Learning Technologist & Ethics

Every person must have good ethics, whether in their life or at work. As a person who uses technology, in the learning environment, the learning technologist needs to have good ethics.

Some of the sets of ethics a learning technologist should maintain are:

• Always use technology to improve the overall quality of learning
• Always think about the benefits & consequences when writing or using a program.
• Follow the national, state, and district guidelines whenever introducing the technology to curriculum.
• Provide equal access and resources of technology to every user and be good to work collaboratively.
• Always help and support all the approaching learners within their limitations.
• Must be honest and sincere to all learners and colleagues
• Respect and maintain confidentiality of files, information, and resources on the networks. Do not break the confidentiality for the benefits of self or the benefit of others.
• Need to follow an Acceptable Use Policy to inform the appropriate use of technologies and stick with it.
• Always respect and educate copyrights and the intellectual property rights.
• Monitor computer and Internet use in the least restrictive manner possible.
• Always pledged to improve or up to date personal proficiency in the field of technology.

Ethics are principles of right conduct. It is not a commitment. Being good with everybody is not the same as having good ethics. You cannot always be good with everybody, if you want to keep your ethics !

Objectivism, Constructivism, and Me

If I am the trainer, which approach I will use in the design of my instructions?

This interesting question I asked myself after reading about Objectivism and Constructivism. Both have merits and demerits.

The first thing I want to understand is how a learner learns. The only available tools for the human learner are the senses. It is only through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting that an individual interacts with the environment. With the messages from the senses, the individual builds a picture of the world. The picture build by each learner may be different.

Objectivism is based on the theory that a learner’s knowledge of the world comes from their experience of it. All the data and information required will be given to the learner. Where as, in Constructivism, learners construct knowledge for themselves thorough experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Each learner individually constructs meaning as he or she learns and learner need to have prior-knowledge in the subject of learning.

Whatever the approach used in the learning process, all of my learners are expected to achieve the learning objectives in the same manner.

We need to imagine a classroom of learners without prior–knowledge and using constructivist method with out any guidance!
Definitely none of us will agree with that kind of situation in a classroom.

It is appropriate to use a constructivist approach to a learner have prior-knowledge in the subject. However, for a novice, constructivism will present cognitive overload. For them objectivist method will be appropriate.

I believe that the constructivism learning theory originated and grown with technology. This approach reduces or changes the role of a teacher from a trainer to a facilitator. It is useful in the e learning settings. In both roles, the teacher is an important factor in the learning process.

I believe, it is always appropriate to know the learner before selecting the training method. Need to consider the learner’s prior-knowledge in the subject. In addition, it is important to consider the previous educational system the learner was in. All these factors will decide what type of approach we need to use in the process of learning for a particular learner.

I really like to combine these contrasting theories in my instructional designs depending on my learners and their level of knowledge.

Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Objectivism and Constructivism

Objectivism is based on the theory that individual’s knowledge of the world comes from their experience of it. Where as Constructivism theory rests on the assumption that learner constructs knowledge as they attempt to make sense of their experiences.

Let me write down the comparison of Objectivism and Constructivism, as I understood. As a teacher, this comparison helped me to understand and differentiate Objectivism and Constructivism.

In Objectivism, the teacher is the information giver. The teacher identifies the issues or topics. However, in Constructivism the learner is responsible for identifying the issues or topics.

In Objectivist approach, the teacher will ask questions to the learners, where as in Constructivism the learner will ask questions.

In Objectivism, the teacher will identify, locate, and contact the human resources, where as in Constructivism the learner is responsible for those.

In constructivism, student takes much more active role. This can motivates the students to learn. Prior knowledge of the learners can be a major factor affecting the success of Constructivist approach.

From Objectivism to Constructivism, the teacher's role will change from trainer to a facilitator. In both the cases the teacher will be one of the major resources, the learner depends. The teacher needs to engage the learners to those experiences, which challenge their prior-knowledge. In general, the teacher’s knowledge and actions will influence the success of the learner.

Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Constructivism

July 30th is the school opening day for my children. They will be in new grades with their friends and new teachers. It seems like they are very excited to start their studies.

I remember their previous schools, classes, teachers, most of their friends and their parents. I remember their growth from birth to today. I really wonder how much they learned during these years. They learned how to cope with, collect information and experience from the environment around them. They learned to walk, learned the language(s), they learned to ride the bikes, and the list goes on. These are examples for Constructivism, one of the important learning theories.

Constructivism is a theory about learning. Each learner individually constructs meaning thorough experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Construction of meaning is learning. Learning is a byproduct of understanding. In Constructivist method, learners build their own knowledge rather than having it poured in by a teacher. That is, Knowledge is constructed, not acquired.

I believe that the constructivism learning theory originated and grown with technology. This approach reduces or changes the role of a teacher from a trainer to facilitator. It is useful in the e learning settings.

According to Driscoll (p.407) in the constructivist approach and philosophy, only the active learners are successful. Learning by doing and practicing enables learners to achieve deep levels of understanding. Learning with understanding, not rote learning is desired. In addition, the social context of the learning environment is important.

I believe that the knowledge is not a fixed object. Whenever my children encounter something new, they try to find out the answer for the question themselves. If they find the answer, they acquire the knowledge through their own experience. If they cannot find the answer, they used to ask questions. I know, some of my answers to their questions changes their believes. Whatever it is, most of the time, they are the active creators of their own knowledge.

Think about a classroom with small children with no prior–knowledge and using constructivist method without any guidance! Definitely none of us will agree with that kind of situation in a classroom.

It is appropriate to use a constructivist approach to a learner have prior-knowledge in the subject. For that type of learner, the amount direct guidance needed may be very less. However, for a novice, constructivism will present cognitive overload. They really need reasonable direct guidance of learning.

It is always appropriate to know the learner before selecting the training method. Need to consider the learner’s prior-knowledge in the subject. In addition, it is important to consider the previous educational system the learner was in. All these factors will decide how much direct guidance of learning is required for a particular learner.

I strongly believe the need of reasonably direct guidance of learning with the constructivist approach of learning. After all, I feel comfortable and confident, when I get enough guidance from an expert, a teacher.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Best Learning Theory?

Learning is a life long activity. Learning occurs internally in formal instructional settings and incidentally through experience. Learning theory is a set of laws or principles about learning. It specifies the link between what is learned and the condition under which learning occurs.

There are a variety of learning theories. Behavioral learning theory Cognitive information-processing theory, Situated learning theory, Gange’s theory of instruction and Constructivism. All these theories are equally important. Each one proposes different concepts with advantages and disadvantages. We cannot accept any one of them as a complete learning theory.

When I select a learning theory, it is very important for me to consider the requirements and level of intellectual processing of the learning tasks. I also need to understand the level of proficiency of the learners.

I like to observe my student’s behavior both before and after instruction (Behaviorism theory). I like to allow my students to interact each other to explore new ideas and experiences (situated learning theory) as well as having an orderly way to process the information (Gange’s theory). I also like my students engage in the “construction” of their education (constructivism theory).

There fore, if possible, I always like to adopt all the good factors of each learning theories.

Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Robert Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

Robert Gagne is best known by his learning theory with taxonomy of learning outcomes, the conditions of learning and the famous nine events of Instructions. He was a foremost researcher and contributor to the systematic approach to instructional design and training. He is best known for his Nine Events of Instructions.His theories have advantages and disadvantages.

Gain attention is one of the most important events in Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction. Attracting the learner’s attention to the subject is very important in learning or training. This ensures that the learners are focused on the lesson and capable of retaining the information. My main technique to do this is to make them curious about the subject. Then we need to present it in a colorful dramatic way.

The second event, Inform the Learner of Objective is also important. Informing the learner what they are going to learn is an important event. This is to allow the learners to begin thinking of the lessons and prepares them for the topic that will be discussed. For me, right after an introduction of the subject, is the time for this. Objectives can be clear, simple, and short.

Stimulate recall of prior Knowledge is the third event. This allows the learners to think about and utilize their prior knowledge and experience to associate with the new learning materials. Most of the time, due to time constraint, I am not able to doing this. After learning these nine events, I understood the importance of this event. It is very easy for a learner to store information in long-term memory if the information is linked to a prior experience or knowledge.

Presenting the material is another important event. This is about presenting the topic to the learner. There are numerous methods to present the content of the lessons to the learners. Whatever the method chosen, the material needed to be systematic, organized, and explanatory. It needs to have demonstrations. This is time consuming and I like to spend lot of time to do this.

Provide Guided Learning be about helping the learners to follow along, as the topic is presented. I use to include examples, graphical representations, case studies, etc to do this.

In Elicit Performance event, we need to ask the learners to do what they have been taught. It is about practicing and confirming the new skill they learned. Practice gives the learners the hands-on experience and insures correct understanding. I need to allot more time for this event in my training programs.

Providing Feedback is the next event. This informs the learner about their performance is a good idea. This can be performed during the practice session. Doing the exercise within the tutorial itself is one of the easiest ways to give an immediate feedback. I always ask my trainees to do this, if there is time at the end of my training program.

Assess Performance is a requirement for every training sessions. Upon completing instructional modules, students should be given the opportunity to take a final assessment. It lets the learner know if more practice is needed to insure their skills are accurate. I usually design my assessment session simple and short, but including all the objectives. This gives my students and me a satisfaction and confidence.

The last event is the Enhancement of Retention and Transfer. It is important to find out how my learners apply the learned skills from the training program to their work. This is the real test. I need to apply this event to my training programs to ensure an effective learning.

There are disadvantages in Gagne’s learning theory, like; it takes too much time in the development stage. A creative trainer may find a better ways of delivering instruction that allows students to become highly involved in the learning process. Gagne’s learning style sometimes restricts students from guiding their own learning. It also needs a passive learning environment.

However, in my opinion, the nine events of instruction are the ideal way to teach a lesson. It uses all aspects of testing, practicing, and utilizing the information that is to be taught. His theory helping me lot in designing my training programs these days.

Even the technology or learning methods change, Gagne’s principles never lose its importance. It provides new meaning and new direction for the learning theory designers and helps them to solve new problems. :

Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Gagné's Five Learned Capabilities

Gagne's taxonomy of learning outcomes is somewhat similar to Bloom's taxonomies of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor outcomes. Both Bloom and Gagne believed that it was important to break down humans' learned capabilities into domains. However, Gagne’s taxonomy of learning outcomes may be the most popular among the many learning taxonomies.

The taxonomy of learning outcomes according to Robert Gagne includes five kinds of learned capabilities: Verbal information (stating the information accurately), Intellectual skills (classifying things and problem solving), Cognitive Strategies (their use and appropriate application), Attitudes (preferring options), and Motor Skills (physical performance).

After reading these five learned capabilities, I thought about how to employ these learned capabilities into my training environment.

First, I needed to determine the lesson and its objectives. Then I can categorize the objectives into one of the five domains of learning outcomes. I may face problem in this stage. Some objectives can be categorized easily; some are not. This step need care because, placing an objective in the wrong domain will results in the wrong learning outcome.

Each of the objectives can be stated in performance terms using one of the standard verbs associated with the particular learning outcome.

This is another step where I can create problem. Selecting the wrong verb can result the wrong learning outcome. It was always very difficult to put these processes into performance terms using the standard verbs.

Then I can use the conditions of learning for the particular learning outcome to determine the conditions necessary for learning. Finally, the events of instruction necessary to promote the internal process of learning are chosen and put into the lesson plan. If everything done properly, the events in essence become the framework for the lesson plan or steps of instruction.

Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Self-Regulation in Learning

Self-regulation or regulating itself automatically is very important in learning. According to Zimmerman (2000), it is the systematic efforts to direct the learner’s thoughts, feelings, and actions, towards the attainment of the goals.

After reading and learning about Self-regulation, I understood that setting up the right goal is important about self-regulation. Effective goal can be setup by setting up long-term goal; break them to short-term sub-goals. It is very important to determine the critical sub-goals to attain my long-term goals.

Once I planned and set my goal, I need to commit to attain that. I need to manage my learning and the environmental conditions surrounding me.

I am responsible for monitoring the progress of my goal. According to Schunk and Zimmerman (1994), monitoring progress towards goal attainment is a critical component of self-regulation.

I will analyze my personal styles of learning and compare them to others. This will increase my awareness of different ways of learning.

I need to find ways or help to overcome the difficulties I may face. If I cannot attain a particular goal, I need to re-evaluate and re-adjust the goal to fit my capabilities. If I am able to attain the goal, I can set a new goal.

It is really a good lesson I learned today about self-regulation in learning.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Curiosity & Motivation

I remember one of my brilliant classmates, Rajeev. He was one of my close friends. Everybody knows him, believes, he will be a rank holder in the state examinations that year.

The best quality I saw in him was his curiosity. He was always curious to learn more than in the prescribed textbooks. He used to read lot and experiment things he learned.
He always seems to be confident to face any challenges. Whenever he talks about study subjects, I used to tease him by asking “Who? Why? What?” He used to get answers to most of my questions. It was from him I learned, being curious is one of the best methods to learn more, or curiosity is a strong motivator of learning.

Scoring less than hundred percent was a rare story for Rajeev. His self-efficacy was in a high level. His previous success at studies made him confident of doing anything. He always thinks about great people and thinks about getting similar success in his life. He always listens to people who says, “You are the best, or you can do it”.

However, things changed towards the end of the graduating months. He seems to be anxious about his studies. One time he advice me to study with out sleeping to get the best marks. If he is loosing one point in the class test, he seems to be very much disturbed.

Final examination days become the most difficult days for Rajeev. On the first day of examination, he did well in the mathematics paper. Since the school expects very good marks for him, his mathematics teacher went through his answers and asked him to go through the papers once again.

While doing that he found a small error in the answer, then another one. He jumped out of the examination hall and threw his answer sheets into the air. All the people around him were upset. He did not write any more exams afterwards.

All these happed because of his excessive anxiety and the anxiety of his parents, relatives, and teachers.

There after for long time he was not able to study anything. The lesson I learned from my classmate is that “excessive anxiety can interfere with learning and performance, leading to a reduction in continuing motivation to learn”.

Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Video Games, Piano, and Motivation

Today I read about motivation in details. For me motivation is the action, which helps me to attain my desired goals. It is a physiological feature of every human.

My children are enjoying their vacation. When I present the latest video games, their motivation was to play up to the end of that game. That makes them to wake up early, compromise each other about the time allotted, help each other, and utilize every seconds they play to get maximum credits from the game. Most of the times they forget to have their lunch. They are highly motivated!

In this contest, I cannot agree with Weiner who says motivation is “a work-related rather than a play-related concept” (Weiner, 1990, p. 621). I think, What ever we do, there can be motivation, to be successful.

In the process of playing the games, my children activate and sustain cognitions, behaviors, and affects, which are systematically oriented towered the attainment of their goal.

I promised my children to make them members of an online game with one condition. My elder son, who is an excellent Piano player need to teach the younger few songs. They agreed the deal to train and learn, but half-heartedly. They agreed the deal just to get their external reward of becoming members of the online game.

Within a week’s time, the small one learned to play the songs and they become members. After that incident, my children are ready to do more songs in exchange of buying new games or toys. Rewarding a response automatically increased the probability of is reoccurrence. After reading about motivation, I was observing my children playing in their room. They play the game full heartedly.

It was my small son’s birthday last week. All his and our friends were there for the get together. At one time, my elder son asked to perform his piano skills in front of every body. He performed greatly. Everybody likes that.

After the party, I saw my small son playing the piano; this time not for an exchange of reward.

He is learning more and more now because he needs to get the piano playing skills like his brother. He may be wishing to perform this piano playing skills at the next party!

Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Biological Basis for Language Learning

Language may be innate and it is a vehicle for the expression of thoughts. Eric Lenneberg (1967) pointed out the clinical evidence that the language functions are located in the left hemisphere of the brain.

My son started to speak three different languages whe he was four years old. He learned the words from different people who were taking care of him in a day care center. Children can learn and manage languages faster than adults. The child’s neurological age is a critical factor in the language learning.

One of my friends was worried about his son, who is not talking like other children, in the same age group. He just say “mama, papa”. I told him to send the child to a day care center. Within a months period the boy started to speak.

At home, the child was with his mother alone and there was only limited chance of language use. The young brain is quite flexible. In addition, there are different modes/ areas in the brain for language functions.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Attention & Brain

Attention to the learning subject is very important. Many scholars include attention as one of the many mechanisms, which accounted for good memory. Attention occurs when a learner maintain an attitude of expectation, alert to information and needless of directions.

I have experienced some times like selective attention, like listening to one conversation at a party while ignoring others.

Lack of attention control and inattention observed among patients with brain’s frontal lobe damage. One of my uncle a mathematics professor, had an accident, and he had a head injury. Once he was going through the recovery, he had trouble to control his attention in one topic. He started to repeat the same subject or topic. He can count numbers, but he cannot do any arithmetic operations. I was very upset to see my uncle’s condition.

Now I understood the damage caused to frontal lobe might be the reason for the above problem. I have learned that catecholaminar, an important neurotransmitter related to keep the attention.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Genetic Inheritance & Brain Psychology

The last year I studied biology was in my associate degree. I learned about DNA and RNA in details. I also learned about gene. It was so exciting to learn about those tiny tots determining our physical and mental characters. I used to think about genes as the “god’s own signature” to generations. It carries all the encoded informations from one generation to the other generation. The informations carried to the next generation can be good and bad. It makes somebody more intelligent compared to others.

I learned about mutation in one of the classes. According to Charles Darwin (1859) in a struggle fro existence, organisms that are perfectly adapt to their environments will survive unchanged. If the conditions are not favorable then the organisms will not adopt their environment perfectly, but a change in the structure of their gene will happen. A small change, mistake in one of the base of a DNA can change the properties of that and create sever problems. The mutation is responsible for the diversity in the world. Some times mutation helps the organisms to survive and some time causes problems.

Human went through several mutations and each of us differs from one another. Our abilities, physical characters, and mental characters are different. All related to the genes we own. Somebody can draw pictures, sing songs, lead a group, and the list goes on. All these are qualities and capabilities coming from the gene.

Genes are very much responsible for human intelligence, motor learning capabilities, criminality, alcoholism, and a broad range of other behaviors.

Even though research is progressing to alter the gene characteristics artificially, there are no known effective and safe techniques.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Internalization & Zone of Proximal Development

According to Vygotsky (1981), "Higher mental process are created, then, when mediation becomes more internal and symbolic." He proposed internalization and zone of proximal development to explain this.

When the children were small, they used to learn lot from us. They learn the meaning of our actions by imitating us. Once they learn those actions they internalize it.

They were knowing very few words. But they used to talk lot some times alone;using their limited vocabulary. According to Vygotsky (1962), “When children have made the transition of isolating their own consciousness from the social world around them, their egocentric speech will be entirely subvocal and inner-directed.” This is a way of internalization.

However, whenever I heard my children talking alone, I used to start talking with them. I really enjoyed that. For myself, I thought my childeren need somebody to talk with. But now I know, I was doing something more. I was helping them to belive that their talks can be used effectively to communicate.

I can talk in six languages. How did I learned these languages? For me, my mother tounge was the most comfortable language to use. I can learned some other languages by metatalk. When ever sombody talks in other language, I always try to understand the words meaning in my mothertoungue. Until the new language entirely internalized, I relyed on my mother tounge or another language I am proficient.

The gap separating the actual development from potential development is the Zone of Proximal Development. This concept has really revolutionary implications in the assessment of children’s intellectual abilities.

This concept takes me back to the old method of stayng and learning from a noted scholar. The learner will get appropriate instruction in the Zone of Proximal Development and the boundaries of the zone shifts.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Buying a Home

To day was a busy day for my family. Since we were planning to buy a home, we went with our realtor to see a couple of houses. She was living in the neighborhood, she took us, for long time. Therefore, she was explaining the good and bad things about each community.

“Individual development cannot be understood without reference to the social milieu in which the child is embedded.” (Tudge & Rogoff, 1989) According to Vygotsky, one of the brilliant psychologists, “Biological and cultural development do not occur in isolation. It is important to consider the social and cultural factors as they mediate the development of human intellectual capabilities.”

Children convert social relations in to psychological functions by mediation through signs. The mediation signs are, indexical (Cause-effect relationship with the events), iconic (images or pictures) and symbolic (abstract relation with the events). These signs are the same signs suggested by Bruner (1961). Children used to internalize these signs and leads to a new learning.
We decided not to buy few houses even though they were good. It is because the social situations in some of the communies were not very good. We were very much concerned about our children. Our children came from another country, another social system. We like our children to internalize all the good signs from the local social system, not the bad. We know their school, teachers, classmates, friends, or neighbors are going to influence their individual development. Before we buy any house, I will thoroughly study the social and cultural conditions of the community; I am going to put my children. As a father that is one thing, I can do for my children.


Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Bruner’s Modes of Cognitive Representation and My Son

I read about two great people Jerome S. Bruner and Lev S. Vygotsky yesterday. I always thought the aim of education is for improving our knowledge. However, Bruner says “The aim of education is to make the learner, as autonomous and self-propelled a thinker as possible” (Bruner, 1961, p. 23). I am changing my thoughts about education now.

My small son is learning to play piano. His elder brother is his trainer. I think he learned lot within a short period of time. Today I confirmed with my small son how much he learned. In the beginning he tried to explain what he learned. Then slowly he moved to the piano and started playing it. I recognized that he is trying to represent his understanding through motor responses. Or represents the past event of learning piano through appropriate motor response, which is playing. This is Enactive mode of cognitive representation.

I asked him to play more for me. He started to play music from his book. His piano book is having all the instructions. The diagrams, pictures and other instructions, generally called icons, helps him to play the music. The music in his mind is in the form of icons. This is Iconic mode of cognitive representation.

For him the music notations are the symbol by which he can encode and represent his experience. There are other symbols like the piano or the music book. The symbol system represents things by design feature that include remoteness and arbitrariness. This is symbolic mode of cognitive representation.

My son uses all the three mode of cognitive representations to learn the music. Using all the three modes is time consuming. However, that gives my son a deep understanding of concept and the ability to apply it appropriately in many contexts.

Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.