Saturday, December 22, 2012

Blog Assignment: Fitting the Pieces Together


Now that you have a deeper understanding of the different learning theories and learning styles, how has your view on how you learn changed?


According to our text, “learning is not simply an academic exercise; it is of critical importance to both the individual and society.”  (Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. 2009)  Every individual learns in their own way.  Every individual is unique in their own way.  We as humans are different in every shape, form, color, style, etc.  My view on how I learn has not changed.  The methods I learn through, conventional or unconventional, most productively would be through seeing, watching, listening, doing, and trial & error.  I am more of a cognitive learner.  Maybe because of my vast computer background in programming and web designing.  I’m very logical and analytical.  Sometime when I get frustrated, I hope and wish someone would appear and be next to me helping and guiding and telling and showing me what to do and how to do it.  I sometimes shut my computer down and walk away.  That usually works and helps me.  This way I can think away from the computer.
   
What have you learned about the various learning theories and learning styles over the past weeks that can further explain your own personal learning preferences?

My personal learning preference is that with learning or retaining new information, I need to physically see how to do something.  In the text, “Bruner described three levels or stages of cognitive development.  The first level is enactive.  Knowledge is present in actions.  The second level is iconic.  A child visually summarizes images.  The third is symbolic representation.  The use of words and other symbols is used to describe experiences.”  (Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. 2009) These stages are present and used by babies, infants, toddlers and all the way up to adults.  I sometimes will draw a flowchart to map out what I have to do or should do or how to do something or how it should be done.  I am more of a visual learner.  Reading about something will give me an idea.  But I really need to see it in order for me to comprehend.  Dr. Jeanne Ormrod states in her Transcript for Information Processing and the Brain, “We do seem to have an amazing capacity to remember what we see, largely in an image form, but in general, visual imagery is a highly effective way of remembering things.” (Laureate Education, Inc.)

What role does technology play in your learning (i.e., as a way to search for information, to record information, to create, etc.)?

Karl Kapp states, “Cognitivism was created to document and analyze how humans process information.  The idea is that the learner is a complex information-processing system and to understand how learning occurs, one must understand how information processing occurs within the human brain.”  (Kapp, Karl. 2006 December 28)  I have to agree with this theory also.  Our brains are like the CPU of a computer that’s constantly processing information.  Whether it’s something we see, hear, read, or feel, we are taking it in and processing or storing it for future use / knowledge.  “The designer must have the ability to diagnose and analyze practical learning problems.  The instructional designer cannot properly recommend an effective prescriptive solution without an accurate analysis of the instructional problem.” (Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J.  1993)  Technology plays a huge role in my learning.  I am always searching via Google for other / more information on a topic.  I like creating websites, iAdventures and Wiki pages.  I really do not know what I would do without technology today.  It is so much easier to sit at a computer and Google what you are looking for / need than hop in your car and drive to the library.  Technology is at your fingertips in an instant.  I would be so lost and confused in a library that I would not know where to start looking and what to ask.  It would be more time consuming in a library.  Every minute counts for me.


Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.  Chapter 1, "Overview" (pp. 1–16).

Laureate Education, Inc., [Transcript], "Information Processing and the Brain", Dr. Jeanne Ormrod

Kapp, Karl (2006 December 28). “Definition: Cognitivism.” [Blog message]. Retrieved from http://www.uleduneering.com/kappnotes/index.php/2006/12/in-1980s-several-theories-of-learning/

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

No comments: