As another online class comes to a close, I will be reflecting upon what I have learned and how I will apply what I have learned in future courses and in my career.  I have found myself very happy with the courses I have taken and will continue on my path.

As I have furthered my knowledge in how people learn, something that I found surprising is how interrelated the learning theories can be.  I am impressed with the fact that the theories that I have learned can be used in combination with each other and not used in isolation.  “Understanding these different learning styles can help you to design more effective learning experiences for all learners.” (Ormrod, 2009

I have learned that I am intrinsically motivated to learn.  Some of the styles presented in this class reflect my own person learning style and I have acquired some strategies to help myself learn in different ways.  Educational technology is a field that I am interested in and I love learning about the new advances in technology related to education.

Ertmer and Newby bring up an important point in their article.  They said that “linking” the understanding of these learning theories and instructional design is the key to having a successful learning experience. (Ertmer et al, 1993)  This information is important to me in my path towards a career in instructional design.  I must know the learning theories and put them into my design to have learners benefit from them.  Another important piece of information that I have learned in this course is that I cannot tailor all of my instruction to only one learning strategy, or try to encompass all of the strategies in one lesson. 

My favorite part of this course was the last week’s lesson on motivation.  I believe that motivating learners is an important part of education.  Even though adult learners are mostly intrinsically motivated to learn, I feel that making sure the content is relevant to the user and “grabbing” the attention of the learner is so imperative.

References

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.

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.

Mind Map WIth Connectivism

Mind Map with Connectivism

My assignment this week asked me to create a mindmap to illustrate my network connections.

How has your network changed the way you learn?

My network has changed the way that I learn by using these new technologies to gain information.  Not only do I have the paper, pencil and book to learn, I also have the social networking and research.  Another way that it has changed the way I learn is that I am always wondering "what is the resource?" for the things I read online.  We obviously have to be careful, because anyone can post online.  

Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?

I find I best learn from a good discussion or a video or powerpoint presentation.  Although I read the book and materials, I have an easier time understanding the material presented when I can watch a video or a powerpoint presentation on it.

How do you gain new knowledge when you have questions?

If I have a question I search for the answer online.  I would do some internet research to find out more information.  If that does not work, I post a question to my professor or work colleagues.  The response generally clears up any information I need.

In what ways does your personal learning network support or refute the central tenets of connectivism?

Connectivism is the notion that we learn through the networks that we construct to obtain knowledge.  Most of my networks support the central tenets of connectivism.  I would say that facebook mostly does not support my knowledge.  Although, sometimes some of the people in my same line of work post relevant knowledge that I learn from.  The blogs, internet research, PD, and classroom resources definitely give me ways to gain new information. 

Research on the brain and information processing

This week I will be reviewing 2 articles regarding the brain and learning, and on information processing that occurs during the learning process.

http://pequotlakes.k12.mn.us/userfiles/file/aep04_2_6-1.pdf

This article is entitled Brain Based Learning - The wave of the Brain written by Ruth Palomba Weiss in 2000.  She talks about how the 3 pound brain has over 100 billion neurons and each one has 10,000 synaptic connections to the other neurons.  She goes on to talk about how the brain works and its different parts.  She pays special attention to the thalamus and states how it is responsible for attention.  She also talks about memory, recall and information.  Overall, the article was very well written and had some analogies that helped understand.

http://www.utpjournals.com/jvme/tocs/303/226.pdf

This is an article titled Problem Solving Techniques and Theories written by Laura E. Hardin in 2002.  She talks about problem solving components and knowledge that students must have to complete problem solving.  She also outlines the historical progression of problem solving theories (behaviorism, cognitivism) and expert-novice problem solving theories (chunking, schema, metacognition).  I found this article to be very informative regarding the techniques and theories.

Welcome to my blog!  I am going to review a few blogs regarding instructional design and learning theories and give my reviews below.  Enjoy!

http://christytucker.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/instructional-design-and-e-learning-blogs/

In this blog the author, Christy Tucker, lists several blogs designed by instructional designers, e-learning developers and workplace learning specialists.  This will be very handy for me to look over as I am starting my education and career in Instructional Design.  She also links that tell what an instructional designer does, career tools for Instructional Designers and how to get into Instructional Design.

http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-marathon-50-blogs-on-learning.html

Donald Clark, the author of the blog has listed at least 50 sites that have information on different learning theories.  The contents of his blog has the leaders in the learning movements and the theorists who have made giant contributions in learning theory.  This is a great blog for me because I will be learning how to educate others by these theories.

http://www.mikahjenae.blogspot.com

Mikah Pritchard, the author of this blog is an instructional designer.  Her blog has ideas on how to create blogs, ideas about learning theories, web instruction, and lists instructional technology and its uses.  I enjoyed her blog and found it very educational.  Some of the instructional technology that she has mentioned have been useful for me.