Flexible Learning Tasks

Across my education subjects, there seems to be the same topic of concern recurring. 'How do I cater to my students' learning styles?' 'What if this lesson isn't effective enough for this learning style?' and 'WHY AREN'T THEY ABSORBING THIS? ARGHHH!!!' are all familiar points of discussion.

While blog-surfing today, I have found an incredible amount of blogs, images and databases dedicated to sharing and creating ideas for technology and e-learning in the classroom. I came across this image (right) and topic discussion, which seemed to lead my brain straight to the thought of catering for learning types. The image is from the blog entry 'Digital differentiation' by 'Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners', and I think the title of the blog is quite fitting. 

I recall doing many readings last year about the generation of children that I will soon teach. Name calling them 'the bubble wrap generation' and criticising their addiction to technology and a modernised lifestyle were amongst many slanders of generalisation. However, upon discovering of this image I thought to myself, 'if anything, the technology available offers an opportunity'. Technology infuses the many learning types; it offers flexible learning paths. For example, on one form of hardware, let's say a computer, we can facilitate an experience that offers audio, text and video digital tools to our multiplicity of learners. We can also do this in a creative or uniform manner. We can apply a combination of these, or allow the children to chose their own combination, to create a learning experience that is flexible, successful and enjoyable.

From this blog entry, I found another image which reminded me of a reading from the child development course I took part in last year. I recall reading about Vygotskian theory, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding. When I saw this image, I immediately thought of 'SCAFFOLDING'! Teaching via learning technologies is a great way to scaffold a learning experience or skill being taught. The learning technology can ensure that teachers facilitate and guide the lesson, however, the experience may unfold to become a collaborative or independent task in which the technology is used to increase the knowledge and research that is being uncovered. It also reminded me of 'constructivism', which is a major theme in my current professional experience subject, and also the topic of our week 1 tutorial. While learning via technology has a very robotic and generic connotation, I think that it also has the possibility to become a center for constructive learning. It offers student-based learning and a flexible and diverse experience for students to develop their understanding of concepts. The knowledge constructed during technology based lessons is built by students, not passed on from teachers. Students also have a multitude of ways to represent their conceptual understanding of the content - audio, visual, written, video etc. This is truly fantastic!

Reference List:
Based on Week 1 Tutorial.