As I was reading through my first week discussion initial post I realized my approach to education had shifted from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered one. The key question was “How do you understand your own learning process?” but my answer was the one of a teacher, not the one of a learner. My new understanding of construction of meaning helps me to better understand how I can effectively design a learning process for my students as an online instructor.
Behaviorism and Cognitive theory have been something I had to revisit, though I definitely got to learn quite a few new things about those seemingly familiar theories. Thus, I understood that many tech tools in ESL sphere are actually based on behaviorist principles. A lot of software and tools I used in teaching are based on the link between stimuli and a learner’s response. Many of them have been here for some years, e.g. Grammar and Pronunciation software, e.g. EyeSpeak, Vocabulary building tools, e.g. Online Mnemonic Dictionary, Lingvo Tutor and others like simulation games that are yet to become common reality as soon as they become cost effective.
At the same time I realized that aforementioned technologies have developed due to the assumptions of cognitive theory that have direct relevance to designing learning tools in ESL:
· Learner control, metacognitive training (e.g. self-planning, monitoring, and revising techniques).
· Cognitive task analysis procedures.
· Use of cognitive strategies such as outlining, summaries, synthesizers, advanced organizers, etc.
· Recall of prerequisite skills; use of relevant examples, analogies.” (Ertmer & Newby, 1993)
There were also quite a few revelations with Constructivism and Connectivism, too. Thus, never before I paid much attention to the importance of shared cognition. Now the phrase “interaction with more knowledgeable others” doesn’t mean a student interacting with a teacher only but also peers and learning context come to the foreground. Hence the determination with which I started to implement the following technological means to construct social environment online for the individual students I teach:
· Learning platforms, e.g. Elluminate that I am planning to use for group lessons online;
· Forum software I have started to use in order to engage students into project work juliasclass.com;
· Chat rooms for ESL practice, e.g. Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Google Talk;
· Personal blogs on ESL and podcasts I encourage my students to use in their self-directed learning, e.g. esl.about.com
But it was Connectivism that turned out a real goldmine and changed my world forever. A new type of learner that was born together with the Internet calls for a shift in the way we learn and we teach – “the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing”. (G. Siemens) A “networker” is a new type of learner who creates his/her own learning network to easily access and share expertise. My next step as an instructional designer would be to help my students find a way to connect to those who can be defined as “more knowledgeable others” through many personal networks and teach them navigation strategies.
References:
Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. Emerging perspectives on
learning, teaching and technology .
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing
Critical Features from an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement
Quarterly , 50-72.
