The Tipping Point

Posted: January 23, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: eLearning, How do people learn, Learning Environment, Learning Styles, Reflective analysis | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I have just completed “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a business book about how products, social issues and even teenage smoking become trends. He takes these trends and matches them to the phases of epidemics. Gladwell explains how a disease becomes an epidemic and then points out similarities when it comes to trends in marketing products, and interestingly includes some social issues, like crime in New York city.

In his book, he develops a vocabulary of patterns, factors and relates them to types of people. There are: “Connectors” who know lots of people and are able to bring them together, “Mavens” who have great knowledge and are willing to share it (a teacher), and finally the “Salesmen” who is a persuader.

Gladwell has three key factors: 1.) The Law of the Few, 2.) The Stickiness Factor, and 3.) The Power of Context. Using these factors are used to show how a trend develops.

How do I apply this to e-Learning? Many schools, colleges and universities have been impressed/frightened  by the University of Phoenix and its rise to prominence in the field of education. It has promoted a call to all higher education institutions to start developing on-line courses (e-learning). What most educators fail to understand is that the nature of the traditional classroom with a instructor giving a lecture, having required readings (sometimes from a textbook), giving and grading homework assignments and finally assessing students performance by a test is an outdated model. If the student is well adapted to classroom method of education, they do well. Do they really get an education? Other students do not take well to the classroom situation, but are able to learn on their own. These are the students that need a different form of delivery. What is the method of this learning. With the Internet, the range of options is unlimited.

What is the tie in with the tipping point? Educators need to look at students, evaluate each one individually and track how they learn. This is more than just defining educational learning styles academically. There is someone that will be innovative enough to define the real issue and problems. This person or group will be challenged by the existing establishment, but this will only help them refine their solutions. This person or group will start out small, but as others realize the benefits of their methods. Eventually, the idea will find the “Connector, Maven and Salesman”. The concept/program will then start growing exponentially.

e-Learning

Posted: December 15, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: eLearning, How do people learn | Tags: | Leave a comment

My research in how people learn has led me to “e-Learning and the Science of Instruction” by Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer. eLearning is defined as computer driven instruction. You need to define learning objectives just as you do in any instructional model. Clark and Mayer define 5 types of content:

  1. Fact which is specific and unique data or instance.
  2. Concept which is a category that includes multiple examples.
  3. Process which is a flow of events or activities.
  4. Procedure which is a task performed with ste-by-step actions.
  5. Strategic Principles which is a task performed by adapting guidelines.

There are three eLearning architectures:

  1. Receptive which is “Information Acquisition’ and is used for providing training goals such as new hires.
  2. Directive which is “Response Strengthening” and is used for performing procedure training goals such as software skills.
  3. Guided Discovery which is “Knowledge Construction” used to perform strategic training goals such as problem solving.

Clark and Mayer have lots of research to back up their opinions. They point out that you need to provide words and graphics and not just text. You need to align the words and graphics and not have text on one page and graphics either proceeding or following the text. It is best to use audio narration rather than on- screen text. You can explain visuals with either audio or text words, not both. Lessons should be broken up into manageable parts. Tell stories and use examples to reinforce principles. The material needs to have a learner feedback feature, just not testing for knowledge of material content.

In their book, Clark and Mayer  layout guidelines for e-Lessons with the underlying principle for each. It is an interesting scholarly view with research to back up their principles.

However to me it seems that it can be much simpler just by defining styles of learning and then using the learner type to support delivery method.

Investigating Learning Styles

Posted: December 5, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: How do people learn, Learning Styles | Tags: , | Leave a comment

My first investigation focuses on Kolb’s Learning Cycle progressing to McCathy’s 4MAT system and the VARK model of Fleming and Mills.

Kolb’s learning theory sets out four distinct learning styles, which are based on a four-stage learning cycle. Kolb’s learning theory introduces us to four distinct learning styles (or preferences), which are based on a four-stage learning cycle – learning by feeling, watching, thinking and doing.

Kolb's Learning Styles Model

Kolb's Learning Styles Model

How do people learn? How do you deliver training processes?

Posted: November 8, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: How do people learn, Learning Environment | Tags: , | 1 Comment

This site is meant to gain knowledge in exploring how people learn. I have always noticed that many instructors are never given any formal training or guidance into preparing training material for classes and other electronic delivery. Online learning is the new buzz, but how is effective content prepared?

People learn in many different ways. They are affected by their environment and cultural factors. The traditional method of teaching has always been a lecture followed up with additional readings and homework. Is that an effective method for everyone? I believe not.

Students fall into learner centered, knowledge centered, or community centered environments all with some form of assessment to support and measure learning.

I propose to do research based on the different environments and try to find optimal solutions as to delivery of educational material to each group.