Understanding how students learn and trying to accommodate those differences when presenting material is the most important aspect of constructing lessons that everyone can learn from and be able to be demonstrate student learning in multiple ways as well.
As an instructor who have very diverse students I should take time to study their learning style and adjust my instructions and assessments to cater for their diverse learning styles. One size have never fit all when it comes to learning styles. I have to be careful not to always design instructions and assessment that fits my learning style.
Blended learning required all platforms and devices to giv ethe student the most effective outcome.
I learned how important is to know the different type of intelligence to integrate that information in online learning.
Student inclusion is important and Multiple Mobile Communications (MMC's) place more interaction points into the subjects and make learning more continuous. Students have more access to information than found in traditional orders of curriculum. Instructors need to learn and grow with students.
The old ways of teaching are giving way to multiple mobile connections, whereas there are many different ways to design your courses to suit different learning abilities in students.
I've always found Mayer's books on multimedia instruction very helpful for understanding the best ways to deliver instruction that pairs eyes and ears. I also believe in adding interactivity to lessons and always having an active component that helps students move information from short-term memory to working memory.
I found the area of integrating learning differences most useful. I also liked the informantion on customized learning.
When working with a blended course, a single, set assessment may not capture every student's learning. Consider an open ended option that gives them opportunities to apply their knowledge. This is one byproduct of customized learning.
The lesson on Maximizing content provided examples and information on how to instruct and rely information to various learners by using multiple methods (visual, Auditory, etc).
People are different, as we know, and have as many different ways of demonstrating intelligence. This presents yet another challenge for the teacher. By being creative and flexible in your instructional design and holistic in your assessment methods, you will be more likely to address more intelligences that are present in your classroom.
To a large extent, this section reinforces what has been a point of focus in education for quite a long time, that is the accommodation of learning styles. However, this application is now in a mediated environment. When learning style accommodation was suggested years ago the resistest may have been primarily philosophical but presently in the mediated environment that challenges may be primarily pragmatic. Time, tools, and expertise have to be addressed if online educators are going to provide an array of learning options.
The most important take away is to provide the students with the opportunity to take in the content in a variety of ways. Additionally, provide learning opportunities that speak to the various learning preferences. Use various assessments to capture what students know.
Many of the concepts apply to ground as well as online courses.
The discussions helped to understand the significance of multi-input connections and open ended output. It was interesting to learn about wireless mobile devices, taking notes, and use of smartboard. These modes modes of learning helps the nomadic learners. Also it was intersting to learn how left and right brain hemispheres can influence the type of learning. With left hemisphere dominance an individual prefers logical, nalytical, and organized learning. On the otherhand, with the right hemisphere dominance the individual prefers kinesthetic, sensory, or visula holistic learning
Hybrid Schools / Blended Learning Classes are an important part of education in today's society. These classes offer flexability, unlike traditional schools.
I have attended a Traditional School and Hybrid Schools / Blended Learning. The Traditional School was great when I was a teenagers to young adult, but as the years past and I decided to go back to school, the Traditional Classes were NOT an option for me, having a career, wife, child, house, etc. I had to seek other options. Hybrid Schools / Blended Learning Classes gave me the oppotunity to not only go back to school, but it helped me get my Master's Degree and work at my own pace and time. I went to class two days a week, one for each class, and the rest was online. Hybrid Schools / Blended Learning Classes made getting a Master's Degree possible.
I find, as a Dean, this is the case for 99% of my students in their continued education. My students wouldn't be able to attend school without it being Hybrid Schools / Blended Learning.
I am excited about using these strategies in my class. I also feel better about teaching the different learning types.
Considering that customization is the best way to reach all types of learners it is important to understand the need to offer information and accept input in various ways. Allowing student input to be diverse can result in better outcomes.
I found the following excerpt from the reading to be the most valuable:
"One of the greatest challenges in most courses is in the area of assessment. Granted, many courses of study are geared towards some form of certification that requires standardized testing, but that should be the starting point, not the summation of the production of learning."
Instructors sometimes struggle with what learning outcomes should consist of, but starting at the end makes such sense to me.
I have learnt that e-learning environments can be beneficial in terms of dictating the requirements of being successful within different learning courses.
