Day 2

Today we covered the topic of design which, when considering all the learning theories, seems all a bit overwhelming. Shanali came to the rescue and put everything into perspective when differentiating between Learning Design as a process that focuses on you as the designer, where learning theories is framed around what learning is and how does learning happen, even going so far to say that Blooms Digital Taxonomy exists in supporting / micro learning theories.

Cheryl was also an absolute hero today when she presented the topic of learning theory questions, simplified in categorised in colour to better remember the different theories, was a touch of class. These seem to me to be the five key questions to help think about how your audience learns a particular thing best.

For me, it was a case of categorising the theory in colour to the prevalent researcher in case I needed to know where to look for literature if I needed to include these theories in my own design. I briefly put together some key words to associate with these theories so I know the kind of dialogue I am expected to have when considering each theory.

• PERFORM / SHOW / DEMONSTRATE visibly? Observable; certain way of doing things, Skinner = Behaviourist= = Drill and practise, pre-assessment.; identify predetermined steps (Chaining). This Here is a link to a hilarious video on Skinner and The Teaching machine, please enjoy :) B.F Skinner and the Teaching Machine
• THINK / PLAN / REMEMBER something? Required to problem-solve and test out alternative possibilities, Blooms = Cognitivist Learning = the active processing of information and how knowledge is organised in the brain. Creation of learning environments that allow and encourage students to make connections with previously learned material (recall of prerequisite skills; use of relevant examples, analogies).
• CREATE / MAKE something by themselves or with others? Required to create own understanding? Cognitive Constructivism (individual Piaget who draws on putting pieces together as opposed to social Vygotsky who emphasises heavily on language, articulation) sees learning as understanding through active discovery, Social Constructivism= collaborative activity. How one learns in relation to something, allowing for the shared ownership of the task.
• ENGAGE with others in an authentic context? Required to work with others in a real-life context? Social Theory pedagogies = Multiple perspectives, Collaboration & social negotiation - Gilly Salmon’s Five Stage Model, some of the design principles include: 1.Providing access and motivation; 2. Facilitating online socialization; 3. Exchanging information; 4. Constructing knowledge; 5. Encouraging development.
• CONNECT with and CONTRIBUTE information? Required to find out information via the Internet and other digital technologies?Connectivist theory (Siemens) can give you some assistance to better design the task/s in your online learning activity. “The ability to access and use distributed information on a ‘just-in-time’ basis”. Collaboration & online social negotiation -learner autonomy, Openness. I found a must watch video about this learning theory you simply must watch: Overview on connectivism

Having these learning theories labelled out like this really assists me in establishing which learning theory I think best explains how my audience might best learn, develop cognitive skills and work collaboratively with others in a particular context. When it comes to considering the strategies, I have come to understand that I need to start the transition of traditional learning to online learning as it transitions from High School to University as it happens in the classroom. I need to design a learning experience that starts off behaviourist as in most modern classrooms, with teacher assistance as guided and move onto Cognitive Constructivism by requiring the students to create their own understanding, of why they are actively discovering what they can expect to learn. Here a small task like engaging in an online poll to identify learning styles can be done asynchronously under implicit instruction. Moving onto my 3rd Learning Objective which will require the students to do a task like a study manifesto which needs to be submitted online, where the learner needs to investigate information on how to put it together, autonomous and working in their own time under a deadline but with access to group collaboration through VLE comment sections between faculty and class mates.

Nicola and her topic discussion on Precedent Analysis really hit the nail on the head for me when highlighting that Designers draw from known solutions (memory, experiences) and their affordances rather than starting from a process model. I also clearly understand now, after much confusing that this helps to identify good practises in particular contexts and get sense of the landscape (what happened and what’s happening). Nicola really did emphasis the need to share content in the ID field.