Afterthoughts

The more I think of it, the more difficult I believe it is to make a science of the learning process. Learning is so unique and individualized for each person that it is difficult to name even two factors that are the most significant to learning for all students. In the reading for this week, I read about technical aspects of teaching and learning, but I think I still believe that learning experiences are different for everyone, and what works for one student may not necessarily work for another student.

In attempting to determine the two most important factors of learning, I realize that these may also differ according to a person's definition of learning. Learning may be the ability to apply something in a real-world process, the ability to use the information to learn something on a higher level, or the ability to verbalize or summarize what has been learned. For each of these, a different factor of learning may be of a higher significance than for another.

However, for the purposes of this assignment, I have found that motivation and application are still what I believe to be the most significant factors in learning. For all types of learning and all types of students, these are consistently important.

Two most important factors in learning

After giving this some thought, I've concluded that my personal learning theory concludes that the two most important factors in learning are:

1. The desire or motivation to learn
2. The application of information
   

While there are many factors that influence instruction and the learning process, I believe the combination of these two factors will lead to success in any situation. Without one or the other, I believe the learning process will be incomplete and ineffective.

I believe both may be expressed in terms of each of the three methods of learning we've been studying: Behaviorism, Constructivism, and Cognitive Information Processing. The Behaviorist perspective, for example, provides motivation for learning through a system of rewards and punishments. Constructivists allow students to follow their desires to a self-regulated curriculum, and desire in Cognitive Information Processing allows the brain to strengthen neuro-pathways, making information easier to recall. Each perspective also relies on the application of information. Behaviorists acknowledge that changes in behavior are learned through experience and conditioning. In Constructivism, the understanding of a concept deepens through individual application, and in Cognitive Information Processing, application through repetition leads to long-term memory.

These are all reasons why I choose these two factors as the most important factors which influence learning.

A Private Universe

Today was my first experience watching the video called A Private Universe. The short film addresses how individuals fail to truly internalize and learn science. Harvard graduates and High school students alike, when asked to teach about the cause of seasons, find it difficult to explain and reveal their actual misunderstandings.

This video made a big impact on me. At the first, it brought to my attention the predicament of how to teach science to students. Then it made me realize that I didn't really know what causes seasons, tides, or lunar eclipses myself. But for me, the most fascinating observation was a comment made in the discussion of the video, that when individuals start explaining something, suddenly gaps in their knowledge or understanding become prevalent, and the mind has to come up with some explanation to make their understanding believable and functional. It made me think of knowledge as a dense, small object which is transferred from a teacher to a student in a conversation, which, when received by a student, expands to be a less-dense object, with many gaps in understanding that have to be filled by either further discovery, previous understanding, or best guess.

I think this "gap knowledge" is very prevalent in all areas of learning, including religion. I know many people who do not believe in God or His love or mercy because somewhere along the way they've "filled in the gaps" of mystery with their own conclusions which are incorrect. But when comeone believes those, as the movie suggests, it is very difficult to un-learn an idea, because it becomes the scaffolding to other beliefs and ideas. It is in this way that each of us in our own minds truly creates our own perspective of the world and how things work; our own private universe.

The Way I Learn

A Cognitive Apprenticeship is a new idea for me. But it makes sense. Instead of learning by doing some kind of physical skill, you learn by observing and repeating mental patterns.

Working with technology really does provide interesting predicaments, as far as internships go. In my experience, it really is difficult to learn how to use technology from someone else, because of how "internal" the process really is. You can tell someone to click on the "Submit" link, but even if you try you can't tell them exactly where it is or exactly where to click it. They have to go through the process for themselves before they truly figure it out. I've shadowed several people using computers over the past few years. During the most recent shadowing experience, as an intern in graphic design, I found that observing another designer manipulate software was boring, did not challenge my mind, and although it was easy to watch, it prepared me very little for the design work I did later. When I was left to myself, I had to learn all over again how to use the software because it was my own experience instead of my designer's experience. Had I been learning to saw wood, on the other hand, I would have probably been asked to participate in the experience, placing my hands on the wood and tools instead of trying to read a person's mind to try to figure out what colors to use, what keys on the keyboard to touch for appropriate shortcuts, and how to achieve the company's desired graphic. I am glad someone has made a differentiation between traditional internships and cognitive internships. But I think perhaps we need to learn how to provide cognitive internships in a more accessible manner.

One one particularly trying day of my undergradate career, being bogged down by a difficult experience, I found myself crying in the Library amongst the shelves of children's literature. One particular yellow book caught my eye, called The Learning Book, by Susan Dorritt. I picked it up and began to learn about learning through the character of a young boy learning to ride a bike. The first step is that you really have to want to learn. The second step is to watch someone ride the bike. The third step is to try it. The fourth step is to pick yourself up and keep trying. At the time, I realized that I my trial was a learning experience, and although I was experiencing growing pains, I had to keep picking myself up and keep learning. But I have since learned that so much is parallel to this simple experience. Both in traditional and cognitive internships, you must first want to learn. Then, if you watch, you can gain a familiarity with it, and then you can try it on your own. In this they are both rather similar. Though in one progress is more easily visible than in the other, both seem to be based from these simple steps.

Behaviorism, Cognitive Information Processing, and Constructivism

Being a visual learner, the diagrams in the readings for this week really helped me understand the concepts at hand.

BehaviorismM. Driscoll, “Radical Behaviorism,” in Psychology of learning for instruction, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon), 31-70.

I felt like behaviorism was a limiting theory, as a potential subject. The idea that someone could manipulate my behavior solely by outside stimuli was a very difficult concept to like. While I think it is probably a necessary learning theory for parents of children who are not old enough to make good decisions on their own or who do not know any better yet, I do not think it can or should be a lasting theory throughout life.

• Positive Reinforcement - Give to strengthen a behavior
• Punishment - Give to weaken a behavior
• Reinforcement Removal - Take away to weaken a behavior
• Negative Reinforcement - Take away to strengthen a behavior

Cognitive Information Processing

M. Driscoll, “Cognitive information processing,” in Psychology of learning for instruction, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon), 73-112.

The best way to learn this for me was the analogy of the short-term memory being the RAM and the long-term memory being the hard drive. It was interesting to discuss what it means to forget something, because it is so much a part of this theory, and yet, no one really seems to know what makes us remember or forget.

Constructivism

M. Driscoll, “Constructivism,” in Psychology of learning for instruction, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon), pp.373-396, http://docutek.lib.byu.edu/eres/coursepass.aspx?cid=3662.

What I liked about this theory is that it addresses the individuality of learning. I think this is a true principle. I believe everyone learns from their past and current personal experiences, and because those are unique for everyone, it would only make sense that each person's ontology would be different.

Zotero and APA

Today I downloaded a Firefox bibliography tool called Zotero. Searching from the BYU Library website or Google Scholar, I can find articles I need for my research. When I go to the article from its stable site, I can click on the document or folder in the address bar and Zotero will automatically grab the bibliographical information from the page and save it offline so I can access it later. It is a pretty neat tool.

I also learned about APA format. That is very new for me, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

Week one of IP&T 520

This week has been very educational for me. The biggest thing I've learned about is the difference between a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) versus a Learning Management System (LMS).

• Any PLE like this one allows learners to take control of their own learning by setting goals and communicating with others in the process of learning. A PLE could be a wiki, a blog, or any Web 2.0 technology with student-original content.
  
• An LMS, such as Blackboard or Moodle, allows teachers to manage a course and students to access their postings.

Another thing I learned was about is an RSS. Using a gmail account, you can subscribe to and read updates to websites using Google Reader.

I'm In!

Here is my brand new PLE. Woo-hoo!