Growth Mindset Beliefs Summary
I believe that eLearning technology offers the possibility for creating uniquely valuable blended learning experiences for the student.
I believe that eLearning in much of its currently available formats has missed hitting target and is failing to live up to its promise as a viable option for the student.
I believe that current trends evoke a future of only negligible improvement in eLearning design—unless something radical is done to create a paradigm shift towards meeting the needs of the student.
I believe that to elevate eLearning to the height of its promise, collectively, we need to begin with a personal commitment to a new set of standards integrating multiple learning theories, being adept at intuitively creating and facilitating a significant learning environment that engages the learner in an authentic experience igniting their own passion of exploring, owning, and enjoyably meeting the expected outcomes.
I believe through continuous assessment of learner performance, the eLearning experience can optimize use of the learner’s time, individualize the experience for full engagement, address needs, optimize practice, and prepare for transfer of learning to performance proficiency.
I believe that we need to go beyond typical eLearning to the values and characteristics of Serious eLearning and through my work in developing eLearning experiences and helping others do the same.
| TYPICAL/ TRADITIONAL LEARNING | SERIOUS eLEARNING |
|---|---|
| CONTENT FOCUSED | PERFORMANCE BASED (what does the learner need to to be able to do that they cannot now) |
| EFFICIENT FOR AUTHORS | MEANINGFUL TO LEARNERS (make meaningful to learners, increases and affords measuring effectiveness, now visible to organization’s stakeholders) |
| ATTENDANCE DRIVEN | ENGAGEMENT DRIVEN |
| KNOWLEDGE DELIVERY FOCUSED | AUTHENTIC CONTEXTS (a situation that a learner may well experience) |
| FACT TESTING (test short term memory) | REALISTIC DECISIONS (case scenarios are great here) |
| ONE SIZE FITS ALL | INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGES (create scaffolding situations where learner answers increasing level of difficulty of questions. Question answered if known, if not, research the resources needed and keep going) |
| ONE-TIME EVENTS | SPACED PRACTICE (give learner more time to reinforce learning over time; access to come back and redo) |
| DIDACTIC FEEDBACK | REAL WORLD CONSEQUENCES (cements and sustains for the learner the outcomes of choices made in real life scenarios) |
During my first year of enrollment at the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus program, I recall hearing the terminology or phrase “linguistic continuum” for the first time. The meaning given for the terminology is
“A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a spread of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties differ only slightly, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be mutually intelligible.” (Wikipedia)
For such a small island as Jamaica, it explained why I wondered, my cousins who came to visit for vacation from the extreme west end of the country (Lucea, Hanover), though speaking the same dialect as I, sounded at times weirdly different in the some of their phrases and enunciation (I lived in the capital Kingston, some a 137 miles road distance away). I often asked them what did they mean, and of course the explanation was a different way of expressing situations, emotionally, socially, or factually. My understanding and knowledge base was expanded in such small sphere among family members and another area of country.
Many year later when I found myself on a weekend break from a project assignment in Bonny River Island, Nigeria (more than 5,000 miles away across the Atlantic), I was enjoying the sites and sounds as I was being shown around by my local host. Someone strange and beautiful perk up my ears as I listened to a very lively conversation taking place among a group of locals during the festivity and pageantry of a marriage celebration taking place. Drawing even closer, I became even more amazed at the conversations. The dialect sounding overtones was distinctively Nigerian, but the dialect messaging was distinctively my own! I could understand perfectly the “pidgin English” with infractions of colonial influences introduced, but I could understand. When I friendly “jumped” one of the conversations, my host was stunned,
as were the locals, and suddenly a wild excitement took place as I was embraced in the conversations as well. This commonality afforded me an excellent opportunity to learn so much through this experience of my ancestor’s history of many centuries ago.
In considering where my learning style fits among the different theory descriptors, let us examine the definitions of each major area.
Behaviorism: Is a learning theory that only focuses on objectively observable behaviors and discounts any independent activities of the mind. Behavior theorists define learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior based on environmental conditions (Educational Theory, Flippen).
Cognitivism: Is a learning theory which deals with how people perceive and remember information, solve problems and ultimately learn. … A key concept of cognitivism is that learning constructs mental maps in the brain and learning process is how these mental structures are understood (Educational Theory, Flippen).
Constructivism: A derivative of Cognitivism, is an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner (Educational Theory, Flippen).
Connectivism: Is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements—not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing (Learning in a Digital Age, Chap. 19, Siemens).
I imagine that in my years of being blessed to be a life-long learner, I find apt transitional identity within each of the learning theories. Behaviorism reign supreme from birth to about thirteen (13) years old. I simple was a sponge soaking up inputs from my parent, community (village) and school environments providing the viewing stage.
It was at this age, I became intrigued by an advertisement I kept seeing in the local Sunday newspaper, the Jamaica Gleaner, highlighting “Become a Electronic Technician” from National Technical Schools (NTS). I approached my father, and asked would he allow me to do this. He read it, shared, “Son, I have no clue what this is, but if you really desire this, know that when you start it, you need to finish it.” Oh I really did. And so at age thirteen I became involved in distance education using the snail mail system. I received my learning materials and kits to build, sent my exams back for scoring and then suceesfully moving on to the next course in sequence. This I did for three (3) years. But the most amazing part of this undertaking was my delight in cognitively connecting ideas, concepts, and hands-on lab activities with my physics and physical chemistry courses as I progressed through high school. Cognitivism kicked into high gear throughout high school, my years in college, and a strong component part of who I am even today. Behaviorism much less so at redefining or reshaping who I am as a learner.
My freshman year in the University of the West Indies exposed me to a greater social environment outside of my own that was rife with diversity of culture as well as thought processing on/of current events. Local, national, and across the Caribbean regions. Independent opinions from new friends, acquaintances driven by intensely personal experiences challenged my own. Impacting my thought processing education, politics, religion, and history. I found myself being challenged to personally justify why I believed and held fast to ideologies across all these areas. Suddenly, I am immersed on journeys to contextually analyze, validate, or think outside of the box in taking a different approach, to determine if there could be alternative outcomes to what already existed as axioms. As my life experiences accumulated across the spectrum, I started exuding an independence trait based very much that of the Constructivist. Constructivism has evolved to be another integral component of who I am as a learner.
Being a cusper (ON THE CUSP, Zimmer) by virtue of being between the Baby Boomer generation and the Millennials plus, I have had a front row seat to the Digital Technology U-verse explosion. Not many of my colleagues are able to survive this revolutionary disrupter in education theory. It disrupts the traditional classroom modus operandi. It de-emphasizes the role of the teacher or instructor being the focus and refuses to connect to this world of seeming chaos. But perhaps due in large part to my chosen major in electronics engineering, more than most, I have enjoyed and even been a part of driving this revolution. I have worked in research and development, on engineering project teams, designing and deploying the latest in systems control systems across the globe. Connectivism is not only an integral component part of my learning philosophy, It is the most important part. It has allowed my to do more than survive and remain increasingly relevant to a new generation of learners that are shaped from birth by this form of Behaviorism.
Impacting My Innovation Plan and Driving Change
My learning philosophy evolution provides the heartbeat that drives my passion in effecting change across the diaspora of learners my organization receives today. There are the cuspers like me that clients value, treasure and want to hold on to the critical purposes of keeping their operations effectively going. Then there is the urgency to fast track a brand-new work force, effectively trained, and steeped with new skill sets in utilizing the new technology of safely operating automated tools, in a period of moths and not years. Being able to create a significant learning environment for my learners is directly tied to my belief and skillsets derived from the theory of Connectivism. It drives me assuming the role of the learner and workout the best usage of the technology tools in enabling my learners to seamlessly focus on the learning experience and not be tied idiosyncratic distractions they have.
References
Dweck, Carol S. 2007. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. ISBN 978-0-345-47232-8, Random House Publishing Group
Flippen, C H. October 2012. Educational Technology & Learning Theories. Retrieved from: https ://edtechtheory.weebly.com/cognitivism.html
Siemens, G.2004. A Learning for the Digital Age. Retrieved from: https://lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com/chapter/connectivism-a-learning-theory-for-the-digital-age/
Thomas, Douglas, September 2012. A New Culture of Learning. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U&feature=youtu.be
Harapnuik, D. February 2019.Learning Philospohy. Retrieved from: http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95
Tan, S.C, Hung, D. October 2002.Beyond Information Pumping: Creating a Constructivist E-Learning Environment. Retrieved from: https://repository.nie.edu.sg/bitstream/10497/4735/1/ET-42-5-48.pdf
Smith, M. K. (1999-2020). ‘Learning theory’, The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education. Retrieved from: https://infed.org/mobi/learning-theory-models-product-and-process/
Zimmer, S. October 2015. ON THE CUSP: UNDERSTANDING THOSE CAUGHT BETWEEN YWO GENERATIONS. Retrieved from: http://www.generations.com/2015/10/12/on-the-cusp-understanding-those-caught-between-two-generations/
Serious eLearning Manifesto. (March 13, 2014). The Serious eLearning Manifesto. https://elearningmanifesto.org
Stewart, H. June 2020. Innovation Proposal. Retrieved from: https://xtl-education.online/?page_id=417
Stewart, H. June 2020. Implementation Plan. Retrieved from: https://xtl-education.online/?page_id=419