Tapas Style Learning - keep it bite size and memorable

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." Albert Einstein

I enjoy variety and choices, it's great to realize toward the end of this class that learning theories allow Instructional Designers to have variety and choices when designing curriculum.

It’s kind of funny to look back at the first discussion where I was identifying myself as a behavioral learner. Not having the depth of knowledge in regards to learning theories at the time, I was choosing behavioral because it seemed to be the most physical. After 7 weeks of this course, putting myself in the behavioral learning theory bucket is just too basic. I still would say I prefer to learn through action and visually as I had stated before in week 1 discussion, however it appears those are more of a factor in my learning versus the actual theory that would describe the best way for me to learn. It’s much more “complex” as George Siemens described in the video for week 5’s learning resources. As my knowledge expanded with learning theories, it was still impossible for me to narrow down my learning style to just one learning theory over the other, really depends on the material being presented. This isn't surprising if you know me, seeing as my favorite way to eat is having a little bit of everything, "tapas" style. I'll probably build curriculum in a tapas style, using a little bit from every learning theory and infusing some unique creativity in delivering the information. Sharing new information in an easy to digest, bite size and memorable method - such as a lovely Spanish tapas meal.

At this point in my life, after many years of learning things that were required through work or higher learning institutions, I want to enjoy what I am learning…. I know, imagine that right? It took me a while to decide, but I finally picked a masters program that I knew I would enjoy learning about and would also increase my marketability in the learning and development field. I believe that falls within how adult learning occurs, with a self-directed focus, motivated by career goals and past learning experiences creating baggage. The baggage part meaning that I don’t want to sit in a classroom that bores me ever again. I’ve done enough of that now and refuse to believe learning important information equates to battling boredom.

What I’ve learned is that depending on the information I have to retain, my learning style can fall within the constructivism, social, connectivism, and adult learning styles. I’m thankful that there are so many different choices for instructional designers to build learning from, I know that if I need variety then my trainees most likely will too! I can differentiate what learning theory would be best according to the situation. For example, if it’s physically oriented, like sports or dancing, I would want my learning to be based in the social learning theory such as through imitation, watching someone model the moves and observation. If it is for developing work related skills, I’d like to learn through the constructivist theory, having several hands on experiences that allow me to bring prior knowledge in to context.

Technology plays a major role in how I learn today. I can’t believe I got through all of undergrad without the internet. I remember going to the library, finding the books I needed and combing through each one to find the excerpts that were relevant to my class. Since I wasn’t able to carry all the books home, I would sit in the library, make photo copies, and it would take so much of my time to just gather the resources and materials to complete assignments. Now that I’m back in school, my experience at Walden is completely different thanks to technology. First of all, I don’t have to leave my computer in order to find my resources. The information is all available in each week’s resource area and either already gathered together for me, or simply a quick Google search away! Second, I connect with my fellow classmates that are all in different locations which has increased the diversity in my learning environment. Because my learning is internet based, I can access my virtual classroom from anywhere that I have internet access so I can be flexible with time and location. Simply said, there are just much fewer barriers to learning today than there were before the development of technology. Being connected has never been easier, now it’s about managing time and minimizing distractions.