I really enjoyed this chapter. I am very interested in how the mind works and feel that understanding this is the best way to be able to learn how to teach. The difficult thing is though while I believe the cognitive process explained on page 315 of the text is very accurate of how learning takes place, I believe that different people put more emphasis on different parts than others. So, when spending extra time on one part for one student, the other may lose their attention. Another place that may be a sticking point for some would be the activation of prior knowledge. Students who have had experiences they can draw on may find it more valuable to spend extra time relating their knew knowledge to what they already know that someone who is just now learning about the said topic.
A personal example I can think of is when I was watching one of the NOOMA videos. In these videos a younger pastor is typically doing something while he is talking about a story and relating to the bible. In one video he parked alongside a street and then started to dig a hole (while still telling his story) he then pulled a tree out of the back of his truck and planted it. I have a very clear picture in my mind of him planting the tree and I could tell you about it in detail. However, I have no idea what he said, what the moral of his story was, how or who it related to in the bible or if it had anything to do with planting trees. I do not think it was the producers intention to teach me how to plant trees, so this video did not at all do what it was intended to do for me. I guess it would be interesting to ask other people what they got out of it, but I know that the other people watching the video with me were able to follow with the video because we had discussion sheets we filled out afterwards and most of them had answers filled out when we discussed them.
One way, in my work, I have learned to incorporate keeping the attention of people in my training sessions is to not let anyone turn on their computers until I have run through the concepts and what we are going to do. This is sometimes hard to do because many of the people are work with are at a higher pay level than I am and it is hard to tell them what to do. I envy people who can tell people what to do without offending them.
Another way I can incorporate what I have learned from this chapter into my training sessions is just keeping the idea in my mind that offering a variety of avenues to learn is very important. I could probably learn what the pastor in the NOOMA video was trying to say if I could take it home and watch it again with the picture off and just listen to the sound. Offering things like this to different types of learners will help everyone come closer to being on the same page. My hat is off to school teachers who deal with 30 different kids for a whole school year who need to learn each of their own personal learning styles and help cater to them.
Reiser, R. & Dempsey, J. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.
Monday, June 16, 2008
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4 comments:
I can relate to being able to describe what I saw but not what the message was meant to be. There is so litle time to teach all of the required curriculum as it is that when we are selecting supplemental material to support the curriculum it is very important to view it first and think about what message is really being sent, does the picture match the concept and to develop it further for the auditory learners and not just the visionary. Your right it is a difficult job to reach out and be able to meet each individual learner in the typical classroom of 25.
Katherine,
In your previous posting I made the comment about “prior learning” concerning your Karate Kid connection. That is a technique I use a lot in my teachings because it seems most students can make a connection to movies. Your statements about the NOOMA video would lead me the conclusion that you are a “visual learner”, so am I. I have said for years that I need to “see it to do it”; I might need to see it twice.
Jeff Tyler
Katherin,
Isn't that the million dollar question--how to spend the right amount of time on a topic that some students have prior knowledge for and some students know little to nothing.
I am totally the same way. It sounds like if I were watching that video I would have had the same experience as you. Obviously the instructor knew this was a possibilty so he came up with the questions.
That is a great idea to show a video, then just listen to it. Regardless of their learning style, each student would gain something different from each experience.
Chrissy
Katherine,
I was turned on to the virtual reality site last year by another teacher. I think it is great and would love to show my students next year during the human body unit but right now not all of our computers have the correct commponents installed in order for it to work. I am hoping they work this out over the summer which will give us access to all interactive sites. Thank you for all of the other recommendations to visit. I will be checking them out this summer.
Jennifer
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