Sunday, February 28, 2010

Reflection

The most surprising part of the course for me was the Keller’s ARCS model. Of course everyone knows that before you begin to solve a problem you first have to determine what the problem is. I know the best instructors I have had motivated me, as well as the rest of the students, to drive harder and learn more. The four factors Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction contain the necessary analysis to determine what motivational tactics are needed to solve the problems. Studying the way the brain learns has helped me understand why I learn some things with less effort. The rehearsal and repetition works for a short time while adding pictures makes retrieval of the information easier and for a longer time period. Taking the most appropriate parts of the cognitive and behavioral learning theories in design stages of a curriculum is using the best of both worlds. Kerr says that "each ism is offering something useful without any of them being complete or stand alone in their own right" and I agree, use what you need from any for the “ism’s” for the best results. The connection between learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation has added a new dimension with the advances in educational technology and increase in distance learning. The norm was face to face instruction were the instructor could visually gage the target audience’s need for a change in tactics to keep them motivated and on target. The growing online classrooms are making the instructors work harder to insure the effective motivational tactics are employed to insure the optimum learning experience. I believe I will be working with adult learners in an online environment and the Keller’s ARCS model will be one of the most valuable tools I will have to keep the learners motivated.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Fitting the Pieces Together

I want to give some of my background so you see where I came from in the education field. I worked for AT&T as an engineer in Video, Voice, Facilities, Data, and Global Feasibility & Impact. I was also in marketing for eight years. One of my responsibilities was to conduct training classes for employees transferring into our division. I never gave any thought to what education theories would work best for the students; I presented the material, answered questions, and gave tests to see if I needed to go over the material again. Now I see many things I could have done to improve the learning experience for everyone I taught. One of the easiest was to get to know the students and if they were audio or video learners. They were all adult learners and I see know that:
• "Adults will commit to learning when the goals and objectives are considered realistic and important to them. Application in the 'real world' is important and relevant to the adult learner's personal and professional needs.
• Adults want to be the origin of their own learning and will resist learning activities they believe are an attack on their competence. Thus, professional development needs to give participants some control over the what, who, how, why, when, and where of their learning.
• Adult learners need to see that the professional development learning and their day-to-day activities are related and relevant.
• Adult learners need direct, concrete experiences in which they apply the learning in real work.
• Adult learning has ego involved. Professional development must be structured to provide support from peers and to reduce the fear of judgment during learning.
• Adults need to receive feedback on how they are doing and the results of their efforts. Opportunities must be built into professional development activities that allow the learner to practice the learning and receive structured, helpful feedback.
• Adults need to participate in small-group activities during the learning to move them beyond understanding to application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Small-group activities provide an opportunity to share, reflect, and generalize their learning experiences.
• Adult learners come to learning with a wide range of previous experiences, knowledge, self-direction, interests, and competencies. This diversity must be accommodated in the professional development planning.
• Transfer of learning for adults is not automatic and must be facilitated. Coaching and other kinds of follow-up support are needed to help adult learners transfer learning into daily practice so that it is sustained."
Speck (1996)
I could have done a much better job of teaching and prefer to teach adults. Adults have a passion for learning or they would not be attending classes. The ability to communicate with noted professionals and not so noted non-professionals over the internet opens the world of information to everyone. I believe the days of teaching from a few text books are in the past, the reference material from around the world is now open to anyone who care to look. The next five years in the field of education will see more changes then the last 50 years.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Adult learners

There are five advantages adult learners have:
1. Have an independent self-concept and who can direct his or her own learning
2. Have accumulated a reservoir of life experiences that is a rich resource for learning
3. Have learning needs closely related to chang¬ing social roles
4. Is problem-centered and interested in immediate appli¬cation of knowledge
5. Is motivated to learn by internal rather than external factors.(Knowles, 1980)
The adult learner’s interaction with the instructor is based on mutual respect and they have a passion for learning. The adult is more independent and self directing and has the advantage of being able to manipulate the environment so they have the optimum conditions for learning. I have to adjust my work schedule and family activities around school. However, I chose Walden Online classes so I could work at night and on weekends. I am a visual learner and access to the internet at any time makes the research possible when I have the time. The adult learners that need a face to face environment will choose to attend traditional training and increasing their learning experience. The child learner must depend on the instructor to design the curriculum and maybe they will have the optimum training.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Brain and information processing

The first site is right on target with his explanation of neurons and how the brain encodes information. Recalling the facts from long term memory is effortless when the facts that are linked to examples and memories are created.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm

The second site focuses on information processing and tends to agree with Dr. Jeanne Ormrod’s points on self-regulation strategies that, together, can account for the striking changes in thinking that emerge as children develop. Researchers therefore focus less on whether students solve problems correctly and more on how problems are solved.
http://www.answers.com/topic/developmental-theory-cognitive-and-information-processing

Friday, January 8, 2010

Some jobs are thankless

http://blog.tatainteractive.com/instructional_design/
I chose this blog on compliance training because it presents a look at another side of instructional design. This is a quote from the blog “Implementing compliance training is as exciting as replacing car tires – you get no particular joy doing it, but not doing so is not an option.” The five challenges can be applied to more than compliance training, and it gives a realistic view many of jobs we will face in the future.

Great Site

http://learningvisions.blogspot.com/
I chose this blog because of the team of contributors listed below:
Joni Dunlap, Associate Professor of Information and Learning Technologies at the University of Colorado
Mary Engstrom, Associate Director of Extended Learning Services, University of Montana
Marlene Zentz, Instructional Designer, University of Montana
Jennifer Maddrell, Instructional Designer, PhD Student: Old Dominion University
Cammy Bean, VP of Learning Design at Kineo
Robert Squires, Instructional Designer at the University of Montana
They are all professionals that state their ideas in a style that I can understand their meaning; also they provide reference material to support their opinions. I have spent several hours reading some of the reference material and recommend reading How to Get an Instructional Design Education without Paying Tuition. The list of reference material he recommends is vary interesting.