SCORE 2.0

As i come towards the end of my period of study, I have a clear model of how I believe online learning can be successfully delivered to adult distance learners. Having worked successfully through this model with a group of eight lecturers here at my university and around twenty students in separate online courses, i hope to continue to work on the model and its application to further enhance the lot of the adult distance learner and those engaged in professional development.

There are many influences on the model. As a starting point the model embraces the “seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education” as outlined by Chickering and Gamson (1987)¹ At the heart of this teaching model is the use of an online synchronous classroom using web conferencing software, supported by a community orientated learning ethos that utilizes Web 2.0 technology. The underlying theory that drives the model is what can be described as constructo-connectivism, where formal learning activities are driven by a constructivist approach to teaching and learning, whilst a connectivist approach is taken in utilizing web 2.0 technology to facilitate the informal learning that occurs in the learning network and the acquisition of personal knowledge management skills which are invaluable in the digital era of the twenty first century.

To reflect the nature of this teaching model it has subsequently been named as the Synchronous Community Orientated Reflective and Experiential 2.0 model (SCORE 2.0). Conceptually the model is aligned with Race's 'ripples' model of learning² . The online synchronous classroom is at the core and is the catalyst to drive the learning. This is where the motivation (the want) is created and reinforced. From here learners participate in intersession tasks (the doing) and then go on to consider what they have learnt through further discussion in a learning network and through posting entries to a reflective blog (the digesting). Throughout the whole process due to the nature of web 2.0 technologies there is opportunity for teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction (the feedback). Note also that the online synchronous class itself is a microcosm of this model of learning. Guiding and shaping the teaching and learning strategy is the community of inquiry model by Garrison and Anderson (2003)³ with the important emphasis on teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence.

This model of online learning has been developed for the individual lecturer or ideally a programme team that enjoys building rapport with students and values dialogue with students. There are two very simple aims 1) to invigorate the process of online distance learning, making it an enjoyable, engaging and motivating experience and ii) to maximize the learning. Developed with adult distance learners in mind, the model has the potential to be used effectively for staff development purposes both on and off line.

1. Chickering, Arthur and Stephen C. Ehrmann (1996) Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever AAHE Bulletin, October, pp. 3-6.

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm

2. Race, P. (2001) The lecturer's toolkit - A practical guide to learning, teaching and assessment (Second edition) London: Kogan Page.

http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/celt/pgcerttlt/how/how4d.htm

3. Garrison, D. R. and Anderson, Terry (2003) E-Learning in the 21st Century: a framework for research and practice London: RoutledgeFalmer.

That old Chestnut - Blogging

Well here we are and a month has gone by since my last blog. I would love to have included a few more blogs before the end of January 2007 but the reality is that I had a 31 Jan deadline to meet, in relation to the design of a synchronous lesson on the use of wiki’s. So I have not had a wasted month, I have been through the rigour and thought processes of designing for the synchronous classroom and at the same time I have continued with developing my understanding of how wiki’s work/ don’t work both from a technical point of view and from a human point of view.

Ideally I would have wrote this blog entry in the middle of January, but when you are in the heart of battle, it is difficult to break off to give updates when you are on the brink of victory or near the edge of failure.

That said I am here now telling my story and I like the fact that my commitment to blogging draws me back and gets me thinking about the next subject i can usefully blog about. So for me this blogging escapade that I am embarked upon is useful to me in that it helps to:

• Consolidate my knowledge
• Recheck facts that I am not sure of
• Think though the implications of what I am writing and therefore try and understand ideas, concepts and facts that I am writing about.

This is all very well, fine and dandy. As my blogging is in the context of a long haul approach over a two year period and will culminate in a reflective essay on my blogging activities perhaps it is ok that I use my blog to aid my learning as laid out in the three points above.

Practically though on a 12 week module how can reflective blogging be used to benefit the learning of students. Unless some deep thought(learning) is part of the process, then the blog can just become a desperate attempt to get the appropriate number of words, links, images etc etc to meet the assessment criteria. Effective Blog learning strategies – this is a subject for another time....

Further to my recent activities on using wiki’s my next blog will look at the strengths of wiki’s and what teaching/ learning strategies will lead to effective use of a wiki.

Footnote1: As I have just finished writing this blog, it occurs that it is good to give readers an expectation of what to expect in the next blog- hopefully to heighten expectation so that readers will be keen to return and read the next installment.

Footnote 2: I only intended to write a couple of paragraphs just as an update, but it has rekindled my desire to return to the question of “what is the point of blogging?”

Making Sense of Learning

Theories of Learning
Precisely because learning is not a universally fixed or agreed concept, learning has been defined in many different ways. In trying to make sense of learning it seems appropriate and proper to establish at the outset that there are in fact different ways of learning, and that humans choose to learn different things in different ways.

The dominant focus on how people learn throughout the 20th century has been derived from psychology where the main theories of learning include behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. Other major theories of learning are based on a humanistic perspective rather than a psychological view. The humanistic theories are concerned with emotions and feelings and to my mind, can and do work in parallel with the three main psychological theories of learning.

Many other theories of learning have been proposed over the years which predominantly fall within the scope of these four main theories. In some cases due to the complex nature of learning, aspects of many sub theories may crossover the theoretical divisions.

A strong theme that has emerged in recent years has been the influence of social and cultural aspects to the learning process, so amongst the many sub theories of learning, social learning theories are very important in the learning process of humans.

“The social learning theory of Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others” (Kearsley 2003)

Brian Science is a study of how physically the brain functions and I think it helps inform the debate on how people learn.

So what are you doing when you are learning? What is the result of the learning process?
Once again with this complex business of learning there are no easy answers. I venture to suggest that it would be fair to say that depending on your viewpoint and/ or what you are learning you will be acquiring or creating knowledge. In discussing Driscoll’s (2000) definition of learning Siemens (2005) states that learning as viewed by the three main theories results in a “lasting changed state (emotional, mental, physiological (i.e. skills) brought about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people.”

Siemens (2005) highlights that all three major psychological learning theories i.e. Behaviorism, Cognivitism and Constructivism hold the notion that “knowledge is an objective (or a state) that is attainable (if not already innate) through either reasoning or experiences.”

After reading the Siemens (2005) article, the key points for me in differentiating between the different theories of learning was the observation that
• Behaviorism and Cognivitism view knowledge as external to the learner and the learning process as the act of internalizing knowledge.
• Constructivism suggests that learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences (Driscoll 2000 in Siemens (2005))

Further to the points above:
• The essence of behaviorism can be captured in three assumptions about learning:
o Observable behavior is more important than understanding internal activities.
o Behavior should be focused on simple elements: specific stimuli and responses.
o Learning is about behavior change. (Gredler 2001 in Siemens (2005))
• In cognitivism, knowledge is viewed as symbolic mental constructs in the learner's mind, and the learning process is the means by which these symbolic representations are committed to memory. (Buell in Siemens (2005)))
• Constructivism assumes that learners are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Instead, learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Siemens (2005))
• Humanists, give primacy to the study of human needs and interests. A central assumption is that human beings behave out of intentionality and values. Huitt (2001)
Theories of learning can be described as explanations and descriptions of how people learn. Terry Mayes and Sara de Freitas (2004) offer the following definition

“Theories of learning provide empirically-based accounts of the variables which influence the learning process, and provide explanations of the ways in which that influence occurs”
What is apparent from reading the literature is that people can learn in a variety of different ways and are influenced by a number of factors. When it comes to learning material for students, awareness of the different learning theories combined with the learning objectives is essential in guiding a teacher in designing appropriate material for the subject and the objective to be learned.

Models of Learning
One of the most infuriating aspects of reading though the literature is trying to establish a clear distinction between a theory of learning and a model of learning. The difficulty lies in the fact that the word “Model” can be used to try and explain how exactly a learning theory works in a descriptive way i.e. modeling way. “Model” can also be used in a prescriptive way to suggest the best approach to take to enhance learning. In order for me to make sense of this contradiction I take the following views:
1. A theory of learning is a description of how people learn.
2. A model of learning is a prescriptive method (can be tightly or loosely prescribed) on how learning should best occur.
3. Models of learning will draw on various theories of learning and give teachers a framework in which to devise teaching strategies to ensure the maximum opportunity for student learning.
4. Models of learning are really models of teaching (see Teaching/ Learning Models)
5. Models of Learning/ Teaching will guide the Instructional Design activities developed for a program of study.

Adults learn different to kids! What a load of androgogy

Previously I’ve had a look at models of learning that emanate from psychology; lately I have looked at models from adult education. This blog is a summary of information contained in the Tusting and Barton (2003) book ‘Models of Adult Learning: a literature review’.

Many parts of this blog are quoted verbatim from the book, this is not to pass the work off as my own, but so that I have an accurate overview of this literature review of adult education. [As a side note I have found blogging a useful tool in recapping, reflecting on and summarizing the reading that I have done]

The most famous model of adult learning will be Knowles (1973) model of learning called andragogy. A very brief summary is that adult learners are driven by an internal motivation, they bring their own experience to the table of learning and they need to know why the need to learn something as opposed to kids which are told what to learn by their teacher and they have got no choice to learn, it’s compulsory. Its funny that “YOU WILL LEARN!” yes please, can I have some more sir.

Critics of the theory include Brookfield (1994) who suggest it is more of an ideal state for adult learners to be in rather than a descriptive model of how adults learn and Hanson (1996) argues that there is little real evidence of an absolute difference between adults and children in terms of learning.

Knowles draws on humanistic psychology for his model. Humanistic psychology takes human potential and desire for growth as a basic assumption. Maslow (1970) and Rogers (1994) are out of this school and, both assume that people have an intrinsic drive towards growth and self direction.

Important elements of androgogy that have been developed in great depth in the adult education field include:

• Self directed Learning
• Learning how to learn
• Informal learning
• Reflective and experiential learning
• Transformative learning

Self directed learning
Has been represented in a descriptive way i.e that it is a characteristic of adult learners and in a prescriptive way i.e. that this a mode of study that adult learners should pursue. Brockett and Hiemstra (1991) claim that there seems to be a link between self direction and positive self concept, and more tentatively between self direction and life satisfaction. They suggest that strategies to enhance self-direction include:
• Facilitating critical reflection through reading and writing.
• Promoting Rational thinking.
• Developing people’s helping skills.

Candy (1991) demonstrates how the concept of self direction is actually used to gloss over at least four distinct concepts. Two are activities
• Autodidaxy (the independent pursuit of learning outside of formal institutional structures)
• Learner control as a way of organizing instruction

And two are personal attributes or characteristics:
• Autonomy as a personal quality or attribute
• Self Management in learning, the manifestation of independence of mind or purpose in learning situations.

Candy claims that there are important constraints on the extent to which people can or should strive to be self directed, especially when learning formal or technical bodies of knowledge, as opposed to acquiring greater self-knowledge.

Learning how to learn
Through the study of self directed learning, the idea has developed that adults can and should become aware of their own learning processes and how to manage them.

Smith (1983) Suggests there are four distinctive characteristics of adult learners.

1. They have a different orientation to learning than children.
2. They have an accumulation of experience that forms the basis for new learning.
3. Different developmental tasks await adults at different points in their lives and education is sought during periods of transition.
4. Their learning is often characterized by anxiety and ambivalence related to negative experiences of early schooling, the contradictory status of being both an autonomous adult and a dependent student, and other similar emotional challenges.

Smith’S distinctive contribution to this field of study is that he is suggesting that by learning how to learn, adults can learn how to become autonomous learners.

Informal Learning
In their book “Models of adult learning: a literature review” Tusting and Barton (2003) identify that there is some overlap between the literature on self directed learning and that on ‘informal learning’. Informal Learning has been described in a variety of ways including:
• To describe the way adults learn outside formal provision.
• To refer to unplanned or unpremeditated learning.
• Learning which has not been formally structured.
• To refer to provision in the community as opposed to that which is provided by formal educational institutions.
• To refer to any non-accredited provision.

Coffield (2000) underlines the importance of informal learning in the formation of knowledge and skills, describing formal learning in institutions as being merely ‘the tip of the iceberg’. Through his research document ‘The learning society: knowledge and skills for employment’ he found that informal learning is often necessary to do the job, while formal learning is often dispensable.

McGivney(1999) has found that community based informal learning has wide ranging benefits in widening participation in signposting adults to formal learning and improving personal and social skills. Foley (1999) also shows that various forms of incidental learning take place when people become involved in social struggle and political activity.

Reflective and Experiential Learning
Dewey’s (1933) work ‘How we think’ underlies much of the literature on reflective and experiential learning. He identified five stages of thinking involved in the process of moving from an initial state of confusion to a final cleared-up, unified, resolved situation. These are:
1. Suggestions.
2. An intellectualization of the difficulty that has been felt into a problem to be solved, a question for which the answer may be sought.
3. The use of one suggestion after another as a leading idea.
4. The mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or supposition.
5. Testing the idea by overt or imaginative action.

The thinking is not ordered and simple as in the list above, but he describes the process of reflective thinking as dynamic and messy, and that it is having the clear gradually emerge from the unclear that concepts and ideas are formed and that learning happens.

In more recent years David Kolb is the name most closely associated with reflective and experiential learning. Kolb’s cycle of learning requires the resolution of four conflicting modes of adaptation to the world.
• Concrete Experience (CE)
• Reflective Observation (RO)
• Abstract Conceptualisation (AC)
• Active Experimentation (AE)

According to Kolb (1984) “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Smith (1983) states that Kolb’s work on learning styles underpins a great deal of contemporary ‘learning to learn’ practice.

Here is the rub with learning styles, Kolb believes that the ‘ideal learner’ far from favouring one particular learning style would develop a balance between all four stages of the cycle and therefore would master all four learning styles as appropriate. This goes slightly against the grain of the opinion that says ‘find a student’s learning style and cater for that style’.

Others who have developed ideas around reflective and experiential experience include Jarvis (1987) whose model of adult learning in social context is based on the idea that learning becomes possible whenever there is a disjuncture between biography and experience. Jarvis believes there are 9 potential responses to this disjuncture:
• 3 non-learning responses.
• 3 non-reflective responses.
• 3 reflective learning responses.

Tennant and Pogson (1995) examined various ways in which experience has been incorporated into learning, the most interesting for me was their view on how Rogers’ and Maslow’s theories stress the emotionally laden nature of the relationship between experience and learning. They point out that in order for learning to occur, the learner must in some way go beyond experience alone. Instead, experience must be mediated, reconstructed or transformed in some way. They therefore ask the crucial question, how and under what conditions can people reconstruct their experience and thereby learn from it. They identify 4 approaches to experiential learning:
• Linking material to prior experiences.
• Relating learning to current experiences.
• Creating new experiences from which to learn, through techniques such as role play and simulation.
• Learning from lived experience through talking about, analyzing, and acting on the implications of the experience.

Transformative Learning
Tusting and Barton (2003) state that critical reflection is central to those models that focus particularly on the transformative potential of adult learning. These theories see learning as primarily as a means of personal or social transformation.

Mezirow is the theorist most closely associated with personal transformational models of learning through his model ‘perspective transformation’. He suggests reflection has three primary purposes:
• To guide action.
• Give coherence to the unfamiliar.
• Reassess the justification of what is already known.

The third purpose is the one that is central to critical reflection and works to examine and potentially transform the structure of assumptions with which we make meaning. This structure of assumptions is acquired through socialization processes, and Mezirow suggests that in adulthood we reassess the assumptions that we acquired during our formative childhood years, often in response to disorienting dilemmas that challenge the notions of reality we had previously taken for granted.

Clark and Wilson (1991) note that Mezirow’s work has been criticized for being too focused on the individual and for not taking into account the social and cultural factors that govern whether transformation can be possible.

An alternative model of transformation is expressed by Paulo Friere (1972), who sees learning as central to transformation at the social level. in his work ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’

Frierian methodologies start from people’s lived experience, eliciting and working with words and concepts that are already familiar to people in their everyday lives. The teacher is expected to transcend the divide between themselves and the students by committing ‘class suicide’ as an educator and being reborn (through an ‘Easter experience’) as a joint educator/educatee with the students. (Taylor 1993)

Friere’s work has been criticized on a variety of front’s. His writing can be dense and unclear and verges in many places on the mystical (see Taylor 1993). Tusting and Barton (2003) note however, that his influence on the development of popular education, literacy education and adult education has been widespread and profound and he is one of the principal inspirations behind the radical and critical tradition of adult education.

An article of interest in relation to transformative learning is the following: Shaheena Abbas ‘Transformative’ models for learning, teaching and Academic Professional Development – A ‘Self-ish’ Approach
http://www.ltu.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/issue5/abbas.shtml.

Externalize!! Externalize!!

In recent weeks I have been grappling with learning theories and models and trying to create my own mental model of how all the theories relate to each other and how they fit into the timeline of mankind’s understanding of how we learn.

My understanding thus far is that we do learn different things in different ways. There are three well established, recognized and what I’d describe as top level theories of learning that can explain the way that we learn – behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism

Steve's mental map of the development of learning theory

Although not strictly true, mankind has developed its understanding in more or less a linear fashion starting with the stimuli-response approach of behaviorism capturing the essence of lower mental order learning skills, moving through to cognitive and constructivist approaches which attempt to explain the high order mental learning that goes on in the brain.

I have read a number of articles in recent months on models and theories of learning and although I said in an earlier blog that Brenda Mergel (in praise of Brenda Mergel) had quickly and easily explained the difference away, which she did, I still find the use of the terms interchangeable in a lot of texts and I have not fully clarified the difference in my own mind. That said I feel clear that the three main learning theories that have evolved over the previous centuries are as I have stated above behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism.

Currently I am reading an excellent book, “Models
of adult learning: a literature review” published by Niace which summarizes neatly and concisely many models/ theories of learning. I have started on models of psychology and building on our three top level theories, I have briefly looked into developmental theories, activity theory, social constructivism and situated cognition.

I see the developmental theories as a more detailed explanation of how people learn cognitively and through constructivism. The other theories are ways of learning that sit within a particular developmental theory and seem to me to follow a linear progression of mankind’s understanding of learning.

What this means to me is that it has been recognized that people go through stages of individual cognitive development, but have social and cultural influences that impact their learning. Significantly these same learning processes can happen in a classroom (decontextualised) setting and in real life settings which can alter how and what is learnt.

From initial stimuli-response behavior, learning theory has developed to the current mainstream position that learning in people happens internally inside one’s brain. Recent theories seem to be leaning towards the importance of the social aspects of learning, both in socio-cultural influences and in the social interaction and collaboration that people do. Brain Science Research also suggests that social interaction is important part of Brain development.

This leads me nicely into the possibility that a fourth top level learning theory is perhaps starting to emerge. Bang on cue as I am working my way through this material up pops good old George Siemens in his weekly elearnspace email newsletter justifying his theory that 'connectivism' is the new learning theory for the digital age.

I confess two things, one I was immediately impressed with George’s elearnspace newsletter when i first came across it. Quite simply George brings to our attention very current topical issues related to web technology and the whole area of learning. Secondly his theory of connectivism was all a bit too much for me to take in, as I was just about getting my head around the concept of learning being an internal process inside a person as outlined in cognitive and constructivist approaches to learning, when George’s theory is attempting to say that the key focus of learning is not what happens internally, but what happens externally and that the key component of learning is connecting externally with other people and technology to crystallize your learning to the outside world.
As George puts it

"We are social beings. Through language, symbols, video, images, and other means, we seek to express our thoughts. Essentially, our need to derive and express meaning, gain and share knowledge requires externalization.

We externalize ourselves in order to know and be known. As we externalize, we distribute our knowledge across a network perhaps with individuals seated around a conference, readers at a distance, or listeners to podcasts or viewers of a video clip. Most existing theories of learning assume the opposite, stating that internalization is the key function of learning (cognitivism assumes we process information internally, constructivism asserts that we assign meaning internally though the process of deriving meaning may be a function of a social network, i.e. the social dimension assists in learning, rather than the social dimension being the aim of learning).

The externalization of our knowledge is increasingly utilized as a means of coping with information overload. The growth and complexity of knowledge requires that our capacity for learning resides in the connections we form with people and information, often mediated or facilitated with technology." George Siemens (2006) elearnspace blog

Is connectivism and the idea of externalization the next significant development in mankind’s understanding of learning theory. Is it the learning theory of the digital age, of this I am not quite sure as I am not fluent in the language of learners and need to read more on the subject. What does strike me is that it fits nicely into how theories of learning have developed with the fact that socialization has grown to be an important element of recent theories of learning and that connectivism would seem a neat logical next step to describe how learning is occurring now in this modern digital world.

Being a novice in the learning theory arena, I felt that I had insufficient knowledge to think about challenging George’s views in the first place, so I just let it lie. I was delighted to hear of a critical retort to George’s connectivism theory by Bijdrage van Pløn Verhagen (University of Twente)
http://elearning.surf.nl/e-learning/english/3793 11/11/2006). I was equally delighted that George responded to the criticism.
(http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm November 12, 2006)

I still have not fully digested the debate, only to say George’s response helped me with my understanding of learning theories and made me think, hey he may have a point here. The other thing to come across is the passion George has in defending his position. I look forward to reading more pro’s and cons of the connectivism theory.

Blogs are Boring! Discuss

Originally posted 27/09/2006 on the Journaldoodledastic blog

Reflective blogging in an educational context is gathering momentum as a learning and assessment tool. Indeed as part of my own independent study learning contract, I have decided that i should be marked on the quality of my reflective blogs (or learning journal as I look upon it).

Why have I done this? It is an opportunity to log my learning and by doing so I hope to understand a bit more about the learning process and to learn more about the usefulness (or is that uselessness) of blogs. I include the brackets previously to make the point that unless the writer of the blog can see some value in the task of blog writing, then blogging can be a tiresome business for all concerned.

Why would you want to blog?

Is there sufficient motivation for students to blog, because let’s face it blogs can be boring. Boring and time consuming to write and probably nine times out of ten boring to read. (ouch)

Do I know this as fact, NO. What has lead me to think of blogging in this way? It began when I started to think I needed for assessment purposes a structured approach to writing a blog i.e. an explicit structure embedded within the blog to indicate for example a learning task, background to the task, how I completed the task and my thoughts on the task. Maybe all this metadata should be included and I have decided to include it as a “My Comment” at the end of the blog.

Obviously an assessed piece of work will sufficiently focus the mind in order for the blog to be completed, but to me the important thing about the blog is the learning, the thinking through of what to write and how to write it, the capturing of knowledge for later reference. In addition the blog is not just a personal diary, it’s meant to be published to an audience. So any blogger should be conscious that they are writing also for the enjoyment and benefit of others. This realization that the blog is for public consumption should I believe help to focus and motivate a blogger.

In writing the last paragraph it made me realize that the purpose of the blog has to be clear (and the way it will be assessed) to the student as this will affect they way it is written. When I wrote “it’s meant to be published to an audience”, the thought crossed my mind that in some cases this may not be part of the purpose of the blog. Then I thought hang on perhaps that is an essential part of the definition of a blog. I’ll think about this more at a later date.

The way my personal blogging experience is going it feels that my early blogs are about me, me me and what I think think think – I don’t feel the inclination to bring in references to back up or refute my ideas or to add too many hyperlinks as I am concentrating on documenting my learning and outlining my thoughts. It seems natural to me that after laying these foundations on various topics that I will revisit my thoughts, assertions and statements with a more critical eye after further reading and practical experience.

Should I be expected to reference and/or link to other material it may make the whole process overbearing and stifling to complete. This leads to me to think that a blog needs to be marked in the whole and not on the basis of individual blogs.

I see the blog developing from initial thoughts and assertions through to supporting and contradictory arguments leading to conclusions about a particular topic.

Non-Boring Blogs?

So what am I saying? I am saying that in order for a blog not to boring:

1. The purpose of the blog, must be crystal clear to the student.
2. The guidelines for the assessment of the blog should be crystal clear to the student.
3. There should be much flexibility on how the student wishes to present the blog.
4. The blog should be marked in it’s entirety and not necessarily an individual blog at a time.
5. The student should be writing to clarify their own understandings.
6. The student should be capturing knowledge, thoughts and ideas.
7. The student should be writing for the enjoyment and benefit of others.
8. The students should be writing for their own benefit.
9. The student should have confidence that the blog is being published in a supportive community of learners.

It is my contention that points 1 and 2 give the student the clarity that they need to study effectively. Point 3 gives the students the opportunity to be creative and show their uniqueness to the world. Point 4 removes the burden of hitting too much criteria on each blog and also I think blogs need to evolve, to let the blogger learn the ropes. Points 5-8 would hopefully encourage the student to adopt a deep learning strategy rather than a surface learning strategy. Finally Point 9 is about laying foundations so that students are not inhibited in engaging fully in the task of blogging.

In addition the student would need to adhere to any criteria laid out in the guidelines e.g with regard to referencing, linking, evaluating etc etc. Once we get into the realms of assessing blogs on the quality of the critical writing then the blogger will need to back up statements with suitable references.

Throw away comment - blogs that incorporate pictures will probably be less boring.

[MY COMMENT: This blog entry has come about from my early experiences in writing a blog and trying to understand how I can learn, share my learning and enjoy the process of writing a blog. Footnote: I have literally gone blogging mad in the last week. I hope I am not all blogged out.]

In Praise of Brenda Mergel!

Originally posted 06/09/2006 on the Journaldoodledastic blog

After reading the “infed” article on learning theory , next on my list was a paper titled “Instructional Design” and Learning Theory” by Brenda Mergel.

MY LEARNING TASK: Read Brenda Mergel paper on “Instructional Design” and Learning Theory”

ABOUT MY LEARNING TASK
I first came across Brenda’s paper a couple of years ago when studying for my Postgraduate Certificate in Higher and Professional Education. I find Brenda’s writing on this subject superbly written with great clarity and addresses exactly the questions and issues that were being raised in my own mind.

Brenda neatly and simply identifies the main theories of learning as

• Behaviorism
• Cognitivism
• Constructivism

She gives a concise history and development of the three theories of learning and then proceeds to also offer a brief history of each learning theory in relation to instructional design.

REFLECTIONS
The main question concerning me before reading the article was; What is the difference between theories of learning and models of learning? A short concise overview in the first paragraph cleared that one up? I look forward to seeing how others explain the difference and to read other views on these three main theories of learning.

Behaviorism, the only way to learn – your having a laugh!
It seems hard to comprehend that behaviourists do not acknowledge that the mind and thinking plays a part in learning. Perhaps in the beginning when theories were first being developed it was understandable that this was the line of fire when trying to pin down “what is learning?”, especially as the first theorists also tended to come from a background in the study of animal behaviour. Brenda does point out that many behaviorist after a while did start to incorporate ideas of cognivitism into the theories of learning at a later date.

Brenda’s paper was very good at showing how the theories of learning have developed from behaviorism through cognitivism to the most recent learning theory of constructivism. It also explained that when designing materials for instruction that it may be useful to draw on all three learning theories depending on what type of learning you hope to achieve and depending how early into the learning cycle students may be. The paper indicated that it may be that behavioral objectives in instructional design could be appropriate when learning about a new subject and that more constructivist approaches are better with mid to advanced students.

As I alluded to in my previous blog I was coming to the conclusion that we learn different things in different ways. Brenda’s paper kind of reinforced this for me.