Reflection

Adult learning theory was fascinating to me because I always thought that adult and children/teens learned in the same basic way. According to this theory, one way that adults learn differently, is that adult learning is problem centered rather than content oriented and experience provides the catalyst for learning activities. Because children lack life experience, sometimes the teacher/designer job is to provide experience for the student to relate learning. Something that I learned about my own learning process is motivation is a big factor in my educational goals. Intrinsic motivation drives me more than extrinsic, because grade, awards, or praises don't mean that much to me. Personally, my life is very full and I have to really want to do something in order for it to be completed. I also learned that I’m more productive if I’m using what I’m learning, applying it to something that is meaningful. Online learning is something that I’m still uncomfortable with and even though I know what and understand the theories behind online class, I still would prefer face to face class. I already have a Masters in education and information on learning theories, learning styles, and motivation was familiar to me. So the challenge was how education technology connects to these ideals. Second Life is an excellent example of how learning can benefit from technology in education. In Second Life, a person can create an avatar of himself to interact with others in a virtual world. Through this process, the varied learning theory, styles, and motivations can be met or addressed. In Second Life you can have virtual class and interact with you class mates and teacher in real time. It is another way to bring about the feeling of being connected with others in class beside e-mail, and discussion post and blogs. Knowing the basic learning theories will allow me to customize instructional design to learners needs. For example I use the multi-intelligence learning styles. I could use different technologies such as a WII for bodily/kinesthetic, using it to learn a dance or the Internet for maps and diagrams and battlefield representations for visual /spatial learners meeting their learning needs. Behaviorism is easy to do by creating simple multiple test questions in power-point or using a learning management system. Overall I found this class to be an enjoyable experience in online learning and look forward to taking the next class.

Fitting the Pieces Together

By learning the different learning needs and learning styles have altered my view on how I learned by reinforcing that I learned in many ways. I would still describe that the way I learn is a combination of constructivism, cognitivism and the different learning styles based upon what I'm trying to learn. For example, the other day, the washing machine had a leak; looking online I found many websites on how to fix a washing machine. Clicking on a website, a laundry list of problems with your washing machine appeared. Selecting the problem, (leaking washing machine), a written explanation of what could be the problem and how to fix it showed up on the screen. I understood what the possible problems and solutions were, but didn't know what the parts looked like. Heck, I didn't even know how to disassemble the washing machine to get inside of it. Lucky there was an icon for a diagram of washing machine, and in one click all became crystal clear. From this incident, I concluded that I'm a visual learner that uses cognitive skills to construct meaning from my learning. The use of technology has allowed me to fix a potential expensive problem to nothing more than taking an hour out of my day to fix the problem. I've found that technology has played a great deal in my present learning. Often I use Internet to find information about problems or questions I may have. I connect with friends, families and colleagues by using e-mail or any other social networks such as Face book or MySpace. Unfortunately I'm not one of these individuals who have a fancy phone such as an iPod or Blackberry in which looking up and retrieve information off the Internet in mobile device is a breeze. Taking online courses and reading blogs for learning new information is relatively new to me.

Review of Website focusing on the Brain and Learning

The Brain from Top To Bottom


The Brain from Top to Bottom is an interactive website on the human brain and behavior. It is broken up into many topics related to the human brain from the structure and function of the brain to the ideal of consciousness. The website also offers different levels of discussions from beginner to advance. The website also has a French version. The website has a part related to the material we study this week memory. In the website memory is discussed as sensory, short term, and long term memory. The three levels of discussion uses schema to explain the information to the reader. For example the beginner level on long term memory breaks it down to explicit and implicit memory. Intermediate level discusses long term memory in greater detail by focusing in on implicit memory, breaking it down to lower levels of procedural, emotional, priming effect, and conditional reflex. The last level, advance, breaks explicit memory into episodic and semantic memory, this format easily allows learners opportunity to adjust their understanding. Overall I fund this website to be very beneficial on the basic background information need to get an understanding of brain functions.

http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/index_d.html

Brain Connection

The Brain Connection is another website that I found to be useful in understanding the brain and how it is related to learning. It’s a great websites because t gives you many options to look up information about the brain and give you links to brain games. I personally like that library section of the website because it gives you information on various topics on the brain. Most of the articles were easy to read and understand. There were also links to other websites that and book reviews.
http://brainconnection.positscience.com/library/?main=genhome/learning-memory

Why?

The reason I’m interested in instructional design is that I did this 10 years ago but did not know it was an actual field. What I mean is when I was a Technology Education teacher, I created a modular technology lab where my students learned various aspects of technology, like robotics, lasers, computer programming, etc.., but like most good things in education, when there is a budget crunch things must go. Now that I know that there is an instructional design field, I’m trying to transition into that field from teaching. Along the way, I found useful information about the field that I hope to pass on to others interested in the field. It is one of the reasons why I am writing this blog- to journal my transition form teacher to designer and let others know what was successful and what was not. One thing that I found so far in my journey is that there are formal and informal ways to get into the field. I chose the formal way by getting training through online classes. I’m presently in the instructional design certificate program at Walden University (second reason for creating this blog- class assignment). The informal way is learning by reading blogs on instructional design, looking at college syllabi on instructional design, websites, books, and learning computer software used by instructional designers. I felt overwhelmed with all the information on instructional design, so I gave up on the cheap route, and planned to spend a couple of dollars on obtaining training. In the process of learning about instructional design, I did come across two blogs and one website that I found to be very useful in understanding what an instructional designer does and what knowledge one needs.


The first one is a website by Ann Gordon, who is an instructional designer.

http://instructionaldesign.gordoncomputer.com/IDRoles.html

It gives a good description on what an instructional designer does, what training is needed to get into the field, ID tools, examples, adult learning theory, ADDIE, and even example resumes. It also has links to other useful websites for ID training. This website really gave me a good understanding of the Instructional design field.

The second is a blog by Christy Tucker, who was once a teacher that transitioned to the instructional design field. She has sections on what is instructional design?, how to get into the field, What type of training you need, where to look for jobs and etc… It’s a very informative blog that is useful.

http://christytucker.wordpress.com/

The final Blog that I found to very useful is by Tom Kuhlmann, called the Rapid E-Learning. He has many articles that focus on Power-Point and how you can use Power-Point to create E-Learning. On this site I found many useful ways to create engaging Power-Points that I did not know one could do.

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/