Blog on Information processing from Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching and Technology

Website: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Information_processing

From Information processing from Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching and Technology

This review by Michael Orey from the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology 2008 is a visual presentation which would make learning easier. Although good, I would have preferred this very visual presentation to be used more in a classroom setting. This is a fairly current update and has very pertinent information. However, this perspective is mainly from the cognitivist point of view. I would have liked to see something from the constructionist prospective which would have given the active application of ideas to problems.

What is "The Art of Changing the Brain?"

Professor James E. Zull a Professor of Biology and Director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education at Case Western Reserve University has given me some incisive comments on the Art of Changing the Brain
at http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/zull.htm on What is The Art of Changing the Brain?"
We have learned that when successul teachers produce change in students it is essentially an art. He tells us about the art of challenging the whole brain and lets us know the four basic functions of the brain from which he proposes four pillars of human learning that is gathering, analyzing, creating, and acting. And as a Professor of Biology shows how information enters the brain through existing networks of neurons. Professor Zull suggests different kinds of "Arts". What I find interesting is when he spoke on "The art is the skill of finding the parts of existing networks that are "right" and helping the student attach new things to them which generate more complete understanding. This approach suggests that much of what we consider "wrong" is just incomplete. We can add to it if we have the "Art". I like the idea of attaching new things to existing networks but considering things that are wrong as just being incomplete might be going a bit too far. However, I do believe that Practice and meaning are the most important parts of art but it is utimately the student who is in control.

Brief overview of 3 instructional design blogs+

The three sites that I have chosen that deal with Instructional Design are (1) Learning theory from the encyclopedia of informal education. (2) Instructional Design for eLearning Approaches and (3) Blogs about: Instructional Design.

I would critique the usefulness of each site and reflect upon how the site might serve as an ongoing resource as I work in the instructional design field.

First I would look at the Learning theory at:

http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm

The Learning Theory has pertinent information on Learning as both a product and as a process. This is basically from the behaviorist point of view and cognitivist point of view whose theories are widely used around the world mainly with an exception of countries like Britain and Northern Ireland but which gives us a better understanding of how people learn. He also broke it down into two other categories which are important to know. He also gave further readings that Instructional Designers could find useful. I can use this site often in my Instructional Design field.

Secondly on the Ideas, Instructional Design for Elearning Approaches at

http://ideas.blogs.com/

you can reflect and have insights on elearning strategies and instructional technology design. This site is useful for all of your online Elearning questions and guidelines especially designed for us who are pursuing our online studies in Instructional Technology and Design. I would recommend this site for all of our students especially those of us who have little or no teaching experience.

As for the Blogs about Instructional Design at

http://www.internettime.com/blog/archives/001083.html

this site would be useful for visual presentations, keeping things simple and also it a clever way to help market books. It would take you to a video where the author answers questions about the book. This is a great idea to market books.

So whether it is to find out about Learning theories, we can look at this site to give us cues about the various theories or being aware of the different ELearning Approaches or using different Instrucctional designs to enhance our presentations, or simply keeping our presentations simple or to market books. All three websites should be valuable to us who are working in the Instructional Design field.