Module 6 Learning Philosophies, Modalites,

Teach by Example and Learn by Doing
This is my last installment for this class, but by no means the last blog. The subject for this week is my personal philosophy of learning, how my learning is differentiated between brick and mortar and e-learning.
It would seem to me to teach without a philosophy would be reprehensible. I subscribe to cognitivism (mind is a black box) and constructivism. Now I do not understand all the ins and outs of both of these theories, but this is what I believe. Knowledge must be learned by doing. You cannot learn without interaction with the concept or skill or peers.
Interaction with peers, the construct and the outside world allows us to construct knowledge. Knowledge gained from awareness and interaction with constructs would be constructivist. While no one theory will satisfy all learners, teachers and learning types, these two theories have suited me well.
I became a teacher because I knew what I wanted to change which is everything. I still do! I was schooled brick and mortar and finally online. I believe online education is much more difficult, providing the curriculum is challenging. I did not know I was a kinesthetic/visual learner until I became a teacher. I believe we teach in styles we personally utilize to learn. Once we are exposed to different theories and philosophies we trade off what is comfortable for what works. What is critical to online learning is also critical to brick and mortar learners. We learn by doing and creating. We cannot read and write without practice. Examples of how to: conjugate, annunciate, and illiterate must accompany these skills. This can be accomplished online or in the classroom, but the act of doing and understanding examples are non-negotiable.
When conducting a class I make sure to cover all the modalities in order to meet the needs of my students.  While this sounds easy it is not, but I hope my students receive the concepts and skills I am teaching.  I start with prior knowledge and work my way to a visual example as soon as possible.  This always worked for me, and as I already stated we teach in our comfort zone and add what works to reach our students.
My learning style in a brick-and-mortar situation is social-visual. I learn through interaction with peer-groups upon some form of visual interaction with the construct or skill presented. Interaction is much more meaningful to my learning experience. Maybe it is a crutch or my ZDP, but I found it helped me in this situation. I have found this is much more difficult online. Or at least much more work to do so, and really not worth the effort. While I do have people I interact with in my online education program it is really not the same.


In sum, my philosophy is: we learn by doing, online education is much more difficult provided the curriculum is challenging, and I subscribe to the cognitivist, constructivist philosophies of learning. I am a visual learner most of the time; but I can switch modalities as necessary.