Post on 02-Feb-2023
transcript
Hi dear All,
My name is Yeison Duque,
and in the pages coming on, I will let you know my insights and experiences about autonomous learning, computer assisted learning and rationale about the topic. Hope you find it interesting.
a. My conception about learning: Why is it important in my life?
Learning is a key factor that enables
me to improve my personal skills. It is not
only about getting new information but it
also implies to daily improve what I have
already learned. As it is a nonstop process,
I have to be open-minded to accept,
transform and even change my schemata.
Learning is discovering, it is doing, it is
making mistakes and learning out of such
mistakes, it is giving yourself the
opportunity to know and live the world.
Learning is life. As a teacher I have the
marvelous opportunity to follow and live
an everyday learning process which, as I
previously said, it is a nonstop one.
Discussing Topics: 1. conception about learning, 2. strengths and weaknesses, 3. resourcefulness to find
information and use it in a learning context, 4. intrinsic motivation in learning and doing, 5. planning skills, 6. management
of stress and relaxation and tolerance to error-making, 7. competences to troubleshoot situations, 8. competences to work
with others, 9. beliefs in success, 10. beliefs regarding goal-setting theory, 11. beliefs regarding the use of technology to
develop autonomy, and 12. competences to troubleshoot technology issues
6. My strengths
and weaknesses
(as to personal,
professional and
academic
domains).
I am self-confident,
committed and stubborn.
I like to struggle to achieve goals, I am over
perfectionist and quite strict with myself and
others. I do like to go deeper on the aspects I
encounter valuable. I am quite active and
participative, I am a good listener and I possess
certain leadership abilities as well. Finally I like to
innovate, I like to be different and I am a quite
generous and sensitive person which let me
appreciate things from different perspectives. All
this characteristics very help me to be nice and
good teacher.
Concerning to my weaknesses I have to say that
I am a bit flexible with the people around me,
specially my students, which sometimes is not
good. As aforementioned, I am over strict, which
occasionally results in stress and fatigue, because
it is all about order, overelaboration, and
perfectionism. I do not like to be in the backstage
and when I cannot lead things I feel frustrated and
overwhelmed.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi
1. My conception about
learning: Why is it important
in my life?
Learning is a key factor that enables
me to improve my personal skills. It is
not only about getting new information
but it also implies to daily improve what
I have already learned. As it is a nonstop
process, I have to be open-minded to
accept, transform and even change my
schemata.
Learning is discovering, it is doing, it is making
mistakes and learning out of such mistakes, it is giving
yourself the opportunity to know and live the world.
Learning is life. As a teacher I have the marvelous
opportunity to follow and live an everyday learning
process which, as I previously said, it is a nonstop one.
7. My resourcefulness to
find information and
use it in a learning
context.
As far as information obtaining concern, I
have to say that I very much take
advantage of the Internet, where I
primarily search for the information I
need. I like to check different web pages in
order to contrast the information in
terms of reliability and validity. I do like to
integrate new things into my daily process
in that I can really learn and integrate
something into my knowledge. I do also
consider that internet has most of the
information one might need. It is sad to
say, but libraries as centers for accessing
first-hand information are quite behind
internet. Nowadays, you can do
everything at a click. I also like to read
electronic books, newspapers and
watching videos, documentaries, and
movies which teach you interesting things,
as far I find it interesting and useful.
8. My intrinsic motivation in learning and
doing.
Definitely, they are my inner eagerness to excel,
upgrade and overcome knowledge boundaries.
I quite feel proud of mental and physical skills, and I thank
God about it. I like to show myself I am able to; I very much
like to challenge myself. I am that kind of persons who like to
try, even if I am not the best as, the most important is not to
be a winner or number one person, the most important to
me is accomplishment. The satisfaction goes along with
enjoying what you do, the satisfaction of realization. Those
are my intrinsic motivational factors.
9. My planning skills (time-management, prioritization,
short and long term management skills, etc.).
10. .
Time management is not my strongest skill. Pitifully, I feel that I better perform under pressure,
although I know procrastination is not a good ally, I sometimes over waste time on things which
are not important and I prioritize “important things”; sadly, they become important when they
are about the deadline time. It is something I am to work hard to change, good thing it that I
already know I have to.
6. My management of stress and relaxation
when learning and doing things. My
tolerance to error-making.
As aforementioned, I encounter pressure as a trigger factor; nonetheless, I
well know I am highly prone to error-making, which is something I try to
avoid. Although I think that error-making is another way to learn. Even
what you do “perfect , it is not that “perfect” any longer when you
stop to check it out for a second, third, etc. time. About stress, I have
to say that I do not feel it, as I do not like to use such word which I see it as a
cliché and even more as an excuse that “allows” people to show their
negative aspects, rudeness, impoliteness, and other negative features, under
the state of stress which is a term to overgeneralize incapacities, and lack of
self-control. I am quite tolerant and open to the work overload as I see them
as a challenge to upgrade myself.
7. My competences to troubleshoot situations.
As considering myself a team-worker and practical person, reason why I ever face a problem; I try to look for solutions, instead of just discussing, regretting and even finding causes of the problem. I have
always considered problems are a fascinating momentum to show your
abilities and skills to encounter practical and easy-to-develop solutions.
It is key to analyze causes and effects of problems, but once they have been solved.
9. My competences to work with
others: productivity and leadership. As previously mentioned I like team-work and
consider myself a team-worker as well. I do not
like to assume a leadership position; nonetheless, I do not
like to be the one who just follows instructions. I do
understand that team-work implies the accomplishment
and fulfillment of goals which will benefit the whole team.
Therefore, stablishing tasks, following instructions,
dialogue, cooperation and responsibility are to be the
openness of this kind of work.
8. My beliefs in success
(Self-efficacy). In my opinion, success implies to be goal-oriented;
to believe and know yourself, it is not a matter of luck, it is
a constant persecution trusting one’s abilities and capabilities. It is all about self-efficacy competences and characteristics (Bandura, 1994). On this ground, and as I have mentioned before, I like to success, and according to my metacognitive strategies,
I well know when I can or not success on something, by taking into account my skills,
knowledge and capabilities.
10. My beliefs regarding goal-setting theory.
I do like to follow and
apply it, as the
S.M.A.R.T. person I
am. Specific, measurable
achievable, realistic and
time-targeted are to be
the goals, taking into
account my individual
and own motivations,
as well as the goal oriented team work position I have
mentioned before, I possess.
11. My beliefs regarding the use of technology to develop autonomy. I definitely love technology, and for me
technology is an autonomy synonym, although I am not
an expert, I love exploring and learning to use it equally to
integrate it into my daily life activities. I consider learning
nowadays is easier, more practical, meaningful and
enjoyable thanks to technology. Technology not only
connects the world but let you know, explore and live it
without leaving your house. The more you use
technology, the more autonomous you are.
12. My competencies to troubleshoot technology issues. I try to see such problems as an opportunity to scrutinize the net in order to come up a with a solution, not all people do it, on the contrary the tendency
is to look for help without even try to solve the problem. Once I have really hard tried to solve it by myself, and if it has not been possible for me to solve it, then I look for someone who can guide and teach me. Finally if the problem is way to difficult then I go with an expert and pay. But that normally does not
happen. I am way to curious about hardware and software matters.
I always try to be
quite an explorer,
technology is not to
dominate us, even
less to overwhelm
us. Technology is
there to be
empirically learnt. In
nowadays society
you are to be up-to-
date with technology
literacies.
Rationale
Firstly, learning nowadays has tremendously
change in comparison to the way it used to be, even
form me at my initial stages, as not having access to
the Internet or even less to a computer. I had to
struggle to learn thing by myself by visiting libraries,
taking notes, making photocopies, and typing on my
old Remington typewriter machine.
Bandura (1979) describes learning as process
which entails different behaviors, as they are:
acquiring that implies to be quite immerse in a
specific process, modifying aspects of the way one
may access to new information; skills development
through constant exposure to any learning process,
beliefs as it is necessary to modify previous concepts
by being open-minded to new ones; attitudes that
are to be positive, practical and collaborative as
knowledge is re-constructed, post-modified through
community practices and such attitudes go hand in
hand with behavior modifications which are the
result of exposure to constant practice (Schunk,
1996) and it ends modifying completely the way we
behave under certain learning process and
circumstances.
Secondly, Self-directed learning in our context
today is a key concept where we teachers and
institutions are quite interested in promoting as it
deals with new forms of accessing, acquiring and
learning and evaluating information which our
learners are to have access to, in essence it goes with
Hiemstra’s (1994) concept where the learner is to
take responsibility of his/her proper learning process
by monitoring all its stages. It is also a collaborative
learning process where students share their insights,
thought and beliefs about information.
This self-directed learning has been
reinforced with the the technology upgrading
process where online learning¸ blending learning
and assisted learning have molded the new forms
of teaching and learning where the boundaries of
the classroom have be overpassed, this new
learning styles and environments are to be an
extension of the classroom. Researcher interested
Higher education have been leading and going
deeper in the research study of this complementary
issue of self-directed learning (Hill, Wiley, Nelson, &
Han, 2003).
Thirdly, and as previously mentioned, self-
directed learning has been widely studied and many
concepts elaborated. Harrison, (1978) presents it as
process of organizing the instruction, it is propelling
for autonomy over formal instructions, along with
this, a personal attribute which results from the
learner’s own and inner motivations and interests
(Guglielmino, 1977; Kasworm, 1988); Candy, (1991)
explores and conceives the goal of education as to
promote autonomy, moral, emotional, and
intellectual conceptions to understand and carry out
self-directed learning; Brockett & Hiemstra (1991)
highlight personal attributes and/or goal, learner`s
control over the process and information as well as
the role of institutions and polices that govern the
learning environment as the characteristics of self-
directed learning; latter, Garrison (1997) only
considers self-management through the use of
resources which promote and strength motivation
trough a self-monitoring process that results in a
self-directed learning environment.
Tthirdly, and derived from the new learning perspectives, we have learning styles which have become a
reality, where we teachers are to propel for identifying, promoting and exploding them in our students. Learning
styles are the result and become characteristics associated with the influence of the environment where learners are
immerse in, since depending on such environment a learner modifies their affective, physiological and cognitive
behaviors (Keefe, 1979). It is quite evident that intrinsic motivation and the environment exposure will characterize
the type learner we will see in our society. Similarly, learning styles are linked to the way a person attacks and
undertake his/her own learning process.
Finally and stablishing a connection with my own learning context at the institution I am working at, a public
school, this self-directed learning sadly does not go beyond the mere fact of assigning homework and the intention of
implementing mini-projects where students are semi-responsible of their own learning processes. I personally have
made an attempt to undertake self-directed learning hand in hand with the promotion of web pages like Edmodo
where students are to complement and develop activities aimed at promoting responsibility, cooperation and
autonomy as the initial stage of my research proposal. All this matter about self-directed learning are to be
institutional, and many teachers are not familiar with these matters. Classes are over-teacher centered and do not
allow students to rediscover their own learning styles and there are many reason for not implementing and
developing these issues, but the true and out of my experience, it is more about the fact that we are immerse in a
society where self-directed learning is not still our identity, they are foreign matters for even teachers despite the fact
that is a very old topic. Consequently, it is our greatest achievement, to become our students familiar with all the
advantages of self-directed learning, learning strategies and similar topics which will allow our students to become
active agents in the teaching-learning process.
References
Bandura, A. (1979). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs., NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-direction in adult
learning: Perspectives on theory, research, and practice.
New York: Routledge.
Candy, P. C. (1991). Self-direction for lifelong learning: A
comprehensive guide to theory and practice. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Guglielmino, L. M. (1977). Development of the self-directed
learning readiness scale. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Georgia, Athens. Retrieved from:
http://aeq.sagepub.com/content/41/2/92
Garrison, D. R. (1997). Self-directed learning: Toward a
comprehensive model. Adult Education Quarterly, 48(1), 18-
33.
Harrison, R. (1978). How to design and conduct self-directed
learning experiences. Group and organization studies, 3(2), 149-
167.
Hill, J. R., Wiley, D., Nelson, L. M., & Han, S. (2003). Handbook of
research for educational communications and technology (pp. 433-
460). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hiemstra, R. (1994). Self-directed leaning. In T. Husen & T. N.
Postlethwalte (Eds.). the international encyclopedia of education
(second edition), oxford: Pergamon Press. Reprinted here by
permission.
Kasworm, C. E. (1988). Part-time credit learners as full-time
workers: The role of self-directed learning in their lives. Paper
presented at the Annual conference of the American Association
for Adult and Continuing Education, Tulsa, OK.
Keefe, J. W. (1979). Learning style: An overview. Students learning
styles: Diagnosing and prescribing programs, 1 – 17.
Schunk, D. H. (1996). Learning theories principles. Hall Inc., New
Jersey.
DATE PURPOSE ACTION OUTCOME
August, 2014
Update, refresh and internalize information and concepts related to Self-directed learning, learning strategies, e-learning, blending learning, language assisted learning.
To go deeper on the theory, postulates and framework related to the previously mentioned topics
I will be in the capacity to understand and direct my interest. I will start a process of creating my own concepts and ideas in relation to these matters.
September, 2014
To continue reading and exploring the latest information related to Self-directed learning, learning strategies, e-learning, blending learning, language assisted learning.
To explore web pages, blogs, and platforms with promote the previous topics. I will continue going deeper with my web page and Edmodo platform where my students are exposed to autonomous learning.
I will star putting theory into practice. My students will be familiar with strategies they can apply into their own learning processes.
October, 2014 Updating my web pages and educational platforms
To initiate the implement and link the syllabus of my school, MCER and curricula guidelines by the educational Ministry into my web pages and class plans for the 2015 academic year.
Integration of activities, projects topics, etc., into a full academic
2015 year plan which will maximize the use of the web 2.0 into the
development of the lessons.
November, 2014 Create a chronogram. Evaluate and re-design applications and sources.
Create a chronogram for implanting the different programmed activities for the next year as to integrate them into the implementation of the Research Proposal.
My students and institution will be highly familiarized with the project, purpose and possible outcomes. I will be more confident regarding the topics and stages of my projects, by linking university studied matters and practice at school.
December, 2014
Evaluation and re-definition of the concepts learnt during my classes and the practice at school.
I will summarize the main concepts I will have learnt. I will establish and clarify key concepts related to Self-directed learning, learning strategies, e-learning, blending learning, language assisted learning.
I will be in the capacity to deal with Self-directed learning, learning strategies, e-learning, blending learning; language assisted learning matters by even promoting them at my school to the rest of the teachers’ staff. I will be in the capacity to run a blending and/or language assisted program. I will be proud of myself about the different applications and resources I will have adapted.