Learning Change: My learning has changed in so many ways after getting deeper understanding of the learning theories and the learning styles. In my first week’s discussion, I stated that I was a jack-of-all-trade referring to the learning theories since I juggle between behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist theories. Even though I still stick to these three theories, yet there has been addition to them. After the past weeks, I realized my deeper understanding of all the learning theories. I can confidently state that all the learning theories play important role in the way I learn. My reasons are as follows: I learn through observation that is a link to the behaviorist theory; some of my learning is based on my thought process, which is supported by cognitivist theory; and since I also learn by constructing my own understanding, I realized I am a constructivist learner too; my learning through culture and environment has made me a social learner as well; learning through networking is one of the best way I learn now, so who am I? A connectivist learner; and finally I am an adult learner as I use my knowledge and past experiences to learn new information. As a result, I am a mirror reflection in all the six learning theories that we duel on in this course.
Personal Learning Preference: What I learned in the past weeks about the various learning styles that can further explain my own personal learning preferences is that no individual has a single learning style but multiple intelligences. Additionally, the different learning styles reflected the learners’ academic strengths, weaknesses, skills, and interests. Therefore, understanding these learning styles is a significant way in designing an equilibrium instruction that is effective for all learners. The learning style theory has given me a whole new way of looking at my life through examining the potentials that I left behind due to lack of this knowledge. I view it as a great opportunity for me to develop through my future courses, hobby, and other self-develop programs. The six learning theories that we explored in the past weeks are behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, connectivism, social, and adult learning. I clearly understand that each theory affects the way I learn. However, I have seen myself further in social, cognitive, and constructivist theory than the others. In addition, adult learning is the normal way of my learning preference. Finally, there is one thing that is at stake; “one size does not fit all”.
Technology: I am always interested and open to know more about technology; therefore, it plays an inspiring and motivating role in my learning even though it can be overwhelming sometimes. Technology serves as a research tool that enables me to explore scholarly articles of various topics, e-books, multimedia presentations, curriculum resources, and vast materials for school work as well as personal information. Further, I use technology to teach my students in the classroom and I hope to use it exclusively in the future for teaching, learning, communicating, and for extending education beyond the traditional classroom setting, thus teaching students globally. Another role that technology plays in my learning is that it helps me to record information that is handy for retrieval. Also, technology has made it capable for me to create a blog and I am looking forward to creating my personal webpage too. Finally, without technology I cannot be at home with my family, working and earning income, and at the same time working towards my masters degree-online.
