How can we use Advance Organisers in e-Learning contexts?

The way we present content with technology must be considered. We need to start with simple activities and progress to more complex content by using technology to structure the sequence of what will be learnt and when.

What effect might e-Learning contexts have for the Humanist approach?

To learn by doing you need technology that can facilitate this: Practice and practical simulations and first hand experience through videos. Encourage learners to participate, express themselves and be self-determined. Create a non-competitive environment that is cooperative. A humanist approach could use e-learning as a resource of ideas, concepts and actions that they must be encouraged to go out and achieve in the real world, in their workplaces. The e-learning context can be used as a way for them to reflect on the experience they had and report back to other learners with further stimulus.

Learning is the process one goes through to acquire knowledge or a skill. What one learns is determined by the events in their environment that act as a stimulus for a change of behaviour to occur. In order for learning to occur, a change of behaviour must take place. In some cases, learning must be approached by repeatedly connecting with the same material. In order for learning to be achieved, the learner must also be ready and willing to make a connection with the material.

Video: Part 1 – Behaviourism – Wharton University of Pennsylvania – Speaker: Stanton Wortham – http://www.learningwiki.com/theory

“When you educate someone you are making an assumption about what you think learning is. These implicit beliefs rest on even deeper beliefs that are based on our accounts of what people are like”.

Basic Conceptions:

Behaviourism: Identifying learning objectives and reinforcing the kind of behaviour you want.

According to Merriam and Caffarella (1999) the behaviourist orientation has a focus on observable behaviour rather than internal thought processes. Developed in the early twentieth century by John B. Watson, the theory behind behaviourism is that learning is manifested by a change in behaviour that is assisted by the environment in which the learning occurs. In this way, what one learns is determined by the events in the environment rather than just being concerned with the capability of the individual learner.

Cognitive: People have views of the world and these views are built as conceptions or theories that are in their heads and when they make sense of these, they make new representations.

The cognitive approach upholds that “the human mind is not a passive exchange technical system where the stimuli arrive and the appropriate response leaves”.  Learning does not instantaneously produce a change in behaviour but rather an individual makes sense of the information given, creating a connection that then allows them to take on board the new behaviour often in a wave of new insight. According to Grippin and Peters, the thinking person interprets scenarios and gives meaning to the events that impinge upon his consciousness and the learning can only be meaningful when it relates to concepts that already exist in a person’s cognitive structure.