What I have learned

Messing Around

This article emphasizes the three components of differentiated learning: differentiation for interest, learning profile and for readiness. 

Students learning about the new media are learning from and collaborating with others in social exchanges. (learning profile)

Messing around with the new media requires an interest-driven orientation… (interest) Messing around is largely self-directed. (interest)

 Youth often seek support from their local friendship network. (learning profile)

 We can conclude that messing around thus provides valuable learning that incorporates material that meets each student’s readiness level, interest area and learning profiles.

 

Connectivism

I like the recap in this article of the three learning theories  Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism.  However, I think the article goes overboard when it states, “These theories do not address learning that occurs outside of people (i.e. learning that is stored and manipulated by technology). They also fail to describe how learning happens within organizations. “

 Any teacher knows that students learning within the Constructivist umbrella are learning in groups of two, three and other small configurations. They are also accessing information that is stored in books, magazines, and on the Internet. (technology)

 The powerful advantage of Connectivism is that is allows the learner in a network to readily access the knowledge of all the members of the network. When individual networks are connected other networks then the amount of learning available is greatly magnified. 

 

Bloom’s Taxonomy

 I love the reformulation of Bloom’s Taxonomy done by Lorin Anderson: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating, Creating. The new terms make the process more readily applicable in the classroom. The digital translations of each of the levels in the taxonomy are also valuable. For example, in the digital arena Creating becomes: designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making, programming, filming, animating, blogging, video blogging, mixing, re-mixing, wiki-ing, publishing, video-casting, podcasting, directing/producing.

 Overall, this article is a great summary of how using digital materials can take student learning to the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.