The different isms.

I was once told that an effective classroom looked like a circus most of the time.  Different centers in different parts of the room testing and teaching different skills in different ways.  Exposing students to all the isms is critical to expanding the learning for all students.  It would be easy to use cognition to teach all my lessons, but it wouldn't be effective.  I would be going over the lessons but very few of my students would understand, retain, or connect the concepts I taught.  Therefore I might as well not have taught anything.  I enjoy teaching and learning how I can teach better.  I must know how a learner learns best.  

Teaching and learning are very complex issues.  Determining how someone learns best is a task within itself.  Bill Kerr brings up the isms and how they interlock.  Whereas Kapp delineates the learning styles by the level of learning they require.  When designing a lesson, I am thinking about my students' behavior, how they are processing the information, and the connections that they will make to their lives.  All three isms must be present for learning and understanding to take place.  I always want my students to remember and connect what I have taught them.  In addition, I want their behavior (written steps) to show that they have this understanding.  Therefore, I concur.  The isms aren't isolated units of thought.  Instead they are interlocking peaces of a larger problem.

Learning theory

What are your beliefs about how people learn best? What is the purpose of learning theory in educational technology?

I have always thought that the way people learn best is by practicing.  The more someone performs a specific skill the more likely they are to remember.  Even though I do believe this works best for most concept based learning, it is not always true.  Many times I can learn connecting new knowledge to past experience.  This is why the study of history is so important. 

The purpose of learning theory in educational technology is to understand how people learn through the use of technology.  Every where I look I see people texting or using the internet.  Twenty years ago, these people would have been the exception and not the the norm.  How did these people learn to how to use this technology?  How can people learn more using the technology?  When I got my first computer, I played a variety of games.  Then I learned how to chat and was amazed at how I could talk to other people that were so far away.  Finally, I started doing research.  I had the computer help make me successful in my face-to-face classrooms.  All of these actions were a learning process.  It is advantageous for producers of these products that I was using to make my learning process obtainable.  They wanted me to use their product.  Therefore, they needed a to determine how to help me learn the process.

For the past several weeks, I have been training to teach at two on-line Universities.  There are many online Universities that are accredited institutions.  Both of the institutions that I have trained at are concerned with the students' learning.  Everyone of them used the discussion posts like we do at Walden University.  A rich discussion blending knowledge from the text and other learners can be help a person grow in knowledge.  Many times we, online, use our prior experience to help others grow and as a springboard to help us develop the knowledge we have.