Week 1: Learning Styles

Week 1

Framework or Skeleton

During my learning journey towards becoming a qualified and confident Learning Manager I had many interactions with Learning Frameworks, mostly in a conceptual manner. But sometimes I think lecturers or the course materials assume one’s knowledge of learning frameworks. Even the language used to describe one thing can be so different.

We have been taught many frameworks but never did I sit down and evaluate and compare them in order to form a big picture. I sort of didn’t understand I need to see a bigger picture of how Learning theory has underlined Contemporary learning design frameworks to form Conceptual frameworks.

But more about this in Week 2’s post.

Question or Exclamation

Two of the most important Learning Design Frameworks in Learning Management are the 8 Learning Management Questions and Dimensions of Learning. Know your learner or how does your learner learn best or Habits of mind are various approaches to gain optimal knowledge of each learner before the learning journey start and thereafter to consider these in the teaching context.

Learners may be assessed according to their Learning Styles or Multiple Intelligence (Gardner, 1975).

My learning style:

Active                                        Reflective

      ACT                              X                    REF

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

       Sensing                                        Intuitive

      SEN                  X                                INT

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

       Visual                                         Verbal

      VIS      X                                            VRB

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

       Sequential                                     Global

      SEQ                  X                                GLO

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

Completed on Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire

  

1.     What is your learning style?

·        Mostly Visual but close to middle for all others.

2.     What sort or learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?

·        Visual mind maps like bubble.us and for me the newly discovered Glogster. Bubble.us I used to understand the differences between Learning theories, Conceptual frameworks and Learning frameworks. Glogster I used to sequentially map out what is expected of me for the synopsis. 

3.      How does ICT support differences in learning styles?

·        ICT’s provide the opportunities to adjust the learning or method of delivery to suit various learning styles.

For example if a formative assessment included:

	Blogs	Glogster
Active	While enjoying collecting information these learners can post the links in one place.	These learners have the opportunity to look forward to making their writing more exciting with different text bubbles
Reflective	Space and time to put thoughts into words regarding the information gathered	The learners’ writing can be short or long with additional links to reflective learning
Sensing	Proving these learners with recommended topics to write about	Facts can be linked to appropriate websites that link the knowledge to the real world
Intuitive	While leaving space for the intuitors to be abstractive and creative	These learners may show possibilities or relationships discovered
Visual	Blogs have room for learners to add multimedia, mind maps and other visual aids	Glogster allow for creativity beyond pen and paper to interlinking multimedia
Verbal	Learners are able to write to their “heart’s content” and respond actively to information gained	Glogster provide the opportunity for group work that is an ideal activity for verbal learners
Sequential	The chronological nature of blogs allow specifically for stepwise learning	These learners may use Glogster to examine skipped steps with their own references
Global	These learners can blog in a random style about their learning and then be encourage to make connections in a task like, writing a synopsis.	Because global learners may solve problems quickly, Glogster allow them to share the information in a novel way.

(Felder, & Solomon, n.d.)

Gardner's multiple intelligences
My results from an online questionnaire 

Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

After reading Prensky’s research related to the amazing difference between contemporary learners in an educational system designed before technology. Although his research has attracted criticism, he does focus ones attention to the needs of our learners and not on our own past experiences. I consider myself between a digital immigrant and a digital native. Although at school (finished 1997) I had minimal computer interactions, my husband and I had a digital photography and videography business from 2001. This has fast-tracked my ICT knowledge and skills that are transferable to other technologies or into the classroom.

21^st century learners & Learning theories 

AGO Thinking strategy to determine one or more of the following:	Behaviourism	Cognitivism or Cognitive constructivism	Constructivism or Social Constructivism	Connectivism
Aims – general direction	v  Learning occurs through observations (Siemens, 2004, p. 2) v  Operant conditioning or external stimuli (Lein, 2008)	v  About how the learner understands things – developmental stages & learning styles (Atherton, 2011) v  Input to long term recall (Siemens, 2004, p. 2)	v  Grows out of social encounters (Atherton, 2011) v  Create knowledge as attempt to understand experiences (Siemens, 2004, p. 3)	v  Driven by the understanding that decisions are rapidly altering foundations (Siemens, 2004, p. 5)
Goal – ultimate destination	v  Behaviour should focus on simple elements (Siemens, 2004, p. 2)	v  Tie the material into existing information to help memorise the content (Lein, 2008)	v  Actively attempting to create meaning (Atherton, 2011) v	v  Ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts (Siemens, 2004, p. 5)
Objective – recognisable point of achievement along the way	v  Learning is about behaviour change (Siemens, 2004, p. 2) v  Achieving proficiency through frequent review and external feedback (Lein, 2008)	v  Compare and link to cognitive structures or schema, which may be combined, extended or altered to accommodate new information (Mergel, 1998)	v  Seek out the knowledge or solve the problem on their own, rather than given the knowledge or instructions for the problem (Lein, 2008)	v  Ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today (Siemens, 2004, p. 7)
Theorists:	v  Pavlov; Thorndike; Watson; Skinner	v  Piaget; Cooper; Tolman; Miller; Bruner	v  Bartlett; Vygotsky;	v  Siemens

(Atherton, 2011)

(Lein, 2008)

(Siemens, 2004)