Fitting the pieces Together
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.
Technology plays a very important part in my personal learning. First, I love technology. I love the things that I can do with software and I am amazed at some of the new technologies that is developed seemingly everyday. In my mind map, I had to come up with different things that I use to help study or learn. I know that I use search engines quite a bit, like google.com or yahoo.com, but I never really gave it much thought. I also rely on some sites as jumping-off points, like Wikipedia.com as a place to start, but obviously not use as the basis of any research. Just the fact that we can all sit here, some of us on the other side of the planet from where I am in Colorado, and learn and communicate easily and quickly is amazing. Just imagine back when we would have had to send our correspondence pony express!
