Week 7 - Module #8: Theories of Learning: Comparison
"Is there a single 'best' approach and is one approach more efficient than others?" (Ertmer & Newby, 2013, p. 60).
That is probably one of the most recurrent questions I have asked myself in the last seven weeks. After listening to Dr. Newby talking about his experience in the field, I realized that there is no definitive answer to that question. As stated by Ertmer and Newby (2013): "Both the instructional strategies employed and the content addressed (in both depth and breadth) would vary based on the level of the learners" (p. 60). It is more critical to use instructional theories when applying new teaching strategies rather than not using anything. For instructional designers, that means focusing more on educational theories when incorporating new technologies or tools into the classroom. Any new teaching approach or tool should always keep the most crucial emphasis on the learner.
According to Bonk and Cunningham, "For pedagogical progress to be made in electronic learning environments, educators must begin to realize that lockstep factory model of education is out of sync with prevailing views of learning" (p. 45). There should be an update of the ways of seeing the current educational context in different educational institutions. Current young learners have a different conception of the educational experience. They have been exposed more to technology than any other generation. As a personal experience, I remember creating a multidisciplinary project where students needed to combine their editing skills in a YouTube video where they would present what it is to be a global citizen in Spanish. The three-minute videos were outstanding using drones, video cameras, Adobe Photoshop, Voice studio apps, and more. There is no doubt that students from previous generations could have never done this. Suppose learners can adapt the technologies and apps to their own needs. Why can't educators adapt the tools to their teaching methods rather than just paying attention to the device and not to the educational purpose behind its use?
"An environment scan on the future of learning suggests that learning opportunities will be increasingly ubiquitous, mobile, and tailored to 'just for me, just for now'" (Reeves & Reeves, 2015, p. 479). Educators need to keep using technology and adapt the use of instructional theories to the current context. Instructional designers have an essential role in the upcoming future of education to find different alternatives of integrating the technology into the classroom by paying attention to the tool, the level of instruction of the learner, the instructional theories, and the content of the courses.
Reeves, T. C., & Reeves, P. M. (2015). Learning. In L. Cantoni & J. A. Danowski (Eds.), Communication and Technology: Handbook of Communication Science (pp. 467-483). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. (See also interview of Dr. Tom Reeves, The University of Georgia (26:19): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU32W1oclnw)
Bonk, C. J., & Cunningham, D. J. (1998). Chapter 2: Searching for learner-centered, constructivist, and sociocultural components of collaborative educational learning tools. In C. J. Bonk, & K. S. King (Eds.), Electronic collaborators: Learner-centered technologies for literacy, apprenticeship, and discourse (pp. 25-50). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance improvement quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.
That is very good question to ask yourself. It is also really difficult to answer. I definitely agree that keeping update with changes in education are key to being successful. But I wonder if the changes we see in higher education and educational institutions are happening too fast to keep update. I think about the recent changes that occurred due to the pandemic. Every educational institution has made major changes that will mostly stay to a large degree. I also found this week's reading useful when thinking about the different learning theories that exist and how to use them.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I completely buy in to Reeves and Reeves' opinion of learning being 'just for me, just for now'. I guess it would depend on what is meant by that. If they mean that learners will be able to receive instruction wherever they are on a relatively contained subject, then I think that is probably true. As the subject matter gets more complicated that might require cognitive apprenticeship, scaffolding, pre-training, etc. I am not sure how the 'just for now' is achieved without artificial intelligence, adaptive learning, and a wiki-like set of learning resources. I can imagine a very cool blending of the three, but that will take some doing and put instructional designers out of a job.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading several areas of your post. One area that stood out to me was the notion between learning that is tailored. My workplace is heavily focused on learning experience design. Part of this involves individualizing the associates learning experience. What I have trouble with is how realistic it is to tailor training for each individuals needs. Yes, there’s an AI approach, but at same time, instructional designers need to be involved in learning to ensure that users do in fact experience the tailored learning. In the future, I believe more and more instructional designers are going to need to learn how to teach others how to work with AI. Thank you for sharing your post!
ReplyDeleteI always believe that teachers should not stick to only one kind of learning theory when designing their instruction. While adopting multiple complementing theories into the framework, it brings students of different strengths and preferences to gather so they can learn from each other, giving them the chance by learning alongside following student who has strengths in certain areas.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why it is hard for some educators to incorporate new technologies into their classes. I work at a library and the faculty have this new adaptive learning space and it is equipped with all of these cameras and sound and computers for them to create videos for classes. When they are leaving some stop at the desk and complain that it is just too much, but then there are other who are happy and say that that enjoy what they were taught. These faculty work with the IU instructional consultants and they help them understand the new technologies on campus to improve their classes. I wish the staff can utilize that space too.
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