Saturday, June 25, 2011

Week 7: Fitting the Pieces Together
Now that you have a deeper understanding of the different learning theories and learning styles, how has your view on how you learn changed?

I realized that every time when I was studying about any learning theory I had one of those moments of "aha" and related to my way of learning. During the first weeks we learned about behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism and discuss about how we personally learn in relation to those three theories. I posted in the classroom discussion board that I was using multiple ways to learn from behaviorism to constructivism.
Then we continue our quest studying about constructivism and social learning and again the moment of "aha" was present acknowledging that we construct what we learn and understand, and that social context affect the our environment and ways of learning. Since online courses are increasing in the last years we discuss about if online environment can provide meaningful and effective social learning. During my discussion I stated that self-regulation on the students side and instructors ability are indispensable for e-learning environments. We finished gaining information about learning theories with connectivism and adult learning. In other words my view has changed realizing that it is important to know all the learning theories and that this days technology plays an important role helping all type of learners.

What have you learned about the various learning theories and learning styles over the past weeks that can further explain your own personal learning preferences?
I learned that sometimes I need and use the behaviorism approach to stimulate myself through reminders and environmental stimuli. In other words if I use the concept of terminal behavior a step further like Dr. Ormrod suggest, then I think about a goal and all the necessary steps that I need to follow in order to achieve it. "Stimuli and Responses"Sometimes I used the cognitivism theory encoding information and related to previous information to store it and use it when need it. I learned that sometimes is easier for me to organize information in chunks, and that the more senses I use to learn then it will be easier for me to retrieve information. 

 










"Constructivism"Many times I find myself talking with peers about any specific topic and helping each other to construct our  ideas using our past knowledge and discussing how to use and implement the new information. Sometimes I construct my knowledge using the information that I know with the one provided by the instructor to understand better the new information.



Using the Social Learning theory I realized that I have been learning a lot through interactions with my colleagues and environment in any social setting. With social interactions my knowledge increase and I am always willing to learn from somebody and assist to the person that might need assistance understanding something.

As an adult learner I found that the experiential learning theory was another of the "aha" moments in my way of learning. "This cyclic process involves learner to set goals, thinking, planning, experimenting and making decisions, and finally actions, followed by observing, reflecting, and reviewing." With this theory I am able to use my own experience and reflection about that experience helping me to transfer the knowledge and skills. I found that as adult learner the factors of  life experience, work experience, and positive/negative previous experience have been beneficial for my learning helping me to make connections and retrieve information.

What role does technology play in your learning (i.e., as a way to research for information, to record information, to create, etc.)?
As you can see at the end I realized that in one way or another I has been using all the theories without knowing, the benefit of this review of information is that I can find the advantages of all of this theories and adapt them for my own personal learning style. After all we are in the twenty first century and learning is changing with the use of different tools. Technology plays a very important role here. Imagine we can read book online, do some research, translate documents from one language to another, have all the benefits of visuals and video tape recording to boost your memory and learn on the best way you can. Probably one decade ago my thoughts could be different about this topic, now I am part of e-Learning and I am using those befits. The best part is that I'm able to participate in discussion forum with many students that have been helping me with their wise as well as the instructor with his/her wisdom and guidance. Walden University has been giving me the tools to succeed as adult learner.
Thanks
References
Laureate, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Behaviorism and Instructional Design [Video]. Available from www.waldenu.edu.

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.
Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K. (2003). Adult learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Adult_Learning

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