Engagement 4 It's learning Jim but not as we know it!

Connectivism: Learning as a skill rather than an outcome.

The Thigh bone is connected to the knee bone.....

My personal experience of this is in my profession as a Chiropractor. In many years gone by a medical practitioner was expected to keep his knowledge in his head and to attend seminars and do appropriate journal reading to provide continuing information updates. It is no longer possible to do this. The advance of medical knowledge is so fast that it would be more than a full time job to just do the required reading. We just have so much information now. We created specialisation to deal with this, but even now that is being overwhelmed.

What to do?

I think that Siemens has a very strong point and it is reflected in real world outcomes. My favourite doctors now are the ones with a lap top on their desk who research information for you as they go, printing relevant information for you and directing you to high reliability websites to help you to be better informed. Base knowledge is essential and we still need to recognise where the stethoscope and thermometer goes, very embarrassing to put it in the wrong orifice. But what do we do with gathered information particularly if it is beyond our working knowledge. It is common to outsource to specialists in data interpretation such as professional radiologist readers or to research online. The trick now is who do you connect to and how?

Technology, creating the problem and being the answer.  The NBN is touted as necessary for this style of information gathering, holding and sharing especially in the medical profession and linking remote areas with world class diagnosticians.
Classroom.
In the classroom environment a topic could be chosen; by the class (relevance) and all the collective knowledge of the class about the subject is gathered. Then postulate the question, is that all we can know? (engagement) Where and how can we find out more? Class suggestions. Then ask where is the latest thinking and information to be found? Texts, books, magazines, internet? Set different groups on to different modalities? Who found the most? Ask the question: If we had more people helping us search would that help us? Once more knowledge is found, what do we do with it? can we add to this? How can we do this? Where do we do this? Who do we want to know and how do we make sure they can find it?

Source

The following is a list of thoughts and questions inspired by the reading that I will get to answering as time permits.

• Content, who has control of what I learn? curriculum, family, culture, informal learning?
• Self awareness; how do I learn? how am I intelligent?
• Relevance
• Engagement
• Boredom, motivation, attention span, critical thinking, analysis.
• Education as entertainment?
• In a fast information world where everything changes and is rapidly discarded where is personal and life meaning; are our children happier and do they have stronger sense of purpose and self worth?
• What is the value of delayed gratification in learning?
• How quickly should we form an opinion, what is a considered opinion and then how quickly should we share it?,
• Work ethic and determination, always in style?
• Critical analysis of information, what do I choose to believe.
• ICT in creating learning environments.
• Web, Wiki, Blog, face book, video media, discourse pages, i pad
• How IT astute are primary school children, how astute do they need to be.

Just thinking aloud whilst reading some material for supportive learning. Invitations and inspirations, pathways to success, Mary Dixon et. all.
It again reflects back to Gardener's work on multiple intelligences, it seems to overlap each course so far.

For those interested a link to book purchase, Link

My question is; are teachers collaborating in building student profiles as the students progress through the years of learning, from the very beginning? It would seem logical to not have to re-invent the wheel each year level and each subject. This would be for all students, not just the diverse or failing. Pro active prevention through recognition and action. Of course it must be continually assessed and be adaptable and refined as all of us will change and grow. Indeed taking in consideration the idea of neural plasticity and the changing brain can we help students to balance their skill sets to be better able to use more learning styles. Indeed would we want to do that? Is it good to have a person who is brilliant in one specific area that may lead to insights that only outliers on the curve can see?

For those out there who are in the system already is this occurring?

Activity 1-1

The results of my questionnaire were interesting.

Learning Styles Results

Results for: Michael Richardson       ACT                      X                            REF            11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11                               <-- -->       SEN                      X                            INT            11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11                               <-- -->       VIS  X                                                VRB            11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11                               <-- -->       SEQ          X                                        GLO            11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11                               <-- -->

After completing the first exercise I felt that the assessment was quite accurate. I am definitely a sequential learner and I am very visual in my learning styles, say it to me in pictures!  As others have posted it does vary in different contexts. Also as an adult answering the questions it is a little obvious the intent of each question and I had to be careful not to answer in a way that suited my preconceived ideas of self.

Although there may be debate around learning styles and their accuracy I feel it is better to engage in the intent of analysis and understanding than just fly blind. I feel it is a wonderful tool to use if my teaching style is failing certain students. I will need to cognisant of my lack of verbal skills and global picture awareness to ensure that I will be reaching the verbal and global students in my future classes. Important to look at how to be the best for all my students and to stretch myself beyond my own comfort zones. This is very much a strengths and weaknesses analysis for myself and my future students.
I look forward to discovering other methods of analysis.

Source

Trialling the embed option.

So after watching the video by Wendy on the embed option I thought I would have a try!

What does the subject matter have to do with e-learning I hear you ask?

Well I expect the feeling I would have riding this wave is very similar to how I feel about ICT.

Guts up, have a go and best not to fall off!

Hello

Image from Starwalk

Well, that was something new! 

I begin my journey towards understanding the role of educator. Joy. Something I have flirted with for many years and finally I have mustered the courage to follow a dream.

In this blog I will of course meet the requirements of the ICT program but hope that it will also be helpful and productive as I share the resources that I find and be a part of that greater collaborative experience which I am hoping will be lifelong.