For the purpose of this activity I will refer to a personal learning experience that I have mentioned in Week 1 activity "Personal learning experiences":
"During by post-graduate diploma in Information Technology (System Development", I learned everything from scratch. I had zero previous knowledge in the world of IT and programming. However, in no time I significantly excelled. The secret is what they used to teach us. Instead of giving us information, they taught us how to find information and I actually learned how to learn independently rather than waiting for someone to transfer the knowledge to me. This was a turning point, a life changer and a huge learning experience".
Project-based learning
The diploma's duration was 9 months. During this period, we have been exposed to many subjects. I'm using "exposed" rather than "taught" because while each of the subjects was a broad field itself, the instructor just introduced us to the subject, recommended some references for further reading and then concluded with a mini-project that assessed and deepened our understanding in an authentic manner.
By the end of the diploma we were asked to split into small groups. Each group had to present a final project. We had to brainstorm and decide which direction to move towards. We were encouraged to go beyond the covered subjects and utilize the self-learning and exploration skills that we have been taught to learn more tools, coding languages and techniques. We were allowed to bring-in experts and to ask for external coaching. We were allowed to experiment with additional hardware.
During the project we worked in teams, we assigned leadership roles, we extensively utilized oral and written communication. we worked independently, we experienced critical thinking, problem solving, analysis and self-directed learning, we did endless research, and we applied the courses content of the diploma to real-world scenarios where we developed an online platform for the visually impaired using speech recognition tools in Arabic language, we had to do extensive research and numerous iterations to reach our desired product which wasn't perfect but demonstrated a considerable depth of understanding and learning and strong capabilities of deepening and building on the learned concepts.
Reflecting on the involved process, I can relate to Constructivism where we, as learners were active participants in the learning experience where we built on prior knowledge to create new meaning. Knowledge was being constructed while we were developing our own understanding of new content, building on prior knowledge.
Also the experience demonstrated both Cognitivism and Connectivism where we as learners were actively building Knowledge and our minds had to process new information to come up with new learning experiences. The problem-solving part clearly demostrates Cognitivism, and the research part of the project-based learning experience demonstrates Connectivism where we made connections between information and technology played an essential role in learning.
This was an adult learning experience that demonstrated the principles of Andragogy where it was very relevant and directly impacted our lives as learners. It was problem-centered where we had to solve a real problem that we had to define.
For several years, I have been using the language learning app "Duolingo" to learn languages. I started using it 5 years ago and I haven't stopped till now because of the highly engaging approach that it it uses to provide interesting and practical language learning techniques.
Gamification
During the learning process the learner is asked to provide translation, to record his/her voice reading phrases in the learned language and is encouraged to interact and compete with other learners and listen to stories in the learned language. The learner is allowed to pass a level only after passing all these different kinds of assessments (listening, speaking and writing) in a friendly, game-based manner.
As expected, such an approach in learning highly depends on Behaviorism where learners are motivated by positive reinforcement that is provided by the use of badges, leader boards, promotion to leader boards, unlocking bonus skills and stories, power-ups, character outfits, collecting points (lingots) and stickers. The learners always tries to avoid negative reinforcement represented by losing their rank in the board or losing their one-week streak for example.
Constructivism is also clear where the learner is continuously building on previously acquired knowledge and skills.
In a learning experience targeting young people of Arabic origins being raised in an English speaking environment. I foresee an activity in which the learners are asked to communicate with an Arabic speaker that they know. This can be a neighbour or a friend or a family member. The learner is asked to conduct a 10 minutes conversation with this person in Arabic and then engage in a discussion forum in which he/she talks about the experience, mentions the main takeaways from the conversation and 3 new words/expressions that they have learned.
Experiential learning
Through the discussion forum, the learner shares the details of his/her learning experience. The shared information assesses the knowledge that the learner has gained during the earlier experience which preceded the interactive assessment.
This scenario demonstrates Connectivism where the learner is asked to experience a learning scenario where he/she actively builds new knowledge by connecting with other people.