Week 1

Hi Everyone,

My name is Erin Evans and I live in Rockhampton. Last year I completed my Bachelor of Music, Jazz and Popular, Specializing on Saxophone. Music has always been a big part of my life and throughout my senior schooling i realised that I wanted to teach music and encourage them to express themselves through music.

Week 1

Know Your Learner

This week we watched a webinar by Judy Willis on "How the Brain Learns Best". To be honest I had no idea about the RAS, the Reticular Activating System. It filters out all the unnecessary stimulation that is not important to the immediate situation. To get the RAS to open and let important information filter through, the content must be interesting, stimulating and there must be no stress. While there is stress it cannot open. Thinking back to Res School, I think of Ragnar Purje's "I've got the power" lecture. Once students realise that they are responsible for their thinking and learning it is more likely that they will be more engaged in the class (permitting that it is still engaging). 

Allowing a short SYN-NAPS to refocus the class would be a great thing to do or consider doing. This time can also be used to get feedback on how everyone is coping with the new information. A simple thumbs up, thumbs down can be an easy way to find out how they are doing. As the teacher, you should already have an understanding of how some of the students learn and whether they would be able to understand fully what was taught or whether they are the students that need more information to grasp the concept or if they need to go away and look over it by themselves.

I think that using ICTs in classrooms can help to decrease stress as they can take things at their own pace. Such as videos, interactive powerpoints or group web activities. Online learning will allow students to repeatedly go over topics until they are confident with the subject. This is an advantage in relation to traditional classroom methods as they only get to go over the topic once in the classroom situation. Using interactive ICTs tools will make the student's learning more engaging.

Learning Theory

Behaviourism -This reminds me of my music studies... Practice, Practice, Practice. This repetitive learning theory I can agree with using in music classes with things like how to hold instruments and how to sit while holding instruments. With positive reinforcements when technique is correct, over time these techniques will become ingrained in the muscle memory.

Cognitivism - If the information is not applied immediately, the information is lost. Having activities that can immediately apply the information will be the best way to make sure the information is absorbed and not discarded. 

Social Constructivism - "learning is scaffolded by more knowledgeable others". This theory is a collaboration of ideas, with the students being "supported" by the teacher. They are to use the scaffolding given to them by the teacher to then learn and gradually climb their way up to their new found knowledge.

Connectivism - The use of technology to further research topics, to link real life situations with in class curriculum to get a better understanding of the subject. The use if ICTs in classrooms will make this easy for students to research outside of class resources.

As I look at all of the Learning theories, I can see that they all have their strengths and weaknesses however I don't think that there is one definitive Learning Theory as I believe that a mixture of each theory would be more beneficial for learning.