Blog 5
Wow, where has the time gone. As I look back at what I have learned over the past 12 weeks, I am amazed at the technology available and more amazed that I am beginning to use such technology. In Bonk & Zhang chapter 6, Activities for Phase 3: Visual learners, I think the creativity of the instructor/facilitator of the online learning community will make the difference in the retention and learning that takes place. As a visual learner myself, I found chapters 6 & 7 of interest. I will use visual tours, models, maps and pictures as visual cues for learning. Maybe that is why I like concept maps. When reading text, we must visualize the concept in our minds in order to comprehend its meaning. As I teach mental health this semester, I encourage my students to study more and harder because abstract concepts are harder to grasp than concrete concepts. As we read the word 'house', we can visualize a picture of a house in our minds, but when we read the word 'spirituality' we have a difficult time comprehending what that term means.
In chapter 7, some of the activities mentioned for the visual learner is videoclips or animation can be replayed and compared as we enter into the next phase of the R2D2 model of hands-on-learners. Simulation is an area of interest to me as I plan to incorporate this into my VLC. I think teaching nursing, I must make it as real as possible for the student to comprehend what it will be like as a practicing nurse in real life. The simulations of real case scenarios will increase critical thinking, judgment, decision making and evaluation. I must determine competency in these important areas of clinical practice prior to the clinical setting.
Karen, I am a visual learner, too and like the examples you posted on visualize concepts. After reading all this content, reaching all learning styles are very important-we were discussing this course this week and decided we have learned the most or retained the most from the styles used in presentation of this Internet Pedogogy class. Thank you Dr. Ge!
ReplyDeleteKaren, I appreciate your comments related to visual learning. Most of my nursing students report being heavy visual and auditory with theory or conceptually based knowledge and tactile/kinesthetic with learning nursing skills. From a personal viewpoint, virtual learning communities allow for depth of thought. Like now, sitting at my computer, reflecting on the course objectives, the assignment objectives, reviewing the readings and posting in an environment away from other distractions, builds my depth of thought, and I am less likely to forget the material. Lastly, I agree with your thoughts related to this course. I have learned more about teaching with this course, than I have other courses. This course has put so many missing pieces of the teaching puzzle together, whether it be with a VLC or FTF. Hats off to Dr. Ge.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of using the visual materials to enhance the efficiency of my VLC, too. The visual expression can help virtual learners to receive direct meaning at some points. Another class I am working with in this semester which teaches us how to design an instructional material. How to design a usable model or picture which can be accessed and understood to all learners is really a huge work than I thought. This class indeed guides us to see many aspects I never thought about before. Thanks, Dr. Ge and my classmates.
ReplyDeleteI share your amazement of how we are now using so much of the technology and tips that were so what foreign to us at the beginning of the semester. I enjoyed reading about the ideas and tools to use for visual students.
ReplyDeleteTim, thanks for your insight about using visuals to communicate meaning directly. No, it is not an easy job. using graphics as decoration will not help to achieve learning objectives, but may confuse learners with contextual details and irrelevant information. Therefore, it takes a lot of consideration, evaluation and decision making to select an image for instructional purposes. - Xun Ge
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