Learning: It's not as simple as it seems!



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 understanding this concept more while placing it in context to the various learning activities. 
Let's explore what I gained this week:
  • Knowing what works for you and how you learn will help you be a better learner
  • Doing what works best for you also helps
  • Taking risks in learning opposed to always seeking a grade guides the learning process
  • Engaging in problem solving and applying to life helps retention of ideas, concepts and theories.

Your learning process in relation to your Week 1 Learning Goals:
  • What were your learning intentions for the week and did you follow through on those or did you get sidetracked?  
  • If you got sidetracked, was it beneficial or do you need to revise your learning strategies in order to stay on track?
  • How does what you learned this week relate to what you've previously learned? 

Additionally over the past week, my goal was to review instructional design skills and competencies that I need or desire to improve upon. LMS tools and learning theories was my focus. Most importantly gaining competency in design and development such as using instructional design and development process for a given project and modify existing instructional materials.  Another area of interests is expanding the usage of video conferencing within the classroom for learning as well as assignments such as preaching and teaching courses at our institution. 

In an effort to learn more from others, I joined the Canvas Instructional Design group as well as BlueJeans BlueCrew group. Each of these groups provide opportunities for me to connect and collaborate with individuals that are doing tasks I'd love to implement and also provides ideas of methods to use the tools more effectively. Additionally, I am an active member of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) accrediting agency's EDTech committee. Our goal is to provide training for ATS schools as well and collaborate with a focus on theology and education technology. 

As we deploy CidiLabs course design tools, recommended by others in Canvas ID group, I learned methods for developing not only quality activities but courses that were focused to meet the needs of our students using our surveys.

I enjoy engaging in these Communities of Practice (CoP) yet recognize that it can take up a great deal of time away from my daily work. In order to be effective and get the most out of the interaction, I must be intentional and strategic in how I approach it such as focusing on topics that address my goals opposed to the topics that are current. 

This week has been enlightening and helpful with my current projects. As mentioned, we are deploying CidiLabs tools this weeks and as we develop new courses for the Spring looking at the learning objectives discussed in the reading is helping me education not only faculty members but my Technology Services team that I lead. 

Gracefully, educating others that learning is not as simple as it seems has been my goal this week. Even though it is not simple when we take into consideration the learner, how people learn, and the various learning theories we can simplify it for the best benefit of retention and life application. This is highly important at a theological school.

Watch for more Graceful musing as #RaleneSpeaks

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