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.