Putting the pieces together

Coming to the end of this course, I have been reflecting back upon what I’ve learned and how my ideas have changed. I have to say that at the beginning of the course, I was skeptical about how much I really needed to know about learning theory. I mean, I took several educational psychology classes, and I even have a psychology minor in my undergrad – why would I need to learn anything more? But I am grateful for the in-depth study of the different learning theories.

In the first week, I talked about my learning style. I said then that I learn best when I can directly apply what I learn to real-world scenarios. That hasn’t changed. I also said my learning style was a mix of constructivist and cognitivist theories. After learning more about the other theories of learning, I would say that I still believe most in a blend of theories, but to constructivism and cognitivism, I would also add social learning and connectivism.

When I learn, I use technology in a variety of ways. I like to be able to search for information online, and then share and discuss my findings via social networking sites. I also found (in the process of creating my “mind map”) that my different networks of friends, coworkers, and classmates tend to overlap in significant ways. These findings lead me to believe that connectivism and social learning are really important aspects of my learning. In addition to finding information and then using it in connection with others, I also use technology to create and to teach. I’m creating lessons using computer technology that will be delivered over the internet, and also grading student work and communicating with them – while this might not seem to be related to my learning, I think that I’m learning something new every time I create a new lesson or look for a different way to teach certain material.

All in all, I still think that each of us learns best when we can have a hand in our own learning, have information presented in a variety of ways, and can use the information in meaningful ways. Knowing the theory behind my ideas has really helped me to put my ideas in a larger context, but the basic tenets of my own learning theory have not changed.