Learning Theories and Instruction

As the Learning Theories and Instruction course sneaks its way into its last week, we are told to answer a couple questions that probes different types of learning behavior.

Now that I have a deeper understanding of different learning theories, what has really changed for me is the idea of creating material that better encompasses more variety. I know when I have taught classes before; the students will write in the course evaluations and state that they loved the communication flow or that they really enjoyed the movies. I truly did not understand that what they were saying if they asked for more (it is not easy to put in more movies when time when time constraints are a major factor). After reading different lessons and watching the videos posted in this course, it really became clear what the students were saying in my courses and how I feel about learning and developing ideas. If I were ever able to make my own rules about developing curriculum, I would plan it so that the students would have more time, I would stretch the courses out over several weeks instead of trying to cram a semesters worth of information into a forty-hour week.

As far as my personal learning experience, I have really decided that I learn best using a few different methods. I am definitely a visual, audio, hands-on learner. I learn best if I can perform the task that I am learning about. For instance, when I learned how to drive a stick shift listening to a lecture about how to operate the clutch and shift at the same time would have been fruitless. The same is true when I bought my Harley a couple of years ago, the motorcycle safety course was a huge help because it incorporated some lecture and then mostly hands-on riding around a parking lot. I also learn from listening to people talk, but only if it is quick, I find that a lot of lecture can get boring, so it needs to be broken with questions or conversation about the topic.

Thinking about the way that people learn and responding to the way I learn has been an interesting topic. Thinking back to how I learned when I was a child versus how I learn now has drastically changed. When I was a kid, a lot of the information I learned was by memorization, like spelling and math, and by teacher’s lectures. Now, having that foundation, I can build upon that memorization and learn something new. When I want to learn something new, I usually turn to the internet. I am especially fond of google.com, which will normally turn up all sorts of results of different web pages that I can look at and sift through. Another place that provides a jumping-off point is wikipedia.com. Although wikipedia.com is free information that may or may not be correct, it is a nice place to start. After I look at that site, I may be able to search on topics related to the topic I read about on wikipedia.com, finding sources that I can use in an educational environment. Another place that I can find new knowledge is through browsing at the library. For instance, one topic I am interested in right now is log cabins and how to build them. I went to the library, there was an entire shelf of books dedicated to building log cabins, architecture, and some books described how to build a log cabin for a minimal amount of money. Another rich source of information is gained by asking my friends, family and co-workers questions. My brother knows just about everything a person could know about Ford vehicles, if I have a question about why my vehicle is making a funny noise, he can figure it out in about 5 minutes. If I were to try to figure out what a particular noise was on a vehicle, I would have to start from scratch, from the engine.

Although there has been dispute about the connectivism way of learning, I still feel that connectivism has its place within a learning environment. What I gather that the theory connectivism is really saying is that we learn based on other things we have already learned, that technology helps us learn and that we use internal and external knowledge to cement new ideas in our minds. When thinking about connectivism in that context, I really do not see how connectivism is all that shattering in the way of older theories of the way people think and learn. I can support the theory of connectivism because I have had personal experience with using technology and using prior knowledge and experience to help boost understanding of new ideas.