Fitting the Pieces Together

My view on the learning theories and styles hasn't really changed but me knowing about the different theories and styles is more broader. I feel like I know much more now as to when this class first started. The learning theories and styles help me see how everyone learns in a different way by different styles. People are very diverse when it comes to learning the same information. They have many diverse ways of learning and some can be similar but overall people have their own way of learning. People interpret information differently. I still learn about information the same way because I have acquired my own learning style and how I interpret information. Integrating technology into the learning styles is a good thing that will always benefit the learner. I think it is good that people can learn in a diverse way because people are always on the go and they can access the information 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

My own personal learning preferences leans towards learning outside of the classroom by using different technical tools like mobile devices, lap tops or Ipads. When using these tools, they have alot of applications to choose from to communicate like, skype classroom's dicussion board, blogs, facebook chatting and skyping. By using these tools, the learning of information becomes easy for the working students becuase of the accessibility they have to the information through their mobile devices for instance and they wouldnt have to wait to get to class inorder to do their work or contact a classmate or teacher relating to the class. By people having the busy lives with working and families, usinf the new techical softwares even helps expands ones knowledge on their subjects becuase they also allow for more of communication or dialogue to be communicated. I like the fact that i dont have to be in a  physical classroom for a period of time. The online learning or elearning lets me do my work for certain periods of time and i can go back to it later. In a classroom, a person has to sit down for a few hours and get lectured. Listening to a teacher lecture,gets me to think about other things and focus on class. When I am online I can see the information and interpret it my own way at my own pace with out rushing through the information. Thats is how I learn certain information becuase it has to be visually seen and i have to be hands on also when learning new information.

The role that technology play in my learning is very vital becuase I always use the internet for researching and finding information on everything. There are so many search engines to use inorder to find information. Back when I was younger the only way to research is to go to the library and look through the books, magazines, encyclopedias and etc. Since technology has been dramatically upgraded, the internet has made it possible that people can look up information in any book , encyclopedia, magazine, and websites. There are some information that can falsified on the internet but usually the information isnt if its on a reputable website. I have been using the internet in helping me find information about anything I need to find.  The internet makes the information searchable all day everyday for people who needs to find it early in the morning, late at night or even on weekends.

Some Key Elements to be an Instructional Designer

The blogs or resource sites that I have found can be a good resource to look on when need help in trying to become an Instructional Designer. The first blog was Instructional Design for Beginners- What Motivates People to Learn? The blogs has some very interesting and helpful information for a person that is new to the field of Instructional Design. One of the important things that was mentioned was the John Keller's ARCS Model of Motivational Design. The ARCS stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. I believe an ID needs this model incorporated in their work as well as keep in mind about who will need to understand this type of learning or are new to online classes. This model shows an new instructional designer what it takes to get their audience attention when they are new to online teaching.(http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/10/instructional-design-for-beginners-what-motivates-people-to-learn/)

The second source is Constructing Effective Online-Learning Environments via the Community of Inquiry (COI) Framework. This blog shows how the environment of learning can help a person in their learning and how it can be set up to make their online learning experience better and with out any hassle. The online learning experience can be very difficult to a person that has never had an online class. They would have to be taught and showed how it works and benefit them because they are used to being in a classroom setting physically and being in a public place or at home learning with out the teacher being there in front of them. This blog is very useful for IDs that are new to the field and are designing the curriculum. I like the fact that it has a chart explains the elements, categories and Indicators (examples only). People who are new to online learning will have to be explained as of how online learning can benefit them, how the information is going to be delivered and what tools can help them in their learning. As we all know the elearning experience can be challenging but its a very good useful tool because the physical classroom can become extinct one day and people would have to learn by online courses. (http://www.iddblog.org/?p=841)

The last resource is a blog called Create Engaging Elearning Courses You Can be Proud of. This blog talks about once you have your participants, how you can help them engaged in the course as they are learning the information. It shows two categories for the participants which are either passive or active  engagement. Passive engagement is sharing information among each other in the learning environment. Active engagement is when the perosn uses the information from the resources. In elearning , it seems like most people need to be Passive engaged when they are trying to learn the information from different sources in order to grasp the information and stored for effect use later. this information would be useful when an ID is creating designing their cirriculum by keeping  in mind that people would want to be able to use the information by having examples and being explained how to become an active engagement person when they need to learn information from different resources.(http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/create-engaging-e-learning-courses-you-can-be-proud-of/)