Hi everyone,
wow! I can't believe I've made it to uni... then I find out I'm doing e-learning. That scared the pants off me, as I am a digital immigrant. My learning style is also kinestetic. I, watch, I try, I learn(flex... what was I thinking!) Any way I survived and am having so much fun. I am learning a lot about what my children know as well. They have been fantastic teachers.
I found the learning style activity interesting as I have studied learning styles in my early childhood career. My personal learning style has basically remained unchanged. Young children however have ever changing learning styles. The fact that we don't all learn the same, means that for learning managers, the learning experiences we offer our students need to be engaging for all learning preferences. ICT's will play a big part in achieving this, but we must remain open to the fact that ICT's may not engage all of our students. It will be up to the learning manager to know which student has what learning style and how best to engage them.
According to Waterhouse(2005) : "e-learning involves improving teaching and learning using instructional strategies enhanced by technology, especially computer technology". I agree with this statement as I feel to be futures orientated we must be flexible and innovative in how we teach. I hope to engage my students and encourage them to think outside the square.
I am hoping the gap between me being a digital immigrant and my students being digital natives, means that I will have the opportunity to learn from those I teach, hopefully creating a strong, learning bond with my students.I also agree with the learning engagement theory "relate, create, donate"(Kearsley1997 & Schniderman1998)giving our students meaningful tasks that relate to them directly, encouraging communication, collaboration and creativity, helping students feel as though they have some control over their learning journeys. Technology can play an important role in helping learning managers to facilitate an engaging learning journey for teachers and students alike.
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Hi Trish
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is up to us (learning manager) to provide the correct resources to suit all of the students strengths and needs. We can't just presume that all of the students will work well with ICT's because they have been brought up with the technology. I'm sure there are still many families that do not have a computer in their home and we must cater for these.
I think it is also vital that students are in control of their learning, not in the way that they choose when, what and how they learn directly, as if you did this with every student there would be chaos! But that we as learning managers observe, interact and cater for the students needs and challenge them. Ensure that we provide equal opportunities for each student so that they are supported and scaffolded to a higher level of thinking and learning in the classroom.
Great Blog Trish!!
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your input, I felt it necessary to clarify my comments about allowing students to choose when, what and how they learn. I would make this a collaborative exercise so that the entire class had input and felt valued. I would ensure students were given guidelines as to content as I would still need to ensure curriculum was adhered to. I feel this would still allow students a wide variety of freedom as there are many environments to encourage learning
Cheers
Trish