Week 9: Technology and Learning Styles

 

 

           This week was a busy one as we were working hard on our Final Project Reports. The Final Project Report has a great importance as it covers the change that we can implement to our classes by using the tools that we came familiar with during this course. To be more clear, it is the first time we practice what we have learned. It is for that reason that I feel very excited about it.

       The group I have decided to work for my Final project is important as they are the English Language Teachers of the future. We, as teachers and also our students, want to go beyond the traditional lecture classes.  I have always believed the importance of using computer in the classroom. However, as a teacher I wasn’t aware of the opportunities that we have in the web. Personally I believe that, I have the responsibility to show my students, who are prospective English language teachers, the resources that we have in the web so that they can also use them in their future classes. 

      In this 9th week of our fruitful study,  I can say that I feel very proud of myself as I have worked really hard and learned many useful information from Courtney’s guidence and from my other very hard working colleagues and never missed a deadline J . With all the things I gained from this course I had a chance to improve myself as a teacher. 

         The discussion of this week is about  “Technology and Learning Styles” This topic has a great importance for almost every teacher. It is a known fact that every learner has different learning styles. It is essential for the teachers to design different materials for different learning styles. There is no one best method that can be applied to all learners and it is a known fact that if the teaching style and the learning style don’t match, there won’t be proper learning within the class. It is for this reason that we cannot limit our teaching to one style only. The teachers should incorporate among the many learning styles. According to the theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Howard Gardner, each learner acquire the information in seven different ways but they are dominant in only one.

1.Linguistic/Verbal

 2.Logical-mathematical,

 3.Musical,

 4.Bodily-kinesthetic,

 5.Spatial,

 6.Interpersonal, and

 7.Intrapersonal.

Later on, he proposed these three additional forms:

 1.Naturalist,

 2.Spiritual, and

 3.Existential

The latest studies by Gardner show that currently there are ten intelligences listed as follows:

Visual/Spatial

Verbal-Linguistic

Logical/Mathematical

Visual/Spatial

Bodily/Kinesthetic

Musical/Rhythmic

Intrapersonal

Interpersonal

Naturalist

Existentialist

 

The following sites should be visited in order to get a clear idea on the effects of technology on the Learning styles;

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm

http://www.nclrc.org/sailing/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=3&ref=benedict_carey

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=3&ref=benedict_carey

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

http://www.open2.net/survey/learningstyles/

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html

http://www.indstate.edu/cirt/id/pedagogies/styles/learning.html

http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no10.pdf

           On http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm (Technology and Multiple Intelligences) you will be guided to many other styles which will give you a clear understanding about learning styles and how to get the best within a class having different learners. It also gives a clear picture of how important to understand students’ strengths and weaknesses in each intelligence so that we can help students become more successful. In fact although we try and do our best in our classrooms, crowded number of students prevent us from preparing lessons for each learning style. However there are some web based activities that we can use which will activate different learning styles. We can also find some examples in the article titled “Do Technology Based Lessons Meet the Needs of Student Learning Styles?”  The article titled “Learning Styles and Strategies” by Felder and Soloman give us some very important ideas on different kind of learners and how to these kind of learners help themselves in order to forster their learning. I highly recommend the readers of my blog to surf on these sites where they can find many useful information on learning styles.

           Incorporating technology with the learning styles is the general topic of this week and we all benefited from what we have learned. Before completing the blog post for week 9, I would like to wish every coursemate good luck in their Final Project Report.