Wow! Seven weeks have gone; it is amazing how this course has changed the way I learn. As mentioned in the week one post, I was a conventional learner and this is my first online learning experience. While learning in the school, we only did memorize whole bulk of content and tried to reproduce it as it is during the exam where only the knowledge part was checked. We had no idea about skills and attitudes though we have acquired some of them without knowing. After wards when I was doing masters in biotechnology, I used search engines like Google and yahoo. But integrating technology in my studies was restricted to that only. Now I have hands on experience using different technological tools thanks to Walden University.
While participating in the discussion throughout these 7 weeks, I have learned a lot about learning theories and learning styles. View of mine about how I learn has changed completely. I had categories me earlier as a visual learner because I have drawn pictures of scientific process as I study for a test, used to Copy what’s on the board, Use highlighters, circle words, underline, like to sit in the front raw and keep eye on everything etc. But then most of those techniques were not suitable for this course, sometimes we had a video to watch ,some times an article to read, some time discussion post of others to learn etc. These techniques fall in to categories of auditory and kinesthetic learning styles. When I looked back I have used all these learning styles sometimes in combination some time alone but have got the results. Even though many studies have suggested that students who identify their learning styles can use the information to improve comprehension and memory, I think as an adult learner it is useful to be able to adopt and adapt whatever the learning technique available. But the knowledge I acquired will be useful when I work as an instructional designer.
As I have mentioned in week one post “When consider the learning theories, the way I learn sometime is related to cognitive learning theory because teacher provided with the content of the learning activity and did not have any stimuli or social interactions and my learning was a process of acquiring information, remembering and problem solving. Regardless of the individual differences we had to study what teacher gives us, in the way teacher suggested us to do so. So what I can figure out is my learning process was not directly related to any of these learning theories” after this 7 weeks I have the same idea about how I have learned earlier but how I learn today is totally different from it. I was using behaviorism and cognitivism as a child but now I `m more towards constructivism , and connectivism And even my learning did fit in to adult learning theory and social learning theory while following this course. I think I’m comfortable with all these theories. I can relate this to one of the blog article we refer of Bill Kerr , he stated “It seems to me that each _ism is offering something useful without any of them being complete or stand alone in their own right” it is very true in my learning .
My own personal learning preferences will change according to the content and the learning situation. As a child from a traditional school my learning was focus mostly on logical and linguistic intelligence but as I come to know about other intelligence types I tried to learn more about Interpersonal intelligence, Intrapersonal intelligence because Howard Gardner called them as 'personal intelligences' which are very important for working in the field of education.
Technology is playing major role in my learning today. There was a time I was afraid to try new technology, but when I was left with using technology as the only option to carry on with my studies at Walden university I had to try it. Now I’m much more comfortable with technology and I’m willing to adapt them in my instructional designs. Using blogs wikis, social networks, e-books etc has become a foremost part in my learning today. I feel whole world is opened to me and I use the tools for communicating, sharing, creating, researching, professional improvement, personal needs and responsibilities etc.
Kerr, B. http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as
https://my.waldenu.edu/portal
Ormrod, J.L., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction. New York: Merrill
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