post entry 1

Post entry 1

Emotional context online:

Within a group, Individuals will react differently when confronted.  Each student brings different baggage that identifies who they are and how they behave within a group environment.  This often establishes each person’s role within the group.  For example in my class I have an individual who has a strong knowledge of carpentry and is very pragmatic.  He is often not afraid to say what is on his mind and sometimes dominates group discussions.  Theoretically each individual within that group discussion has equal opportunity and equal rights, but because of the baggage we bring, it creates barriers.  But I would rather refer to this as a critical cog in our own class culture being assembled.  Adult Learning and the Emotional Self, (2008) talks about how we all bring our own meaning and relationships acquired overtime within a social context.  Our so called baggage has its positives but also has negatives that can affect the way we function within a group.

Some would argue that online debates and discussions create equality for individuals within the group discussion because they are not confronted by body language, voice tones, facial expressions and all the other things that have been learnt and stored in their personal identity baggage. Theoretically, this means that students should feel free to interact in a safe environment, I wonder if it is that simple though?

I have introduced Vox, and now Blogger to my students and there is a definite need for reflective and community formed blogs but as a practical trade the face to face communication skills are still and always will  be a key component.  So how we integrate blogs to fit in our current learning environment is critical to its success.  

Hansen 2007 talks about the different Kinesthetic learning types and the different subtypes.  Hansen uses an example that one learner may be helped by colours and others maybe hindered.  My class will spend seventy five percent of there time doing physical and visual activities so you would expect a high learning rate, but even with a high percentage of visual and physical doing we have found that there is still a strong need for reflection after these events have taken place.  Each learner has an individual mapping of how they learn and it is important that we allow for this.  

So this is how we are using our blogs, the students will participate in a practical event then use there blogs to record and reflect on the events using some very simple guidelines.  We do not put strict guidelines of how they should or when they should blog but simply allow them to reflect in there own time and there own space.  Admittedly there are fears around the lack of teacher controls, but the positives heavily outweigh the negatives

I look forward to sharing further developments and findings from my student blogs

references:

Adult Learning and the Emotional Self (2008). San Francisco: Bass, Jossey

http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/study-tips-for-kinesthetic-learners/

Study Tips for Kinesthetic Learnersby Hasan on July 2, 2007

Comments

[Merf]

Hey Muks,
Nice tie in with Kiesthetic LS. I often overlook how diverse our students can be in learninf styles. You are 100% on the group dynamics. My discipline has a very similar feel, wiht similar issues.
Merf