How Blog Technology has improved my Online Learning Experiences

Sing along folks!

“Blogs, Blogs, everywhere there is blogs, educating the people and breaking my mind, Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the blogs”….( Sorry Tesla, I just had to do it)

I had stated in my assignment 2.1 that the use of blogs could be a double edged sword.  Being an independent site, this blog is not monitored or controlled by Bellevue University or any of its personnel.  Professor Stein can review what I have written here and possibly block my link to this site from the school’s site if its content was deemed unacceptable by school’s standards, she may not give me a grade for its content related to an assignment,   and even advise me about the school’s code of conduct, but they cannot force me to change its content or delete it either.  They have no power of what is posted here on it is free from oppression.  Cons:   No Academic control over content, and no Code of Conduct or Ethics enforce on content of a blog. 

On the other side though, it is easy to use, the school is not hassled with the burden of maintaining the site,   anyone can view my posts, comment on them and even link it to their own page if they wish.   If used properly it is a way to write freely and gain a perspective of someone else’s point of view with a little of their personality poking through.  Anyone can comment on a blog posting, even complete strangers if the settings are set to allow it.  Who knows, you may get useful input on your thoughts and ramblings from someone not even in your class, but related to what you are discussing within.  Pros: Easy to use, No School resources used in the creation or maintenance of the blog site, and anyone can post to it.

White-Water rafting

White-Water rafting

Comparing my teaching experiences to the adventure of white-water rafting is fun to envision.  Some stretches of my journey have been calm and smooth like gliding across a lake on a windless afternoon, enjoyable and refreshing, while at other times I feel like I am traveling down the roughest stretch of the Colorado River, with each bump and turn trying to take my life from me and swallow me whole to the bottoms of the beast I am trying to navigate.  I am here today as a testament to the resolve and muddling through the experience; I came through the rough times, alive and well seasoned to the course not only behind me, but ahead of me as well. 

            I have worked as a trainer for a refuse hauling company and they had a set training plan in place when I started working for them.  It involved 6 hours of video and quizzes after each movie and a brief lecture covering highlights of the movie.  They had been using the same series of movies, quizzes and lecture for the last 20+ years and their safety and customer satisfaction reports had been steadily declining for the last several years.  I was placed into the department as a new set of eyes to review the current training plan, see where it needed repaired, replaced or upgraded.  This was not nearly as easy as it sounded.  There was resistance from the trainers across the company who had been doing this program for the last 20 + years and they were quick to point out any and all flaws in each and every suggestion or policy change that I suggested or had put in place.  This was some of the roughest waters I ever had to navigate in my training career and it did not involve any of my students!  Even with all of the protests and resistance safety started improving, customer satisfaction improved as well as employee morale.  The bottom line improvements satisfied the upper management that had placed me in the position I was in, and once the other trainers noticed that things were improving and I was there for the duration of the changes began to agree and work with me.  The waters began to calm, and work was much more pleasant to do. 

            This was the roughest time I have had in my training career to this date.  I have been fortunate to have very supportive management and students who seemed to excel under my guidance.  I have always incorporated many different learning styles and changed up my techniques of teaching, sometimes in the middle of the class just to bring a fresh look into what we are doing.  My students have excelled in every aspect and have even had two students of mine win the national school bus rodeo in back to back years.  I have yet to find an issue I could not resolve myself or with help of a colleague which probably only means I have been fortunate to have good students and supportive associates.  I have read about problems that people have faced, and surprised I have not had to face those issues.  I am soaking up all of the information that everyone is presenting so I will hopefully be better armed to support myself if such issues arise for me.

Facelift or a complete overhaul????

My kitchen is over 20 years old and has never been touched except for the removal of the goose wallpaper and application of a fresh coat of paint right after we moved in 3 years ago.  I am trying to decide on what I need to do to improve the appearance and functionality of the kitchen.  I do not have enough storage space for everything that should be in a kitchen right now and have to go into my dining room to retrieve a pot or pan when I want to cook something.  We only plan on staying in this house for 7 more years and I am not sure if the expense is worth it for a complete remodel or if I just suffer through it the way it is and ensures the next house has a larger kitchen space.  I have broken down my choices below and outlined how I came about with my decision.  What do you think, or have any better ideas?

Five-step decision-making approach

1.    Define the decision clearly

a.    I need to decide what to do to my outdated kitchen, completely remodel or facelift.

2.    Consider all the possible choices

a.    Leave the kitchen the way it is and not worry about it.

b.    Facelift, replacing countertops, sink, floor and adding a kitchen island.

c.    Completed remodel, discarding everything in kitchen and start over.

3.    Gather all relevant information and evaluate the Pros and Cons of each possible choice

Choice	Pros	Cons
Leave the Kitchen the way it is	·         Will cost nothing to do nothing ·         Is functional the way it is ·         We know where everything is	·         Inconvenient layout ·         Shows age of house and kitchen ·         Not happy with current appearance
Facelift	·         Improves appearance ·         Will cost less ·         Will take less time ·         Increase functionality of kitchen	·         Still same old kitchen with new shine ·         Layout is not improved ·
Gut and restart	·         Improved functionality of kitchen ·         Clean and new ·         Everything fits in kitchen	·         Much higher costs ·         Longer time to complete ·         Will not regain expense in resale

4.    Select the choice that seems to best meet the needs of the situation

a.    I will choose to give the kitchen a face lift and replace the worst areas that need replacing, add a kitchen island for pots and pan storage.  I feel this choice will give me the biggest bang for the buck spent, and would be easily recouped in resale.

5.    Implement a plan of action and then Monitor the results, making necessary adjustments

a.    I will start to buy the needed materials and begin the project this January once I have completed this program.  My wife has already started picking out color samples and flooring choices.  I will start looking into my countertop choices soon as well. I really like granite.

The Personal Development Journal

For this course we will write reflective comments on an assigned basis. The structure of the comments will follow a model created by Dr. Dan Apple, and education consultant and expert on process learning. The Strength Improvement Insight (SII) Model is be applied in the following manner:

Strength – Describe the strongest learning experience(s) you had thus far and why it/they were important to you.

The strongest learning experience I have completed so far in this program is the information I have found on my own son and aide to his learning disabilities.  I have found while researching information for papers to write for class a wonderful website http://www.ldonline.org/ .  That website along with chapter 6 of this book was amazing in helping with ideas for him.  Not that anything else in class was ho-hum; my mind is swimming in all kinds of information, but for this to hit so close to home has been a real eye opener. 

Improvement – Reflect on how you could improve your learning in the future.

I could definitely improve my learning by paying closer attention to the weaker of my learning styles and helping digest more of the information being delivered.  I have a dominant learning style, just barely, I am almost in the middle of the road in all three, but I could gain more out of what is being presented to me if I widen my focus to see all that is there.  The biggest improvement would be to allow myself more time to think about the information presented before responding.

Insight – What new discoveries/understanding did you get in the learning process? How will you apply it to what you are doing in your daily professional or personal life?

I have learned that my son’s learning disability and his learning style work together hand and hand.  If I address his tactile learning style he will overcome his ADHD better.  He has always had a problem staying still in class.  He is always fidgeting in his seat and playing with something in his desk.  These are all signs of a tactile learner.  My wife and I are working on some suggestions presented in the book as well as the website mentioned before and working on a learning plan for him to address next fall with his teacher and counselor at school to see what we can implement and what they believe will help him the best.  I am so excited about this!!!!!

My Soap Box

Learning styles are unique as each individual person.  They vary as much as people do.  Each person’s learning style is different and trying to group them into a few groups is like trying to gather cattle into pens by color.  We have a brown pen, a white pen, a black pen and a red pen.  Where do the black and white cows or the red and white cows go?  How about the cream colored ones?  OOPs this one is all black with a white head; do we chop off the head and put it in one pen and the rest of the carcass in another pen?

            We should not worry as much as to what the learning style is and commence with the actual education of the student.  If you spread your teaching out to an even delivery of the basic three main sensory receivers: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic, you have placed the information to the student in a manner that they can digest in whichever manner they choose.  You must follow-up with the student and see how they present the training after consumption of the information and processed it in their individual manner.  If the output does not match the desired results, then further investigation needs to be done to see how the desired results can be achieved. 

            Each cow eats hay and produces milk.  The quality and quantity varies from each animal, but the process is the same.  This is true for peoples learning as well.   Everyone consumes the information that is delivered, and they process it.  How they use the information is what we seek.  Some information may need to be more visually tilted while other may require more hands on skills to obtain the desired results, but that is minor adjustments that need to be made.

            Reading all of these learning styles and supporting information is interesting, but each one is trying to support their own theories and none encompass everyone.  I feel like I am a little of each and none of any one in particular, and like stated in the assigned blog reading “Stahl believes that many of the studies supporting learning style theory are not based on reliable study”. Let’s stop worrying about how people learn and start teaching people.

Set The Bar for the BEST!

I don’t think that educators should create assignments for every learning style, but I do believe that educators should mix up the styles of teaching within their current curriculum.  You need to provide the most balanced education you can.  This means to mix up your delivery to cover the biggest parts possible.  You need to present your material visually, auditory and physically.   By mixing up your styles you will challenge everyone in your class to strive for better than average.  Change in delivery of material also makes class different and keeps everyone focused on the material being delivered.  Setting goals for everyone in your class and helping them surpass them is an ideal mark to set for yourself as well as the students.   If you achieve your goals too soon, set them higher.  With practice you will know what the right height is for each and every student in your class.   There is nothing like having a whole class who aces the state tests!

I Found it again!!!!

Ok, I think I can get the hang of this, now all I have to do is make the posting of the address to this site on my class discussion board and away we go, off into the wild blue yonder....