Module 1 Postings

I posted to Tawana Stiff and Christopher Cannon's blogs.

Module 1 - What are your beliefs about how people learn best? What is the purpose of learning theory in educational technology?

I believe people learn best when they are in an environment and setting that is comfortable to them.  When people are in new places or a setting that in awkward, they tend to be nervous, tense or out of place which can disturb the learning process.  I think this is why we tend to have trial runs in schools when it comes to testing. We want the students to become used to the environment that they will be in and also familiar with who their administrator will be.  This will usually provide the students with more confidence before the “big day”.

I also think people learn best when they have familiarity or prior knowledge with the subject that they are learning.  Mastery of skills previously helps students build onto new skills that they are taught.  It also helps make the attainment of new knowledge more cohesive with what they already know.

According to M.K. Smith, learning theory pertains to “ideas about how or why change occurs” (2011, ¶ 15).  This ties into educational technology because within the field of technology things are constantly ever-changing.  Since the field of education and technology changes constantly, learning theory helps and gives ideas on why those changes occur. 

Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Learning theory', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm, Last update: December 04, 2011