Learning Theory and Educational Technology

What are your beliefs about how people learn best? What is the purpose of learning theory in educational technology?

I believe that people learn best when they are exposed to their best learning style. Learning styles is defined as “those educational conditions under which a student is most likely to learn.” (Stewart & Felicetti, 1992). When people discover what brings about their best understanding of information, they tend to use that strategy to learn. Although there are many different learning styles that people posses, they all fall under one of the three main learning styles. Those learning styles are visual, auditory and kinesthetic. “Visual learners prefer using images, pictures, colors, and maps to organize information and communicate with others.” (learningstylesonline.com, 2012). Auditory learners learn best by hearing. Herron (2012) explains that auditory learners benefit best from verbal instruction and discussion of material. Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing. Hands-on activities are their primary and best way to learn. Tanahill (2009) explains that kinesthetic learners are individuals that learn best through hands-on practice, demonstrations, and physical activities. Tanahill (2009) also explains that they have the tendency to learn through trial and error as they repeatedly practice a new skill, task or concept.

When discussing learning and educational technology, there are many theories to support that learning is taking place. Anderson (2008) explains that in order for learning to take place in educational technology, online materials must be designed properly, with the learners and learning in focus, and that adequate support must be provided. So basically, the theory about learning can co-exist within educational technology as long as it has a strong instructional design base for learning.

Anderson, T (2008). The theory and Practice of Online Learning. 2^nd Edition. Published by AU Press, Athabasca.

Herron, R. (2012). What Is Auditory Learning Style? eHow. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/facts_6145005_auditory-learning-style_.html

Learningstylesonlne.com, (2012). Discover your Learning Styles - Graphically! Retrieved from http://learning-styles-online.com/

Stewart, K. L., & Felicetti, L. A. (1992). Learning styles of marketing majors. Educational Research Quarterly, 15(2), 15-23.

Tanahill, K. (2009). Kinesthetic Learning Style: Strategies for Teaching Hands-on Learners in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://suite101.com/article/kinesthetic-learning-style-a162063



Blogs I responded to :

Mick Malkemus - http://gamification.anazana.com/en/blog-113203 
Schquetta Hawkins - http://learningtheoryeducationaltechnology05.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

Author: Leslie Moller
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 10:23:28 PM EDT
Subject: Blogs

Hi folks,

let's use this thread to list your blog url for your classmates.

You still will be posting your blog url to the drop box each module, this space is for you to communicate with each other. You get to pick who, at least 2 others, you want to post messages to each module. I do think i ts a good idea to switch around so you get to see a variety of opinions and ideas.

Remember its your blog, you have to stick to the topic but go out on a limb some times, post questions or arguments, sort of a free thinking or pondering place.

 

 

 

Learning Styles in Education

Here is my Video presentation on Learning Styles in Distance Education







Video's I commented on:

Seane @ http://learningsquared.blogspot.com
Michelle @ http://michellelandley.blogspot.com
Daniel @ http://daoprish.blogspot.com
Laura @ http://wojoedtech.blogspot.com
Lisa @ http://durffsblog.blogspot.com
Jerome@ http://jachenevert.blogspot.com

Moving Toward Dynamic Technologies

See link for my concept map: http://olufemi.wikispaces.com/


"As technology becomes integrated into the learning environment, the instructor or instructional designer must make decisions regarding which technology to use to achieve specific learning outcomes" (Moller, 2008). As an educator, I feel that all educators must use the best method to promote learning within their educational institution. Since we are in a technology era, integrating technology in the classrooms seems to be the best method to achieving specific learning outcomes. The most important part to integrating technology in the classroom is knowing which technology will have the greatest impact on learning. With that said, I believe that I am in the middle of the static-dynamic continuum. I began closer to the static end of the static-dynamic continuum at the beginning of this course and learned that I need to get out of my comfort zone. As a result, I began exploring some of the 2.0 technology programs and found that they are very challenging and promote learning. As I continue through this course and experience other courses in the future, I plan to continue to move completely towards the dynamic end of the static-dynamic continuum.

For additional information about static and dynamic technologies, please see the web address below:
http://minerclass.edublogs.org/2011/02/26/static-dynamic-learning-technologies-continuum%E2%80%A6/


Resources:

Moller, L. (2008). Static and dynamic technological tools. [Unpublished
Paper].

Module 4 Blog Post

Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/olufemi21/graphic-organizer-11377195/1

Collaboration:

- Stixy : works like an online bulletin board or whiteboard. It offers a work space where you can place content and collaborate with other people on the web. (Bogdan, 2011)

- Wikis: a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. (wiki.org, 2002)

- Writeboard: a free collaborative writing software. It can be used to write, edit, track changes, and rollback to previous versions. (Brogdan, 2011).

Communication:

- Skype: is software that enables you to make free calls anywhere in the world. Skype uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other users. It offers several features, including SkypeOut calling from Skype to regular and mobile phones worldwide, conference calling, and secure file transferring. You can also now share your screen with other users. Skype calls focus on video and audio quality, and secure the calls with end-to-end encryption. Read more: Skype - Download.com http://download.cnet.com/Skype/3000-2349_4-10225260.html#ixzz1lBzzDLAE

(France, 2010).

Blog: A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site. (Marketing Terms, 2012).

E-mail: Electronic mail that is sent and received via the internet.

Content:

Delicious: allows users to collect web-based resources into stacks which can be shared within the community and added to by others. (Marquis, 2012).

Twiddla: a real-time online collaboration tool. (Twiddla, 2012).

Wridea: Wridea is a web service first to avoid ideas being forgotten, then to organize and improve those ideas by giving you the opportunity to share your ideas with friends and necessary tools to improve your ideas by yourself and individually. (Bogdan, 2011).

References:

Bogdan, (2011). 10 Examples Of Very Useful Online Collaborative Tools. Reyrieved from http://www.topdesignmag.com/10-examples-of-very-useful-online-collaborative-tools/

Wiki, (2002). What is Wiki? Retrieved from http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

France, J. (2010). Skype. Retrieved from http://download.cnet.com/Skype/3000-2349_4-10225260.html

Marketing Terms. (2012). Blog: Weblog. Retrieved from http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/

Twiddla. (2012). Twiddla is a no-setup, web-based meeting Playground. Retrieved from http://www.twiddla.com/

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

Module 3, Blog 3

In
collaborative learning communities, participation should not be solely assessed
by only using checks and marks. Students should be assessed by their abilities
and contributions made towards the success of the group. “Not all assessments
translate into a mark” (Siemens, 2011). Some ways to assess participation
mentioned by Siemens is to allow other students to assess their peers, receive
feedback from online communities, assess on student contributions and assess
based on metrics from learning management systems. One difficulty that
educators have with assessing learning communities is keeping the assessment
fair and equitable. “In order to assess student performance in collaborative
activity effectively, the instructor needs to understand basic principles of
student assessment” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). This difficulty is present
because students in these learning communities have varying skill levels and
knowledge. One way to combat this issue is to assess based on each student’s
individual growth. A problem that is very prevalent in these learning
communities is dealing with members that do not want to collaborate within a
group. Other members that are faced with this issue should try to collaborate
with the unwilling member to see if the issue can be resolved. If this does not
solve the matter, then the instructor should be notified. At this point in
time, the instructor should have already made some prior guidelines that
address situations like this. “Because of these issues, instructors should take
some precautionary measures at the start of a course that involves
collaborative work” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). If the instructor finds that
the unwilling member is not cooperating, then the instructor should remove that
member from the group without giving any penalties to the other group members.
The actions of the instructor should not heavily impact the assessment plan
since the unwilling member has not made a consistent effort to do their part.



Reference
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning
together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Siemens, G (2011). Assessment of Collaborative Learning. (Approx.
9 min)

Siemens, G (2011). Learning Communities. (Approx. 11 min)

Related Articles


http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/74181.aspx

http://www.collaborativejustice.org/how.htm

http://www.joe.org/joe/1999april/tt1.php

Module 3: Creating a Storyboard

During Module 3, each student must put together a storyboard that represents the video presentation that covers different topics related to distance education. The topic that I chose was differentiated instruction. Feel free to view my story board and to make comments as needed. Please use the link below to view my storyboard.



http://olufemi.wikispaces.com/

Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

Module 2 Post 2

Collaborative interaction allows for multiple intelligences to come together in a single group or learning community. Each member in a learning community must be able to collaborate with one another in order to reach a common goal. Collaborative learning involves not only taking in new ideas but also creating new ideas. Smith and MacGregor (1992) illustrates that collaborative learning produces intellectual synergy of many minds coming to bear on a problem and the social stimulation of mutual engagement in a common endeavor.
Some online tools that are available today to facilitate collaborative interaction are video conferencing, web conferencing, voice over IP, virtual classrooms, blogs, and wiki’s just to name a few. “ Videoconferencing attempts to proximate face-to-face communication and web conferencing integrates the phone and networked computer screen so that an unlimited number of participants can talk to each other while viewing the same content ,” (Foreman, 2003). Foreman (2003) explains that Voice IP is a system, which bypasses the telephone and transmits audio over the same Internet lines that link users to their shared applications.

Foreman, J. (2003). Distance Learning and Synchronous Interaction. The Technology Source Archives at the University of North Carolina. Retrieved fromhttp://technologysource.org/article/distance_learning_and_synchronous_interaction/
Smith, B.L., & MacGregor, J.T. (1992). What is Collaborative learning? Retrieved from http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf.