Weekly Learning journal -Week 4

To me, learning is something we can only do for ourselves. Learning involves far more than thinking: it involves the whole personality - senses, feelings, intuition, beliefs, values and will.  If we do not have the will to learn, we will not learn and if we have learned, we are actually changed in some way.  If the learning makes no difference it can have very little significance beyond being random ideas that float through our minds. I believe that learning needs to meet some personal need and recognizing and identifying such needs enables us to evaluate whether the learning has been achieved. We learn when we are able to: gain a mental or physical grasp of the subject, make sense of a subject, event or feeling by interpreting it into our own words or actions, use our newly acquired ability or knowledge in conjunction with skills and understanding we already possess, do something with the new knowledge or skill and take ownership of it. By the end of the session, learners will be able to examine relevant instructional technologies, analyze methods used to engage adult learners, and use technology to respond to learning instructions. The indicators that learners have ‘learned’ will be the response I get from tutorials, quizzes, test, and well-formed questions during the session. To design the instructional plan I will use Kolb’s learning model that will utilize concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. I decided to use this theoretical lens because adults are self-directed learners and I believe that best way to engage them is to put the learning tools into their hands. With Kolb's learning, I can use technology to do this. Some insights I am beginning to see, feel, and believe is a sense that my instructional plan for adult learners is taking shape and I am beginning to have new thoughts and apprehensions about whether my plan will deliver the best results. I believe in the plan that I have but just can’t predict the learner’s response.