Fitting the Pieces Together
A concept with which I particularly resonated was discussed in Week 6 in Dr. Ormrod’s “Learning Styles and Strategies.” She spoke of “elaboration” as a learning technique in which one takes in new information and mentally does something with it (Ormrod, 2009). As I believe I observed, this is something I have been aware of for a long time; I simply lacked a name for it. One has heard that teaching a subject is a very effective way of solidifying it in one’s own mind. It occurs to me that one reason this is true may be that preparing lessons involves a great deal of elaboration.
Dr. Ormrod also noted that verbatim memorization is among the least effective ways to learn. I agree, yet I have invested a lot of time in personal memorization projects involving pages of text. Much of this is, unfortunately but necessarily, rote memorization; however, I also employ certain techniques to allow me to associate content in a way that happens to mean something to me. These are generally highly subjective and can be entirely fortuitous as well.
I also have long been aware that I learn better by example than by mere explanation. However, whereas I have tended to regard this as something of a handicap or limitation, I was pleased to read of a case study (Gilbert & Swanier, 2008, 34-36) in which it was found that, in a particular technical subject, most students did learn more effectively if an example of what they were being taught preceded an explanation of it.
As valuable as an example is, I need a hands-on connection: I need to be able to experiment with what the thing to be learned–to see for myself that, for instance, some programming technique will work if done in this way but not in that way. This seems suggestive of “Experiential Learning,” as described in the resources in Week 5 (Conlan, Grabowski, & Smith, 2003)
As for the role of technology, the question makes me smile, given my high dependence on the Internet as an information resource–to say nothing of my graduate studies. I use Google routinely, of course; however, there are many specific sources to which I go to learn about particular subjects. Through the Walden University library, I have access to a subset of the O’Reilly technical books; and I have used these to gather information on various programming technologies (e.g., Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, C#).
If I decide to take an interest in a certain topic, I will search for what appear to me reliable sources of information and bookmark the links. I have been using delicious.com; however, I recently discovered that Google Reader provides the ability to note certain particular portions of text. Even more recently, I read about diigo.com, which allows the user to actually highlight content on the page itself and even add sticky notes.
Of course, many topics are discussed in blogs or other types of pages that provide RSS feeds; and I have taken to using Google Reader to organize these and give me a quick overview of new discussions. I can then read or ignore, as I choose and entertain some idea that I am keeping up with matters that interest me.
Unsurprisingly, the one learning theory that resonated best with me was probably connectivism–even though its status as an actual theory has been questioned (Davis, Edmunds, Kelly-Bateman). This is natural for one who enjoys technology and is fascinated by means of gathering content together and being able to quickly hone in on what seems relevant. Moreover, as an adult learner, I value self-directedness and the ability to skip over content with which I am already familiar–or to follow up on anything that might have incidental interest for me: in other words, to not be fenced in by a one-size-fits-all, linear approach.
Reference list
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
Gilbert, J., & Swanier, C. (2008). Learning styles: How do they fluctuate? Institute for Learning Styles Journal [Vol. l]. Retrieved from http://www.auburn.edu/~witteje/ilsrj/Journal%20Volumes/Fall%202008%20Volume%201%20PDFs/Learning%20Styles%20How%20do%20They%20Fluctuate.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Learning Styles and Strategies [Motion picture]. Dr. Jeanne Ormrod.
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