Week 1 Activities

Activity 1- Learning styles

What is your learning style? What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?

I completed the online learning style inventory by Felder and Solomon as I was unsure on exactly what my preferences and balances were when it came to my learning. My results are recorded below:

Active and Reflective	Borderline both. More towards Active.
Sensing and Intuitive	Borderline both. More towards Intuitive.
Visual and Verbal	High Visual
Sequential and Global	Borderline both. More towards Sequential.

The above results show that I was highly visual which I can relate to as when it comes to results I would rather read a table or graph compared to a paragraph explaining the results. However, when it comes to reading emails I find that I understand the email better if it is verbally said to me (read to me) rather me reading it myself. I believe the other learning styles are correct as it depends on the situation I am focusing on whether I am one or the other.

According to Felder and Solomon, “If you are a visual learner, try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is predominantly verbal. Ask your instructor, consult reference books, and see if any videotapes or CD-ROM displays of the course material are available. Prepare a concept map by listing key points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows between concepts to show connections. Colour-code your notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same colour”.

Learning experiences that would best suit my learning style would be lessons that are hands on, group orientated, real life examples (maths-measuring the length of a basketball court) and visual aids such as ICTs (PowerPoint presentations).

In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?

“It seems safe to state that learners have stable or slowly changing characteristics such as their identities, lifelong motivation and experiences of learning, physical and sensory access requirements, and related personal preferences eg. For particular kinds of information. But learners also have characteristics that develop in the process of learning, and that are dependent on the context in which they find themselves" (Beetham, 2006, p. 32).

Below are ways in which I would support each different learning style within a learning experience:

Active learners: Allow for group work with class members, whether it is one on one or larger groups.

Reflective learners: Ask higher-order thinking questions to students. Eg- Read the material and review what has been read and check for understanding by asking higher-order thinking questions.

Sensing learners: Relate learning materials to real life situations. Eg- 3 + 4 = 7. Use a number sentence. “My sister and I went to the shop. I bought 3 lollies and she bought 4. How many lollies did we have altogether?” I would use manipulatives to work out the sum. Eg- counters.

Intuitive learners: Re-read to the students that may need it. Eg- “Your 2^nd spelling word is house, my house is painted blue. House.” The spelling word has been said 3 times and once all the words are completed I would go back through all 10 spelling words again so no words were missed.

Visual learners: When given the chance  use diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is predominantly verbal.

Verbal learners: Encourage group work where students are gaining understanding of material by hearing classmates’ explanations. Allow time for each group member to speak.

Sequential learners: Relate new topics to other topics that students may already know about. Eg- “Last week we focused on $1 and $2 coins but today we are going to look at $5 notes which are more in value”.

Global learners: Allow time for students to apply new understandings. Relate the new topic to a familiar topic and allow students to work their way through the content.

With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?

As a learning manager I would allow access to ICTs for my students. ICTs can be easy to adapt into a lesson depending on the content. For example, if students are needed to give an oral presentation on a topic, you can suggest that the use of a PowerPoint to assist their learning with ICTs. The learners will then be able to refer to the PowerPoint and not have to make their oral presentation too ‘wordy’ as the PowerPoint can do that for them. Students will also then be catering for their visual classmates as some students may be lost within the speech and need some visual guidance to understand what is being said.

What sort of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone’s preferences?

It will never be possible to cater for all ‘preferences’ , however, “it is important to consider that all learners should be competent in accessing information in a variety of ways, and thus your design should not necessarily accommodate the preferences of all students where it is not appropriate”.

Profiling questions I would use:

What are your interests?

Would you rather work alone or in a group?

What learning style do you consider yourself?

How does ICT support differences in learning styles?

“ICT is well positioned to cater for all learners. Consider the infinite combinations available of individual and collaborative work, social networking, visual, auditory, and interactive resources, colour and multiple formatting opportunities. All work towards enhancing the experience of all learners”.

Activity 2- Multiple intelligences

I completed the online multiple intelligence test as I was unsure on exactly what abilities I excelled in and which ones I had troubles with.

My results are shown below:

Linguistic (Word smart)	17
Logical (Number smart)	16
Interpersonal (People smart)	16
Intrapersonal (Myself smart)	15
Musical (Music smart)	9
Visual/Spatial (Picture smart)	15
Naturalistic (Nature smart)	9
Kinaesthetic (Body smart)	11

According to the test I excel in linguistic, logical and interpersonal. I believe I am word and people smart but when it comes to logical I don’t believe that I should have scored high. It is fair to say though that my downfall is in naturalistic and musical.

How would you use this information to inform your learning design?

By allowing students to participate in the test it would be helpful when checking the knowledge of students. For example if I was about to teach a concept on different types of trees I would be about to refer to the test results to see which of my students are ‘nature smart’ and which students I would have to assist when completing the concept.

Activity 3- Reflection on Prensky’s ideas

What is your belief and understanding of the nature of today’s learners?

Prensky has divided today’s learners into two groups: digital natives and digital immigrants.

Natives- Are born into and grow up enveloped by digital technology and therefore develop a specific language and syntax around the technology.

Immigrants- Have a digital accent and have trouble engaging with the technology, certainly to the extent natives do. Immigrants are forced to adapt to the digital world.

I somewhat believe in the description of the two groups that Prensky has formatted. Not all students have access to ICTs so sometimes the only access they will have will be the access within the classroom environment. All students will be developing at different stages with technology as some will have the latest ipad and some won’t even know how to turn on a computer.

I believe that in today’s society teachers should assume students have not had the access to technology and teach the basic first. This can be done by setting aside 1 hour a week for a technology class to introduce or continue the use of ICTs.

Is there substance to the ‘engage or enrage’ argument?

Prensky claims that, “If you cannot engage young people in education then you will enrage them”. I don’t believe the right word is ‘enrage’ however I do think this is correct. It is important to engage students first within the learning experience before going ahead with the body of the lesson. The students need to be ‘hooked’ into the lesson before ‘hit with the heavy stuff’. This ‘hook’ may be a simple game to do with the concept which most teacher guides now include within the introduction of a lesson. If the students aren’t hooked at the start of the learning experiences are then chances are they will be lost throughout the rest of the lesson. Some signs that the lesson hasn’t been introduced properly will be: students are figgiting, talking, moving, not following instructions, being disruptive to the class, being rude and simply not understanding the concept.

Activity 4- Reflection on connectivism

A number of authors contest Siemon’s ideas. It is unsettling to be challenged about existing perceptions of ‘knowing’, in particular, the lack of purpose in asking our students to KNOW and be able to RECALL what they know in assessment.

Do you agree with them? Can you see Siemon’s point of view? What is your position?

Siemon states, “That it is no longer possible to know everything, this it is more important to identify how and where to find knowledge that it is to know.” Siemon is correct, it is not possible to know everything and the way to find out about the unknown is to research and find the correct answer. I believe this is a fair statement and is what learning managers should be focusing on when it comes to teaching concepts that aren’t familiar to students. Students should be given the opportunity to find their answers because at the end of the day, students will believe what the conclusion they have made over the conclusion the teacher told them.

Give an example of ways in which you could use this theory in your classroom/learning context?

As a learning manager I would this theory by allowing students to conduct their own research instead of being taught the concept. For example if I was to conduct an investigation of what happened the night the titanic sunk it would be beneficial to the students to use ICTs to research and come to their own conclusion then the conclusion being told to them. Students would take more knowledge out of the lesson if they are given the opportunity to be responsible for their learning. Classroom monitoring would be vital as groups of students would be browsing the internet.