Week One Assignment

Week One Assignment

1.  The Medium is Not The Message

This was a very good article that generated many thoughts and here are a few:

-  The title itself made me think of the heritage moments on TV with Marshall McMcLuhan. It seems there has been much going on in the past 40 years to disprove his theory. I found a few web sites that relate to this statement.

-  http://www.digitalclass.org/Tech%20Ed/Communication/Message/McLuhan.htm

-  One interesting point from this site was – “The Information Paradigm has shifted as the past thirty years have served to disprove McLuhan’s theories about the impersonal nature of television. Vietnam, Watts, Rodney King, along with Jennie Jones and the other mediagogues demonstrate the emotional entanglement that television generates.”

-  This was n interesting point, but I always wonder how the footage was manipulated to envoke these feelings. What feelings are stirred through distance education? How can we tell how our message is delivered or received?

-  http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/MediaLearning/index.htm

-  One interesting point from this site was – “MARSHALL MCCLUHAN'S FAMOUS DICTUM that "The medium is the message" is sometimes cited to justify using video or computer-assisted instruction rather than a textbook. Evidence, however, shows that in educational media, the instructional method--not the medium used to deliver the message--may be of paramount importance, at least as far as learning is concerned.”

-  This was a great point and I feel really parallels the point in Ely’s article.

-  http://www.samizdat.com/mcluhan.html

-  One interesting point from this site was – “Rather, you focus on the preliminary content and the audience, and the medium is just a means to the end, which is the global discussion that results from allowing large numbers of people around the world to receive preliminary content, react to it, and react to one another.”

-  It is very important to keep the focus mentioned in this quote.

-  The article we read by Ely had many interesting points to reflect upon:

-  I love the point about ‘it is the design of the content that determines whether distance learning is successful’. This is my third course in distance education and I have found that the content has been set up to promote discussion and critical thinking.

-  Another good point was – “The medium itself does not teach, but the organization and presentation of content, combined with high levels of interactivity on the part of the learner and feedback from an authority (instructor, tutor, or programmed response), are elements of a distance learning system.”

-  I think the learner and instructor must take the initiative to embrace the content and the learning process and in my experience so far in these courses the learners and instructors have been outstanding and this has enhanced the process and the product for everyone involved.

-  Another good point was – “It appears distance learning is one development of the information age that will become a vital part of the education landscape in the future.”

-  I think that because we live in an information age, that people will probably have many career changes/adaptations in their lives, and the fact that we are life long learners distance education will provide opportunities to stay current, prepare for new challenges, and discover more about the world around us.

-  The last article address the media used in distance learning? Many good points are made, but I also wish that people took the time a little more to understand the media used. Look at the strengths, weaknesses, and have a solid understanding of how that media works. These observations come in extremely handy when using the media to learn.

2.  If you were to choose one particular learning theory that best fits direct instruction, which would it be and why?

Behaviorism because it involves stimulus-response and reinforced behavior. Learning happens when a correct response is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus. Instruction is to elicit the desired response from the learner who is presented with a target stimulus. Theorists for behaviorism include Skinner, Bandura, Thorndike, and Pavlov.

Source - http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/

3.  If you were to choose one particular learning theory that best fits the constructivist approach, which would it be and why?

I’m hoping that this is referring to indirect instruction which in this case the constructivist approach is the theory. It involves inquiry-based and discovery learning. Learners build personal interpretation of the world based on experiences and interactions. Learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge. Theorists for behaviorism include Vygotsky, Lave & Wenger, and Piaget.

Source - http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/

For more about learning theories go to my learning theory web site that I made for EDU 530 http://w3.rcs.sk.ca/oneill/vendramin/prodevelopment/link/index.htm

4.  By drawing upon past life and/or teaching experiences, where has direct instruction worked for you?

Direct instruction has worked mostly in math. Still I use direct instruction when I’m either pressed for time or if I feel it is the best way to get the message across. When I polled one of my classes about direct instruction only 1 of 20 students perferred it, but they all saw the need for it in some subjects and certain situations. A colleague I talked to the teaches physics and has been doing it for a long time stands by his method of teaching (which is mostly direct) and he made many valid points especially ones that referred to his subject area.

5.  By drawing upon past life and/or teaching experiences, where has the constructivist style worked for you?

Indirect instruction is the main method I use. I teach a class called CPT (Computer Production Technology). This class lends itself to the constructivist style and the students have responded in a positive manner to this method. The vast majority of students like this style and the colleague I talked to could see a lot of the benefits of this method.

A few extra points:

-  I found this quote on an education listserver message I got yesterday "The principal goal of education is to create people who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done."- Piaget (very timely)

-  Students are exposed to a tonne of multimedia and I believe their learning style is more geared towards constructivism

-  It was interesting to review Piaget’s developmental stages and see some of the changes that he mentioned with my 19 month son

-  Some teachers have a negative attitude about trying new ways of teaching and do not give new methods a chance

-  Sometimes the ‘old’ way is the best way