WEEK 9 Reflections

The time is almost over...



Time has incredibly passed and I cannot believe that I am about to reflect on the 9th week.

This week hasn't been so busy and there was only one topic to discuss about and it is a very serious topic that every teacher must be familiar with; learning styles and technology support to address to them. I read the articles and anectodes on different learning styles and technology and shared my opinion on the issue on nicenet. It was great to read my c lassmates' opinions on the topic.
This week included the last step of our project plan. We attached the final report on the wiki. Thanks to my partner Nasim, I guess I've completed my project plan report successfully and I hope I will get a good evaluation.




I learned that technology is indispensible in every part of education and we can make use of it to address to different styles in class. We can use basic software programs that offer encyclopedic collections, drills, or demonstrations, presentation software, like PowerPoint, Electronic mail, data-base programs, electronic communication, productivity softwares to handle different learning styles.




I have always taken MI and learning styles into consideration; however, I have been neglecting it for some time, as well. That's why I will explore the web to find out the necessarry tools again to make use of learning styles.

I cannot believe that we are moving towards the last week. It has been great and I will miss everyone a lot.


 

week 9: Yoohoo!! I am Word Smart and People Smart!!

The week started with a very hot topic---Learning Styles! Our students, though they may look or behave similar, but they are all different from each other.They all have their own distinctive learning styles. Thanks to latest researches and trends, gone are the days when teachers taught them all in one and the same traditional dictatorial method.

Here are some of  the learning styles given by Howard Gardener:

- Linguistic / Auditory - Word-smart
- Logical-mathematical - Math-smart
- Musical - Music-smart
- Kinesthetic - Bodily-smart
- Visual / Spatial - Picture-smart
- Interpersonal - Myself-smart
- Intrapersonal - People-smart
- Naturalist - Nature-smart
- Spiritual
- Essential
- Moral

I would say, if the teacher is not able to adapt according to the needs of students s/he is not a good teacher. Best is to determine right at the beginning what are the learning styles of the students.
I can offer these sites: 
http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html 
http://www.wright.edu/~carole.endres/learnstyles.htm
To these two, I would add one more test site: 
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/questions.cfm


 These URLs contain survey/test for determining the learning styles of the students. They can be very helpful for the teachers as well as for the students.


When I took a test to check my learning style I came somewhere between Linguistic, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal.
 I remember when I was at school I was not quite good in Maths and never liked Chemistry. In the music class I was the best pupil! But when I started university I selected subjects like Psychology and English Literature and they were really my domain and I used to score highest  in all the subjects in class.Now I know why some students are tagged as "poor in studies" and some as "good in studies" by the teachers.

Teachers can make use of technology to combat with the different learning styles in the classroom: Interactive PPT, Webquests, Anvill, Blogs, PBL, Audio/video, Discussion Boards, quizzes/puzzles, images etc.

Finally, this week we have submitted our final project plan. Now I am sitting with my fingers crossed to see how much I score there!
Thanks to our facilitator and course- mates!