LEARNING THEORY: ‘CONSTRUCTIVISM’
The scope of this task entailed setting up a wiki profile of yourself, indicating interesting things about yourself such as family, interests, goals, etc, identifying another person through their wiki profile who you felt you could work with, and collaborate with that person to produce an end goal. The goal in this case was to provide a PMI analysis of a learning theory, be it behaviourism, constructivism, cognitivism or connectivism.
All started well with my wiki profile done and dusted promptly. As with the blog task, this task was completed by following a set of guided instructions. I don’t know how to completely set up a wiki list, however I do know now how to use one, and I can imagine some applications for how I as a learning manager may utilise such a list in a learning environment.
What started off as a positive experience however very quickly turned into a learning disaster. Working with ICT’s is kind of like the teaching world’s equivalent of ‘never work with animals or children’ . . . you never know what may happen. As with a lot of technology that we use today, it is possible for things to go wrong and plans to go astray. With the collapse of the online wiki website that we were to use for the second half of our task, that of collaborating and posting our PMI analysis of a learning theory, went the confidence of the learners in the ICT class. With only an operational knowledge of the technology we were using, panic set in rising to a state of mild mass hysteria!
What can be learned? It is always possible that things might go wrong, and if they do, we need to equip our learners with resilience to deal with such an eventuality. As learning managers, we should embrace ICTs, however we should also be aware of the limitations of our own knowledge about the technologies that we are utilising so that, should things go wrong, we can control the situation and maintain a good learning environment for our learners.
All this aside, following is my PMI analysis of constructivism . . .
Constructivism as a scaffolded learning model through digital activities offers advantages for both the learner and the learning manager in a number of ways. The constructivist activity allows the learner more than the opportunity to acquire new factual information to be associated or assimilated into schemas; it provides opportunities for the learner to gain a greater understanding of the information through a guided learning experience (Kelly Lein). The scaffolded learning exercise offers a number of additional benefits to both the learner and the learning manager.
Using the guided wiki exercise example of this course, the learning manager is able to guide the learner along a specific path of knowledge through a guided scaffolded experience. The learner takes part in the learning journey, along with their colleagues, in a way in which their knowledge of the process they are undertaking is learnt through experience, not just through the acquisition of facts. Learners feel a degree of control through the exercise in that they are able to converse electronically with peers, networking and collaborating in order to reach a level of understanding that is reinforced through thoughts and ideas contributed by their peers as well as their own discoveries.
PMI of Wiki Activity
Plus | Minus | Interesting |
· Learning experience is guided by the learning manager through a scaffolded exercise · Factual information gathered through cognitivism is further enhanced through scaffolded activities · Personal understanding is enhanced through opinions / thoughts of peers · Learners feel a sense of ‘ownership’ of the process · Digital forum allows an opportunity for all students to take part and share an opinion they may not feel comfortable sharing in front of a class | · Both learner and learning manager are restricted when technical issues arise | · Scaffolded activities provide a ‘blue-print’ or record of the learner’s journey which captures a record of the experience (visible trail of emails, texts, wiki entries, etc) |
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