Tom Johnson's Web Resources

July 29, 2009

Week 12 "What is Learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Over the past 12 weeks as studying what is learning and how can it best be effectuated, I’ve come to a conclusion that it is a process with many variables depending on the style of teaching and the content being taught, however generally it is transfer or creation of knowledge through experience, study, teaching but it seems to me that other factors, theories and strategies help in the learning process.

Trainers and teachers best effectuate learning by using best practices, or proven methods in their teaching. I believe that knowing methods and techniques that accompany the many learning theories that we have covered this semester are a great way to improve outcomes for learners.

I’m not just providing lip service, but I actually find myself implementing these theories in my design of everyday instruction at my office. Today I was working with a new piece of technology that requires several intimidating steps to bring online to provide an awesome learning experience for new teachers. I determined that an advance organizer could provide a meaningful and effective learning connection as I designed an instructional document on how to bring it online. Here is a video clip of the technology that we implemented. It is a software simulation/digital puppetry technology that allows an actress in Florida to control 5 virtual school children for new teachers to practice teaching techniques and dealing with classroom behaviors etc. It’s really cool! Pay special attention to how the software tracks and adjust to where the teacher moves in the simulation.

View teachme-simulation-m4v
View teach-me-tuesday-m4v

July 22, 2009

Week 11- "What is learning? and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Image of Scaffolding around a building in Philadelphia

This week as I have been studying Vygotsky's Social Constructivism theories I've been able to reflect about how important scaffolding is to the learning process. Learning is the process of acquiring and implementing knowledge into the thought process and into the life of the learner. Instructors and teacher can improve and speed up the process of learning by scaffolding instruction for the learner.

I seem to use scaffolding often in my job as I train people to use technology tools. I tend to follow this process to scaffold the adult learners that I work closely with:

Explain the use of the technology
Model Using the technology
Show the Learner how to use the technology
Coach them through the use of the technology
Giving them Cheat Sheets and Screencasts for Access
Leading to Mastery for the Learner.

Photo by: Kevin Dooley via Flickr * Some Rights Reserved

July 22, 2009

Week 10 - "What is learning? and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Learning to me is influenced greatly by experiences. Sheri Hadderlie once said to me: "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first." I think she means it's OK to be presented with obstacles and suffer failure or cognitive conflict. It's that experience of and opportunity to try again and discover the answer which really makes learning great!

Image of a Spiral Staircase

In my opinion, it is the role of teachers to help facilitate opportunities for learners to have experiences that challenge their thinking and allow them to troubleshoot or problem solve. One of many of Bruner's theories suggests the notion of implementing a spiral curriculum, and I think that teachers or instructors should always look to build curriculum topics up over time. As I consider that notion, I think about the way I study religion, and how I can read a passage of scripture and gain some insights, then over time, I return, and read the same passage and perhaps expound into some other cross-referenced scriptures that add to those insights from before, and it helps build upon the more simple understanding that I may have had about the topic.

Image by: Martin Haesemeyer via Flickr * Some rights reserved.

July 7, 2009

Week 9 - "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

As we have been studying learning theories every week, my opinion of learning seems to grow and change every week as I get new information about the learning theories. This week as we have been studying Situated Cognition and Cognitive Apprenticeship, I think that it's important to cue in the strategy of being able to put the learner into a physical or applicable situation where they can apply the techniques being taught.

Learning is being given educational content and being able to apply it in a situation that is applicable for the true use of such content.

The Master and the Apprentice

To better effectuate learning in the classroom or coursework, teachers and school decision makers should look to involve the community around them and forge partnerships with businesses or other institutions that allow the students to garner applicable experience by being placed in situations where the content they are studying is being used in real world applications.

An example of that may be students invited to work on a project at a video production house and being presented with opportunities of practice hands on problem-based learning in the field, and be able to tap the knowledge on an experienced professional. It not only helps the students embed the content on their minds, but allows them to experience the application of the content in the real world.

July 22, 2009

Week 8 - "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

Bitch'n Chicken! Photo

This week, learning to me is making meaningful connections that help individuals connect knowledge through experience, study, and teaching. Learning can be improved by many means, one important one is using stories and case-based learning to help the learners really experience the process and gain knowledge.

I think that a teacher/trainer can best effectuate learning by building or utilizing quality experiences that help the learner grow. I can still remember the time when I was young and my scout master wanted to give me a chance to learn how to Barbeque at scout camp. He handed me a spatula and tongs and told me not to burn myself or the chicken. He observed from a far, and I did end up burning a few of the pieces (Which he made me eat). But I quickly learned as he coached me and barked out a few techniques that helped prevent burning the chicken. That day we didn't dine on the best tasting chicken, but I did have a learning experience and I was able to approach other challenges that faced me in life because of that experience.

On a side note, I remember complaining a great deal about the smoke getting in my eyes, and that scout master coined our meal as: "Tommy's Bitchin' Chicken!"

Photo by windelb* Some rights reserved.Flickr

July 22, 2009

Week 7 - What is learning? and How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?

Learning to me is the acquisition of knowledge through experiences, training, and studying. As I have learned more about the process of motivation, I have decided that motivation can be found and applied in every form of learning theory and technique. I had a thought as I was reviewing some of my lesson plans, that any good lesson plan is going to intrinsically have ARCS model of motivation built into it. Proper motivation I believe can help improve the process of learning, exciting the learner by calling Attention, applying Relevance, instilling Confidence, and rewarding the learner with Satisfaction.

OS X Image

OS X Image

An example that rings true with me is recently training staff members to use the Wiki/Blog features that I have created for them. I was able to show them how to use it, and they were able to learn the features successfully because it aroused their attention because of the intended results, it was easily relevant to their workload, and they were able to gain confidence in practicing posting to the Wiki and blog, and they were satisfied because they could see the benefit for of being able to post the content whenever they want . . . . on-demand.

June 17, 2009

Week 6 - "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

As I think about learning and how Piaget's approach, I've really think of it as a modular process, and by modular, I mean it is broken into many stages, and some can be developmental while others are more behavior, and some follow other ideas as well. I had a few minutes to discuss this with Brian today, and I really think the point of studying all of these theories is to give us a good breath of knowledge of what is involved in the learning process based on the research of many very different types of scholars, and that we can find and see truth in each of these theories. Learning to me is still taking information and experience and transferring that into knowledge.

Iranian protestors

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of leading opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims there was voting fraud in Friday's election, turn out to protest the result of the election at a mass rally in Azadi (Freedom) square in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) http://www.flickr.com/photos/60053005@N00/

In my case, working with adults and focusing on human development this week, I'd say they are usually in the "Formal Operational Stage", so getting the learner to participate in abstract reasoning is something that is very important. To be able to think logically is very powerful.

I keep thinking about those students over in Iran challenging their regime, and how they have made themselves well informed are willing to see through the lies and deception of their dictatorship. It take abstract reasoning and good decision making to change the world.

June 10, 2009

Week 5 - What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?

Schema image

As the semester goes on and the content I'm learning evolves, I really look at learning as something that is connected to experiences that make impressions of knowledge on the minds of individuals. The schema theory really focuses in on the framework one creates from similar past experiences.

I think it's very important that instructors and teachers really examine their audience to decipher what schema's that they are bringing to the learning event. If teachers can do this accurately, I believe that they will succeed and be most effective.

It's sort of like how teaching to post to a Wiki/Blog like this one, you can take past knowledge and a past learned frameworks or schemas from things like composing/sending an email and word processing/formatting in a word processor to really help people develop that understanding of how to post to a Wiki/Blog.

June 3, 2009

Week 4 - What is Learning? and How can learning best be effectuated by a teacher/trainer?

Rote Learning

Meaningful Learning

It seems to me that the definition of learning keeps changing or at least adapting as I continue my studies of different learning theories and strategies. I believe that this week with the studies of Meaningful Learning, I'd classify learning as: a way to connect new information to individuals or groups that were faulting that information by way of making meaningful connections that allow learners to link something already learned to new content so that they can understand the new information being delivered.

As I pointed out above in the definition of learning, learning can be effectuated by linking something that is already known or learned to the new content so that those associations can help improve understanding for the learner.

I'm a believer in Meaningful Learning, I use associations all the time with my coworkers when I'm trying to teach them new technologies that our office occasionally acquires. An example would be adding wiki pages to their wiki's and how the process is so very similar to composing and email or editing a Word processing document, (new message, subject, body, formatting, attachments, sending) and how they are so similar to creating a new page, title of Post, body text, formatting text, attaching/uploading files to a post, and submitting the post.

Thanks, Tom

Images were plucked from: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rallrich/learn/mean.html

May 27, 2009

Week 3 - Answers to "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

This week as I've been studying the Cognitive Information Process Theory by Ertmer and Miller, I still believe that Learning is a transfer or creation of knowledge through experience, study, teaching but it seems to me that other factors help in Learning that can be greatly improved through encoding information into the mind of the learner. Miller referred to Inputs and bits of informations, and as I reflect back on my own learning, I do believe that things taught in small packages seem to be remembered more easily. Miller says that's because the "short" bits make it more easily to commit into long-term memory.

Burning Piano

I think that this learning process/theory has some legs, and that teachers/trainers should really keep this in mind as they design instruction for learners. I think back to the days when I learned to play the piano, and how I was able to learn. I was able to practice a few measures of music and then repeat it, and very quickly those measures would be encoded to my memory, however, when I would try to suck in several lines of music, it seemed to be more frustrating.

I like to often tell my staff as we develop modules and teaching segments that we should pattern instruction after the Pixar Digital Shorts movies. and keep a learning segment to 5-10 minutes, now as I've studied the Cognitive Information Process it makes more sense to me. Filling the brain with a spray and pray version of instruction is ineffective in my opinion and I believe most things in that spray and pray fashion will not be committed to memory.

May 21, 2009

Answers to "What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?"

As I've pondered the studies that I've been doing this week on "Behaviorism" I've started to analyze what learning is based on a behaviorist perspective. I guess that one could say that learning is a transfer or creation of knowledge through experience, study, teaching and can be facilitated through various forms of reinforcement or conditioning." Learning cannot be shoved down the throat of the learner (however if possible, it might be effective). Instead, I look at it as being excepted or ingested by the learner as they pass through a certain experience, behaviorism can help that ingestion perhaps by creating that appetite for learning through a form of reinforcement.

ice Cream Photos

I think that learning can best be effectuated by the teacher/trainer, when the teacher/trainer can engage the learner in an experience. Further a teacher/trainer can use behaviorism techniques to provide a stimulus to help the learner become engaged in learning, For example, my wife is teaching my son Kenton how to play the piano. In a week or two he has a piano recital. Rachel gave him a piece of music to memorize, but he has been having trouble focusing on the memorization techniques, so we told him that if he memorizes his piece, that Dad will take him on a special excursion down to the Cold Stone Ice cream shop for a big tasty cone! He is currently working on it and looks like he'll reach the goal! I'll keep you posted.

May 13, 2009

"What is learning?" and "How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer?

Learning Image

My Opinion:

As I think of learning, I try to break it down to the simplest definition that I know. I believe that learning is simply "transfer or creation of knowledge through experience, study, and teaching." Learning cannot be shoved down the throat of the learner (however if possible, it might be effective). Instead, I look at it as being excepted or ingested by the learner as they pass through a certain experience.

I think that learning can best be effectuated by the teacher/trainer, when the teacher/trainer can engage the learner in an experience. This is why I love my job. I believe that technology can be used as tools to help teachers engage students.

I recently attended a presentation by Jessica Roberts who teaches kids with autism in the Weber School District. She demonstrated how she was able to use the evidence based practice of "Video Self Modeling & Social Stories" to help engage these autistic children in learning. She was able to use the video camera and the chance to be a star in these small instructional video stories to help the kids with their specific behavior & learning goals.

To see Jessica's Presentation Click Here (It's a Wimba Archive. Her presentation starts at about the 2 hour mark).

February 26, 2009

Change

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. One thing that is constant is change. Since I last posted, America elected and inaugurated a African America President, the economy took a dive and the financial markets have been in dire straights. At home we've watched as Utah legislatures and bureaucrats chop and slice budgets to meet the expected losses in tax revenues. We are seeing districts making cuts as well, and one of the first things that they are cutting are professional development budgets that pay for things like travel to conferences, substitutes, and stipends.

As the UPDC adjusts to these changes, we've decided it's imperative to get creative on how we deliver our professional development services to our customers (Public Ed. Special Education Directors). At home we are implementing technology professional development to train our staff how to use electronic tools to deliver professional development in an on-demand fashion, using Wiki's, blogs, podcasts, and Instructional modules that they develop from their vast knowledge base.

The goal is to make these forms of information available to Special Ed. Directors and teachers in an electronic format, so they can access it when they need it. Directors and mentors can then direct their educators to certain modules that they deem important. Educators can do these proposed modules during prep hours, on their own, or during district professional development afternoons . . . etc.

November 14, 2008

ABC-UBI Fasthands Clip Nov '08

This is the Fasthands Animation of the ABC-UBI "Wedding" Joint Initiative.

April 1, 2008

Anita Archer UMTA Training March 27-28 in Provo

At the training she promised some files that she would share on our website. Here they are:

Presentations & Handouts:

Videos & Instructions/descriptions:

March 28, 2008

Anita Archer Training March 25-26, 2008

In Anita's training at the Granite District Jones Center, she promised resources/files for teachers attending.

Here are those promised resources:

March 25th

Writing Instruction

Writing Examples

Write On Pages

Strategies: Written Expression

Rubrics

Rewards Writing Training

Writing Next (Article)

March 26th

Management

Don't forget to print them on "White Paper"

These were posted with her permission. UPDC may remove these documents over time.

February 28, 2008

The digital age is truely amoung us!

iTunes & iPod Images

Yesterday Apple announce that it is now the 2nd largest retailer of music in the US, just behind Wal-mart. The incredible thing is that Apple has not sold one audio CD. It's all been digital downloads. Among many things they said that they have 50 million users regularly downloading music, and have recently reached over 4 billion songs sold through the iTunes Music store. On Christmas day 2007 they sold a record 20 million songs in one day. Look out though, because that's no all, they have been selling Movies & TV shows through iTunes for a while now, and those businesses are growing quickly as well. In January at the MacWorld Expo they announced Digital Movie Rentals through the iTunes music store as well. . . . More on that.

To me it appears that more and more content is moving via electronic means, not through the old transports of yesteryear such as the mail, newspaper stands/delivery, movie rental stores. Students at many universities are already attending classes through thier iPods and Laptops via a medium called Podcasting, Which I'll cover soon in this blog. My point is that the world around us is changing and quickly becoming digital. What are you doing to digitize your staff development, or better yet your classrooms.

Digital Literacy is now an important piece of the educational puzzle. Modeling/implementing/adapting to digital techniques in the classroom is a must. These students are wired much differently then most of the educators in the system. Most educators are DSL (Digital as a Second Language) but there students are and need to be "digitally fluent" to compete in the digital age.

February 28, 2008

Welcome To My New Blog!

Movie Poster of a Blog

Thanks for visiting my new blog. This is such an exciting medium to be using! I feel that blogs really do allow a person with a specialty knowledge to be able to share their knowledge with the masses of folks who may not have that specific specialty or information. I can also become a place where great collaboration, sharing, and enrichment can occur! Hopefully I'll be able to enrich you in some way!

According to Wikipedia a blog is:

is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.[1]

Whatever the heck they are, it doesn't matter. It's another tool that will allow us to share and enrich each other!