My learning philosophy 

My instructional/graphic design pedagogy spawned my philosophy of learning. Teaching has honed my abilities to simplify concepts and manage large groups of people. Through teaching, I have acquired application skills, research skills, communication skills, and people skills. As a researcher, educator, and designer, I believe that instructional design is a discipline that requires a humanistic approach. Designers must be cognizant of a variety of factors as part of the cognitive information process when contemplating how to best present information to a particular audience (Driscoll, 2005). For instance, some individuals with different learning style may also experience degrees of red-green color deficiency view the complementary color scheme, red and green, as difficult to discriminate. When adjacent, the hues appear black. In contrast, a

color-normal individual can easily discriminate the hues. 

What do you believe is critical and non-negotiable in teaching and learning? 

Therefore, it is prudent for instructional design students to learn this lesson in their formative years, which is my goal in the classroom. In addition, design educators have the responsibility to educate students with the goal of providing a solid foundation in classic theories of learning and current theories of instruction, and a design curriculum based on industry standards. This is critical when transitioning the student from academia to professional practice. In the end, I now have an idea what effective learning should mean to me.

Posts:

TWeaver

http://weave1-weave1.blogspot.com/2012/05/tweaver-mod-6-learning-in-digital-world.html?showComment=1337831928063#c9063865998494643431

 Anwar Mohammad

http://anwar-mohammad.blogspot.com/2012/05/learning-in-digital-world.html?showComment=1337832149735#c4768879030743185015

Driscoll, M.P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Connectivism

This clip on knoledge management helped me to understand connectivism. It is about connecting people.

• How has your network changed the way you learn?
  My network works as a buffer and grounds the way I perceive my environment.
  It also allows me to see progress as in a timeline and areas that I intend to grow.
• Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?
  I am a visual learner and often, I find myself referring Youtube first, then I go to databases, and blogs.  Youtube is definetly my favorite tools because, I am able to unpack
  question as they are demonstrated by other experts and novices.
• How do you learn new knowledge when you have questions?
  Again, when I have questions, I first go through a process of refining the questions
  and then I ask myself what does it look like?
• I also find myself using a checklist methodology, which means whatever topic
  I am about to research, I will use youtube as a visual checklist to help limit the amount of time
  I spend on a topic.

Posted comments:

Carolyn

http://edistancelearning.blogspot.com/2012/04/alm-module-4-connectivism.html?showComment=1335672176382#c9126154111735477533

AJ

http://anethaj.blogspot.com/2012/04/johnson-module-4-blog.html?showComment=1335672582033#c6578987254227360409

Collaboration

Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia?

Rheingold (2005) provided some thought provoking conversation that caused me to rethink my views about collaboration. I think instinctively humans cannot resist the need to collaborate. Whether we know it, it is part of our  DNA.  Take, for example, 911 or any natural disaster; we immediately help our fellow man in the event of hard times. It is as if we automatically go into survival mode. I think during crisis we collaborate because we want to stop the impending crisis before it directly impacts our lives.

How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles?

Crisis management scenarios, such as national disasters readiness drills represent multiple perspectives of learning based on constructivist principles. It forces groups of learners to join their scholarly resources to solve a serious problem. For instance, it forces us to evaluate our environment, evaluate our circumstance, and evaluate our strategy. Crisis management scenarios force us to relinquish our egos and unify our efforts for the common good of society. It is a form of authentic learning that help us discover new solutions to problems we never thought were possible.

Find a current research study that has been conducted in the last 5 years that supports collaboration as an effective tool for learning. Include the link and reference for this study in your blog.

In the medical profession, there are a number of examples that support constructivism and its application to collaboration-based learning. Sapateiro and Antunes (2009) proposed model to improve situation awareness in the emergency room is one example. Their proposal describes a holistic response for improving emergency room readiness. They proposed to enhance the medical workers understanding of the emergency room process, including making efficient decisions from setting to setting.

 

TED Conferences, LLC (2005). (Video program). Howard Rheingold: The new power of

collaboration. Retrieved from

http://www.ted.com/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Sapateiro, C., & Antunes, P. (2009, May). An emergency response model toward situational awareness improvement. Paper presented at the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden. Retrieved from http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~paa/papers/iscram-09.pdf

 

Posted

AJ,

http://anethaj.blogspot.com/

Ennis Brinson
http://ebrinsonlearningtheoryandedtech.blogspot.com/2012/04/module-3-collaboration-in-module-3-i.html#comment-form

Crisis management from an instructional technology perspective: