Fitting the Pieces Together

In the first week of this class, we learned about the learning styles: Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Visual. We were asked to decide which one of those helps us learn best and for me it was kinesthetically. During the course, we expanded on the learning styles and learned about the different learning strategies: Elaboration, Comprehension Monitoring, and Mnemonics. Learning about these strategies expanded my view of how I learn. I learn by experiencing hands-on learning but mnemonics also helps me learn. I am constantly trying to put new content I'm learning into some kind of phrase, poem, metaphor, etc. to help me remember it. My brain seems to remember what I learn better by doing this. I have experienced in my classes that there are a lot of other learners who learn well with mnemonics too. Therefore, I have incorporated different mnemonics into the material I create. Now that I have a further understanding of both the learning styles and strategies, I plan to incorporate all of those in the material I create so I am truly reaching all levels of learning.

With the learning styles and strategies, one challenge for me is going to be incorporating this into technology based content. My company is starting to put a lot of our training material on-line and it has been a challenge because everything needs to be explained fully since it is just the learner and the computer. Along with that challenge is making sure I am reaching all types of learners by using all of the learning styles and strategies. After a few trial and errors, the on-line learning seems to be taking off and the learners are enjoying their training and truly learning the material.

For me, technology is a great tool to help me learn new things. I consistently go on-line and research items that I want to learn more about and at the tip of my fingers I have millions of answers. I find myself using the internet more and more for learning purposes than leisure activities. It is just so neat to go out and find blogs about topics that you didn’t think were important to other people and reading many different people’s point of view on things is quite intriguing and allows me to think outside of my own learning box. Another way I use technology is to create material. At work, I am creating material on the computer using Word, Excel, Captivate, PowerPoint, etc. The possibilities seem endless when you have different programs to choose from and the internet to gain ideas. Technology has truly created a whole new Instructional Design world for me and I am enjoying every bit of it.