Week 1 part 2

Week 1

Netiquette.
http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/netiquetteonlineculture/l/bl_netiquette_quiz.htm
A very handy web page as it certainly demystifies the language and sub text often associated with posts and blogs. I have used blogs and postings for at least 5 years and it took me that long to get the gist of it, having various sites to go to makes it much easier (and less embarrassing) to post on blogs etc. While I am familiar with the majority of Netiquette, it was handy to brush up on, and add to, my knowledge.

Knowing your learner
I have placed this title in large bold writing to show the extreme importance of this subject.
We all know that we are individuals with different beliefs, likes and different learning styles, yet some teachers are determined to ignore this fact and teach their students the same dull, boring and often monotonous way!!
What shocked me when I first began my Learning management degree was that the idea of teaching students to their strengths was over 30 years old. Thirty years and many people still haven't grasped how important and how easy it would make their job, if they did cater to their students learning styles.

They have been many learning theories over the years, some have added to those before them, some oppose those before them. The three I will talk about here is Constructivism, Cognitivism and Behavourist.
(1) Behavourist (Behavourism). Gestalt and Pavlov were the main contributors. As the name implies is about the learners behaviour and the psychology behind that behaviour.
(2) Cognitivism also deals with the psychology behind behaviour, but delves deeper into the brain and its cognitive functions such as the memory system.
(3) Constructivism (and later social constructivism) deals with how the brain deals with information and constructs meaning. Piaget was a main contributor and he believed that we all construct, interpret and make sense of the world by our past experiences. A book can be a classic example of this two people reading the same book will have very different interpretations of that book, even from what the author intended.