Graceful EDTech

Interacting with others within the OLC Instructional Design Course (ID3) has provided a totally different perspective to approaching and applying ID methodologies. Working at a school of theology, tends to lead towards only one way of assessing learnings as the thoughts are generally that "bible theories do not change." As I agree, bible theories do not change but how people receive and learn evolves.  A different perspective with gain more insight to learning. Within the ID Community of Practice (CoP) I have learned that even theology can be delivered in exciting and stimulating methods to promote deeper learning and help students apply the knowledge learned in their daily ministries. This weeks assignments of modifying existing course to involve motivational, OCL /CoL and eLearning/Multimedia Theories help me think outside of the box of ways to take several Ministry Skills courses to the next level. The ideas presented, specifically in the Flow Theory, are ideas tha...

This week's learning in OLC Instructional Design Course focused on collaborative learning. As as student I have not always like this idea as often time and led to one person doing more work than others in my mind. As one that is kinda take charge and desire to do a good job, I usually end up exuding more energy than others. (I write this with a large smile on my face) Despite this, reading Teaching in a Digital Age about Online Collaborative Learning (OCL), I see that with the guidance of instructors this model can have great benefits despite some limitations. This material defined OCL and it's core principles as well as the Community of Inquiry Model (CoI) which focuses more on critical discourse and reflection. I was quite intrigued by Harasim's pedagogy of group discussion which outlines that instructors role is to engage within the collaboration during three phases: Idea Generating Idea Organizing Intellectual Convergence With a desire to apply insight g...

This week's lesson help me realized that learning is not as simple as it seems. Exploring surface learning and deep learning revealed that there's a role that the learner as well as the teacher play in how a learner learn. Personally, I recognized that there are times that I am a surface learner but mainly I am more of a deep learner. It also revealed that when an instructor does not provide learning activities that expound on my desire to go deep, I explore these ideas on my own.  As an Instructional Designer, my goal is to help our faculty members use activities that help learners go deeper.  Week 1 Learning Goal was to understand behaviorism, constructivism and cognitivism more. This week I found that deep learning takes a more combined method of the three while not focusing on mere memorization but metacognitive activities to help a learner go deeper.  A great deal of reading was dedicated to understanding how to help a learner go deeper this week and under...

This weeks reading allowed us to explore Learning Theories with an Instructional Design Perspective.  After reading: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features from an Instructional Design Perspective It was interesting to note the key components to each theory as well with commonalities between the two. Memorization seem to be a part of behaviorism and cognitivism where constructivism explores a more practical approach to learning.  My goal for this week is to explore these concepts more and identify when it is best to use each methodology to best serve our students and faculty in learning. Wow, So much to learn... Walk with me. RaleneSpeaks!

This week as we explored learning theories with an instructional design perspective we were asked to use a concept map to best display our grasp of the reading material. Using LucidChart, I found this assignment very helpful especially helpful with exploring the content of the week. What is a Concept Map? Inspirational Software  defines a concept map: as a learning and teaching technique, [which] visually illustrates the relationships between concepts and ideas. Often represented in circles or boxes, concepts are linked by words and phrases that explain the connection between the ideas, helping students organize and structure their thoughts to further understand information and discover new relationships. This is a practice that I am sure I will explore more personally as a student as well as an instructional designer working with faculty members share ideas and thoughts. Let's watch where this goes as I love visuals. RaleneSpeaks!

As one that loves blogging yet haven't blogged recently, I was asked to start a blog as a part of an Instructional Design Certification course I am taking: ID3 Professional Foundations: Collaborating, Researching, and Networking Course with Online Learning Consortium I enjoy blogging about faith, crafts and writing in general so this will be interesting to focus on another topic that I enjoy so much. Educational Technology and Instructional Design will be the focus on my musing here. Welcome! to my world! RaleneSpeaks!