Reflection

When reflecting on what I have learned during the duration of this course, I think back to the first week in which we were to evaluate our own learning styles. My initial response is that I am a visual learner, one who essentially learns by seeing or doing something. While I still believe that I am a visual learner to some extent, I found that I also rely heavily on the theory of connectivism, in that I learn an awful lot from my networks. I never thought of connectivism as a theory, rather I simply thought that this was the way people did things, the way it just is. In fact, I would say that my most surprising discovery is that there is a name for a way that people do things. Since technology has brought about several methods in which we can stay connected with our networks, I find it hard to imagine how I gleaned information beforehand. I have no doubt that had I drawn a mind map of my connections ten years ago, it would differ drastically from what I created a few weeks ago.

When I came into this course, I had an understanding that there were two main thought processes when it came to learning: concrete learners and abstract learners. Boy, was I in for a surprise! My mind was opened up to several learning theories and strategies that have deepened my understanding of how learners learn. I especially gained a lot of insight when delving deeper into how the brain functions and how much of an impact it has on learning. Understanding the difference between critical and creative thinkers as well as multiple intelligences and learning styles expanded my view on how better to approach learning as an instructional designer.

When thinking about the connection between learning theories, learning styles, educational technology and motivation I’d venture to say that they all go hand-in-hand. Learning theories provide a basis for better addressing different learning styles. Educational technology then allows instructors to capitalize on each individual’s learning style by offering many different methods with which to convey information. Motivation comes into play when determining what motivates students both intrinsically and extrinsically (Ormrod, Schunk and Gredler, 2008). Depending on their learning style, this can vary greatly amongst students, but this is where educational technology comes into play. Younger students understand technology better than adult learners since this is what they’ve been brought up with. For adult learners, technology may come with a learning curve, but again, technology is prevalent in most every aspect of life and cannot be ignored. Different learning styles will deal with technology better, but since there are so many options available (Smart Phones, iPads, Smart Boards, etc.) it should not be too difficult to craft a plan to incorporate some sort of technology into a lesson plan.

The information I have learned in this course will benefit my career as an instructional designer greatly. Understanding the different learning theories and then applying them with the various learning strategies provides me the ability to better prepare learning materials that will benefit the majority of the students. Add in the information gleaned from the Horizon Report (Johnson, Levine & Smith, 2009) regarding the different types of technological developments that are up and coming, one can plainly see that there are plenty of tools available in order to create effective curriculum. While I have learned quite a bit about motivation, I think that this will continue to be an issue in any curriculum. Motivation is a huge variable that can fluctuate from student to student. Addressing it in any curriculum will take some thought and require due diligence to incorporate motivating materials into the lesson plans.

In summary, this course has better equipped me to continue down the path to becoming an instructional designer. There is so much to learn, but learning about learning is an integral piece to the puzzle.

References

Johnson, L., Levine, A., & Smith, R. (2009). The Horizon Report (2009 ed.). Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium.

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