Why Is the Research on Learning Styles Still Being Dismissed by Some Learning Leaders and Practitioners?
I have been battling the notion of "designing instruction for learning styles" in my own quixotic fashion for a couple of decades now. In my attempt to be a good steward of my clients' shareholders' equity I wished to help them avoid faddish instructional design practices that have been disproven by empirical research. I first learned back in the 1980s at NSPI (now ISPI) conferences that while self-reported learning style preferences do exist, that designing instruction to accommodate them has no basis. When I posted yet again on this topic on my blog a couple of months ago and then sent a Tweet out about it—Jane Bozarth, EIC of this magazine, invited me to publish an article. I accepted and decided to reach out to the usual suspects, those in my professional crowd who know the research, for their inputs. Here is some of what I got back that day and shared with Jane to show her I was "on it." Wisdom from This Crowd From Harold Stolovitch: There is so much press about learning styles.
Why can't you sell Knowledge Management?
I have just returned from delivering one of our accelerated Stage 3 KM courses in Helsinki, where how to sell Knowledge Management became a focus. It was a fantastic experience with some incredible thinkers, all senior manager, in the room. All our courses open with a ‘marketplace’, where participants share problems for discussion during the course, and what never ceases to surprise me is that, regardless of the location, EU, Middle East, USA, and without fail, one of the problems will be, ‘how do I sell Knowledge Management to the _____ (insert CEO, Board, Senior Management Team, staff etc.). This is still a real problem for Knowledge Managers and I am not going to get into the specifics of project context or measurement tools, but I am going to strip things back to the basics. How to sell Knowledge Management ‘up’… First, who decided that Knowledge Management was important enough to hold a position in the organisation in the first place? How to sell Knowledge Management ‘down’… 1. 2.
I love the iPad but I love learning more | Head's Blog
It is with mixed emotions that I begin my story. Whilst flattered to be asked to give an insight into the use of iPads in learning I feel somewhat of a fraud and perhaps a little misunderstood, you see I love the iPad but I love learning more. I have always embraced the learning potential of ICT, however it was not a relationship that began easily. Unable to make my O level timetable fit, yes I am that old, I was forced to take computer studies. Two years later I had laboriously written a programme in MS Dos that told me whether I was a boy or a girl – not a labour of love or frankly a revelation! My relationship with MS DOS was short lived. My commitment to the use of ICT to enhance learning remained strong. however my first encounter with the iPad was unremarkable; I had an iPhone and was unimpressed by the hype that surrounded this new ‘champion’, in my view it was essentially just an iPhone with a bigger screen. Eighteen months ago my relationship with the iPad became official!
Global Cool's - The Art of Conversation
Reading: “Online learning in the workplace”
Like many of my peers I read around my ‘subject’ a lot. Sometimes I print copies out and store them, other times I save to favourites (on Twitter mainly, very rarely to a browser), or to Delicious (when I remember to use it). The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is always worth looking at as the papers are interesting and varied. “Online learning in the workplace: A hybrid model of participation in networked, professional learning” from Mary Thorpe and Jean Gordon covers different aspects of ‘work-based’, or rather ‘work-related’ learning, with a need to understand online participation as a “hybrid concept” that is a “reflection of offline roles, opportunities and pressures, as well as the usefulness, usability and relevance of what is online.” Do those who develop online materials for online students fully understand the importance of support, guidance, design, engagement, collaboration, assessment, timetable, social or professional pressures?
Where does knowledge come from?
In most of the training courses I run, I ask the question "where does knowledge come from?" Always, every time, I get the answer "Experience - Knowledge comes from Experience". Never does anyone answer "Knowledge comes from Information". Never If you don't believe me, try it yourself. So why do we persevere with the Data/Information/Knowledge pyramid? If you believe in this pyramid, then your KM approach will be an extension of information management. If instead you believe that knowledge comes from experience, and shared knowledge comes from shared experience, then your KM approach will be based on review and transfer of experience, connection of people, and conversation. So we could in fact come up with a different pyramid, shown here, where experience leads to knowledge, which leads to decisions, and which leads to action. The great thing about this version of the pyramid, is that action leads back to experience. So the pyramids stack, as shown below. Guess which of these works better?
Pragmatic Education | Cutting-edge ideas for system reform: What works is what's best
The best course I ever did, and 11 Top Tips for creative teaching | Transition Network
Over the next few days we will be sharing the winning three stories in our Transition Training competition of courses people did that changed their lives. I thought it might be a good idea to start with my story of the course that impacted me the most in my life so far. In June 2001, I got off the bus in a small village in Lancashire, with a rather heavy bag and in somewhat inclement weather, to walk up the hill to Middlewood, a permaculture project set atop a hill in beautiful woodland. The walk was considerably longer than I had anticipated, the road, seemingly to nowhere, seemed to stretch on for miles. The reason for my trek was to do a course called Teaching Permaculture Creatively, led by Rod Everett. Middlewood was a stunningly beautiful place. The Middlewood Study Centre, with the yurt we studied in to the right. The course itself took place in a large yurt, in the round. Sure enough, it turned out we had learnt an astonishing amount of stuff.
MIT Unleashes New Online Game for Math and Science
Digital Tools MIT Education Arcade As the buzz around games and learning continues to grow, one particular subset — Massive Open Online (MMO) games — is catching the attention of educators as a particularly interesting way to encourage students to collaborate, problem solve, create and think for themselves within a game. One of the most popular MMOs is World of Warcraft, in which many players log in to the online game at the same time and play while interacting with people all over the world. Radix, as it’s known, is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards for biology, focusing on topics like genetics, evolution, ecology and human body systems. [RELATED READING: Teachers Transform Commercial Video Game for Class Use] “These kinds of environments have the potential to capture learning that’s difficult to capture in face-to-face settings,” said Jody Clark-Midura, a research scientist at the MIT Education Arcade in a recent edWeb webinar. Related
10 Destructive KM Myths
These 10 Destructive KM Myths seem to permeate conversations around the digital KM-sphere. They are not ranked and I am sure you could add to them, but, from my perspective, they need to be put out to pasture. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Please, take the time to share...
