Reflection

· What did you find surprising or striking as you furthered you knowledge about how people learn?

At this course it made me surprised as I furthered my knowledge about not only how people learn but also how much people have thought about how people learn. The course provided me so many hard and soft resource materials which broadened my understanding about learning. As learning is of critical importance to both individual and society I was very much interest about the course materials provided, and activities assigned to us. We came a long journey starting from the pretheoritical attempts to modern learning theories such as multiple intelligence theory. I began to think about us a multifaceted process that individuals typically take for granted until they experience difficulty with a complex task. When my understanding about how people learn expanded further I realized how challenging and striking the task of an instructional designer as he or she has to cater to the broad spectrum of individual differences, learning styles, and motivation.

· How has this course deepened your understanding of your personal learning process?

At this course I continued week by week with the resource materials provided, discussions conducted, and applications it deepened my understanding of personal learning process. Due to lack of computer literacy, limited access to on-line resources (Reasons: Lack of computers, limited internet facilities available and its slowness, lack of skills in browsing internet), poor awareness about the potential of on-line resources, and limited time available to spend in the library for several years I did not get enough opportunities to reflect on my personal learning in relation to existing and emerging theoretical and research bases. But, during last two months this course stimulated me in different ways to reflect on my own learning process. Both books and on-line resources, comments and feedbacks from the instructor, posting assignments, commenting on others posts, familiarizing with the modern technology, and discussing with the colleagues form all over the world who have a wide range of experiences in the field of instructional design are the experiences I gained through this course. All these experiences nourished my understanding of personal learning.

· What have you learned regarding the connection between learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation?

For eight weeks I engaged with the activities related to learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation I have understood that an instructional designer has to develop a set of learning instructions by considering the particular content, potential of various learning theories in achieving successful learning, individual differences of the learners and their learning styles, most suitable technology that can be adopted, nature of the learning environment, and motivational factors that keep the learner engaged with his/her learning. A proper connection of all the factors mentioned above has to be achieved to facilitate a fruitful learning event.

· How will your learning in this course help you as you further your career in the field of instructional design?

What I learned in this course will help me in many different ways to as I further me career in the field of instructional design. Now I might think of which learning theory or combination of those bring about best learning in a particular subject, what are the possible learning styles that a learner can use in learning the particular content, which technology brings about the best learning, and what factors will keep the learner motivated in learning.

How I learn changed

Learning is a “multifaceted process” that individuals typically take for granted until they experience a difficulty with a complex task (Learning Theories and instruction P.1). During last seven weeks I reflect on this multifaceted process with the point of views of different scholars. According to behaviorists learning takes place as a result of responding to stimuli. Here rewards and punishments and most influential and consequently the natural tendency of an adult or a child for learning are stimulated. Cognitive theorists define learning as processing of knowledge. Here, existing schemas and previous experiences facilitate learning. Constructivist theorists point out that learners construct their own knowledge and create his or her own meaning. Here teacher is expected to structure situations such that learners become actively involved with content through manipulation of materials and social interaction rather than delivering instructions. Social learning theorists focus on the influence of models and other environmental and personal factors on behaviors that facilitate learning.

Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. One aspects of connetivism is the use of a network with nodes and connections as a central metaphor for learning and here the modern technology can be used widely by referring resource material provided during last seven weeks, sharing views of my colleagues those who follow the certificate course in instructions design and following instructions given by my supervisor now I have a board understanding about learning. I began to think of “how I learn” not only in relation to learning theories but different learning styles followed by different learners. As an instructional designer it is essential and should be able to look at the learning content through the point of views of different learners in relation to the discipline and the learning environment that can be provided.

Reflecting on how I learned and how I learn changed it is possible to develop a set of learning instruction for a particulars group of learners so that those towards the desired learning objectives. To achieve learning objectives of the learners I also began to think how I incorporate available technologies to the planned learning environment. Further, I started to seek the assistance of modern technology for the process of learning. During last seven weeks, I understood the potential of modern technology especially in relation to computer assisted learning. Experiences I gained by attending a virtual classroom nourished my learning through different facets, expanded my views of online learning, and strengthened my capabilities of incorporating modern technology with learning.

When I remember the days I started my higher education at university my computer literacy level was zero. Computer was a luxury item that was not available for the general public. Then I started using computer at the university computer lab two hours a week. By that time I did not realized the strength of computers in the field of education. Then I was familiar with some software applications and used the computer as an effective and easy typewriter. I opened an e-mail account few years latter and started using Google as a search engine. Very recently I attended a training programme in Malaysia and then I identified blog as a valuable tool that can be used in the teaching learning process. Now I am familiar with search engines and websites such as Google, E-mails, Face book, You Tube, Teachers Tube, Slide share, etc. After starting online course at Walden university I realized the potential of e-learning.
At present based on my personal experiences I believe that blogs are the digital tools best facilitate my learning. The reason why I am telling this is blogs facilitate dialogues and sharing knowledge and experiences of the people all over the world. In addition it can be used as a effective and efficient teaching-learning tool in both children’s and adult aclasses.

Connectivism

Two online journals on week 2 topics

I found the following online journal which provides several articles on information processing theory.
http://www.emtech.net/learning_theories.htm
I think this online journal is important for all the colleagues those who follow instructional design course as so many articles not only on information processing theory but on the other learning theories are available in it. If you wish to explore more about information processing, information processing theory and other theories namely contiguity theory, Gestalt theory, social learning theory, dual coding theory, social judgment theory the above mentioned online journal is a valuable resource. Further, it provides articles that review theories and views given by Skiner, Vygotsky, Dewey, Piaget, Weiner, Bandura, Gardnerand Gagn'e.

I also found "Educational Psychology Interactive" online journal is also rich with the article related to the week 2 topics. The following link will provide you access to the journal.
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/
As I found this online journal contains articles on information processing, brain and biology. In addition it provides you so many article covering a wide range in education and education psychology.

Three useful instructional design blogs

It is an interesting assignment for me as I am not that much familiar with blogs. When I search for bolgs regarding instructional design I found that following blogs are very much useful to know what instructional design is.

The first one is http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/ in which gives you an idea ‘What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design’. If you open this web you can watch video illustrating the value of instructional design. I have listed the resources available in this blog below.
Resources
· Rapid E-Learning 101
· Designing the Right Course
· Instructional Design
· Building Scenarios for E-learning
· Managing E-Learning Projects
· PowerPoint for E-learning
· Visual & Graphic Design
· Audio & Video Tips
The second important blog that I found is ‘Getting Started in Instructional Design’ posted by E-learning Adda under ULR http://www.elearningadda.com. I understood that this blog is especially useful for beginners as it provides opportunities to be familiarize not only with instructional design but also with E-learning. Here are the groups available in the blog in relation to different areas of E-learning and instructional design.
· E-Learning Testers
· E-learning Project Managers
· E-learning Programmers
· E-learning Graphic Designer
· Instructional Designers

As you know instructional design is one of the most important and hottest topics in education today. With the diversity of technologies, audiences, and modes of teaching continuing to grow, it's essential to stay up-to-date. For this we need to access currently available resources and I believe that internet is best resource. If you are interested in getting information regarding instructional design I would suggest you the following link.
http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com


Here 37 resources under the following categories are available
· Academic resources
· Multimedia
· Blogs

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