EDUC 8845 Module 6

This course has provided me with great insight not only with regards to learning theories; it also allowed me to reflect on my own learning, on my learning philosophy. I am particularly excited about having learned more about Siemens’ (2004) learning theory of connectivism. Also, I have learned how to support the integration of constructivism as a teaching position using theories developed by Piaget, Brunner, Vygotszky, or Ausbel, theorists who argued that learning is a changing and interactive  process in which learners interpret and reinterpret information by building complex mental models based on their prior experience (Driscoll, 2005). Also, meaningful learning occurs when learners are motivated and build knowledge to give meaning to concepts based on their cognitive structures and experiences.

Learning is a process that combines cognitive processes, environmental influences, and experiences to acquire, enhance, or make changes to the learner’s knowledge, skills, values, and world views (Brown, 2004). Technology has significantly influenced influence the way we live, socialize, and how we learn. In today’s digital world, it is not only important to acquire information, but also to learn how to learn. In an increasingly connected world, we need to learn how to foster an attitude of seeking meanings, how to construct new representations of our surroundings, how to access valid information, how to process and how to generate new information based on our prior knowledge. To achieve the desired goal of learning it is then necessary that teachers develop strategies for exploration, experimentation, planning and control of the activity.  It is also important to emphasize that the learning process is not limited to precise and concrete knowledge, but that it also includes learners’ attitudes, expectations, or motivations. In the effort to encourage students to learn how to learn, teachers need to their support and provide for a learning environment that bridges previous experiences and new ones, with structures and strategies that allow students to learn in an ever more autonomous, interactive, connected, and collaborative ways.

References 

Brown, J. (2004). Growing up digital: How the web changes work, education, and the ways people learn. Change, 32(2), 10-16.

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education     
     
Siemens, G. (2004, December 1). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from http://elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm