations are our living elders, and their children, and their children's children, all doing their part to keep order and balance in the world. Have you ever heard the phrase, "You never stop being a parent?" Well, that used to be true. When we had children, even though some of us were still children ourselves, we learned real quick that it stopped being about us and started being about them. We had to feed their bellies, first off. While we were doing that, we had to feed their hearts with our love and our caring, and most importantly, our protection. We had to let them know straight away that they were not alone, that they had somebody they could count on to catch them when they fell and to guide them where they needed to go until they could navigate themselves. We had to keep a safe harbor, should they ever feel the need to come back home.

We kept that home in order, and we looked around us at a bigger home. That is, our communities, our cities, states and our nation. We had to make sure we also did our part out there, because we knew we'd have to send them out there someday, and we wanted it to be a safe place where voices could be heard, values respected, and every human could walk with dignity and regard.

And when our children had children, like us they had to realize real quick that now, as parents, they were now tasked with the same job we had. And we got to be grandparents. Now ain't that grand? We got to relax a little bit, pamper the little ones and, when necessary, offer council so everybody understood how to manage all these things that were new to them but part of the natural order of things. What is a world without order but chaos?

So this is how our societies have been built in the past. In an ordered world, we parents groom our children while they're young. We give them as much as we can for them to walk as members of the human race, respecting the values of others and conducting themselves with dignity and respect as they get their educations and start preparing their place out in the world. When they're ready, we hand them the reigns. As they become parents and adults, making their impact on the world, they come to us from time to time for guidance, but knowing that the weight of tomorrow and the victory is now theirs.

In a stable world, the elders are qualified with knowledge, wisdom, and experience, and are available to guide their progeny from a position of dignity in the family.

Parents and adults have the respect of their children. They have a handle on how to navigate their modern environment, and they're able to lead and coach those children so they can become strong adults who are an asset to the world they live in.

Children respect their parents and elders; they learn from them and are able to form their own ideas, enjoying life with the protection of their elders.

In an unstable world, in the world we have slipped into, Elders have been ostracized. They are not respected and they're often viewed as useless. Their wisdom becomes an untapped resource. Take a minute to look around you, if you will.

In an unstable and unbalanced world, parents are getting younger and younger. They are missing the wisdom that would have been passed down from the elders. The new grandparents are younger and under-qualified for their roles. Look around, and see the evidence of this.

In an unstable world, children are making bad choices. They lack the basic things that used to be taught by their parents and elders. They are starving for true guidance. Look!

This is why Parentpoints teaches Generational Order. We understand that the patterns of society are shaped by the choices that we make. We have become a society quick to complain, and slow to offer real solutions. We have become an every-man-for-himself race without acknowledging that, as we become parents and elders, it's not about us. We convince ourselves that we're working three and four jobs for our families, to prepare our children for a better life than the one we had... and all the while the one we're giving them is abandonment, lack of guidance, and a self-serving example to pass on to our grandchildren.

Parentpoints teaches Generational Order to bring us back to that reverence that we used to have for our elders, who still have some wisdom to impart to those who'll listen. To bring us back to the kind of parenthood that begins in the home with talking to each other, spending time together, building each other up and being part of each other's lives. Parentpoints teaches Generational Order to restore knowledge and bring order back to the American Family.

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