Tuesday, January 20, 2009 •
5:05 PM
There were very few students who attended the lecture. Mr Alfred gave out twisties today during lecture :) Whee~ Thanks for the twisties :) But today's lecture was very muffled. Sadly, I couldn't hear clearly what was Mr Alfred talking about.
For this week's assignment, we've to blog about our reflections on three theories and on their application to the different types problems.
Well, for the first theory, "Behaviourism", it basically assumes that the learning process involves an organism and environment, in which the organism is being controlled and shaped by its environment. And so individuals react and respond differently according to the environment they are in. Dr. Stanton stated that behaviourism involves shaping the learner's behaviour to get the outcome that the educator wants to have happen and providing reinforcements. Taking we students taking NM3204 for example, it's undeniable that we are all blogging our reflections on what we've learnt during the course of this module because we are asked to do it as part of our assignments. And if we do not do it, we will not be given marks for learning journal. As on our lecturers and tutors' side, they probably want to make sure that we understand what is being taught during the course of this module and to ensure that happens, it would be to reinforce ways to make us read our weekly readings diligently. I would like to say that this is an effective way in making students read their readings because we as learners respond to reinforcements. Likewise, even working adults adhere to rules and regulations in their working environment, and fulfill their job requirements. Most jobs are performance-based, thus they are motivated to work harder towards their goal, incentives and promotion opportunities.
I personally feel that Behaviourism is most effective for rule-using problems. This is because behaviourism involves shaping the learner's behaviour to get the desired outcome. For instance, in order to use the GPS device to navigate the directions towards your destination, there are certain steps and procedures you have to adhere to so that the GPS will help you to arrive at your desired destination.
For the second theory, "Cognitivism", I would like to see it as an extension to "Behaviourism". Based on "Cognitivism" theory, individuals actively try to make sense of the environment and situation they are in with the help of past experiences. Henceforth, individuals tries to assimilate their current situation with the previous situations they have been through, and tries to use what they have acquired from their previous experiences to fit into the environment they are currently in. In relation to this theory, I would like to take my toddler cousin for an example. After the first time he was being caned for not doing something right, and experienced the pain from caning, he knew he couldn't run away from getting caned as his parents would catch up with him, he started hiding the canes secretly. From this, we can see that even children learn from experiences and adapt to the circumstances they are within.
As for Cognitivism, I feel that it is particularly useful for trouble-shooting problems. Everyone learn from experiences, thus when one encounter a similar issue that he/she has experienced before, he/she will reflect back upon that experience and use the appropiate knowledge he/she has gained during that experience to solve the issue. An example is when one's Internet connection is not working, he/she will try a way to connect to the Internet. E.g. Switch off and swich on the router, restart the computer.
Lastly, for the third theory, "Socioculturism", it emphasizes that learners learn through social interactions among learners. Here, it's no longer like the approach of "Behaviourism" and " Cognitivism". In "Socioculturalism", it shift the focus from an individual as a single unit in learning to a larger system that is involved in learning. In Cognitivism theory, it is more like a collaboration of representations contributed by different individuals and thus learners are able to develop and learn about more representations on a particular concept.
For this theory, I would think that it is the most effective theory to apply to issued-based and diagnosis problems. The perspectives and opinions of a group of individuals are more effective in solving an issue than based on just the perspective of an individual alone. This applies to when we do a project as a group rather than doing the project alone.
This is roughly what I've learnt from the three theories. Not too sure if I got them right. But I hope so.
Thursday, January 15, 2009 •
11:32 AM
My perspectives of e-learning was much narrower before I attended the lecture. I only thought of "e-learning" as a form of virtual learning, in replacement of learning at a physical classroom. When I first came across this module, I asked myself, "What "E-Learning" is exactly?" And IVLE was like the only form of e-learning I could thought of. However, I realised that there are several different definitions and perspectives of "e-learning". The different definitions of e-learning somehow tells me that e-learning actually emcompasses much more than I what I thought.
To be honest, i was taken aback by this module's workload. When I first learn about all the weekly assignments, the learning journal and project all stated, I felt kind of "frightened". But it's probably because it's the first week of school. I didn't expect the e-learning module to be so assignments-based. Initially, I thought this module would more or less focus on virtual-learning, in which there will be some lessons conducted over the web, or we would be taught some stuff over the Internet.
Anyway, I thought that the concept maps and timelines was an interesting way to help us to see and understand concepts in a bigger picture, as well as help us to connect to the readings. Although I still feel kind of lost in this first week of lecture, but I hope as the weeks goes by, I'll be able to grasp the concepts better.
This is my concept map of E-learning. Yes, it roughly sums up my perspectives of E-learning as a whole.
Click on image for larger view.
