Learning Styles - What's Yours?

When we as educators think of learning styles we think of the three major styles: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic. These major three can be broken down into smaller subsets or combined into several variations or we can add additional learning components, but in the end these three labels can tell us a lot about a learner.

After taking several learning style quizzes/tests over the years I know that I score most strongly in the Visual category but I also tend to score high in the Kinesthetic category. My theory on this is the fact that I am a science person - while I need to see things in order to understand I also need to be tactile in my learning. When I look at Gardners Multiple Intelligences, I score highest in Visual/Spatial and Logical/Mathematical areas. Both of these areas explain my love for science.

As I reflect on my own learning styles I realize why I was so uninterested in many of my college courses as an undergrad. Sitting in a lecture hall for hours on end listening to a speaker does nothing for my learning styles. I think back to my US History through the Civil War class. I enjoyed the class, our prof was very knowledgeable and energetic, but I really only remember two things from that class. Whalebones were used in colonial corsets and Andrew Jackson was tall. Looking back at these facts I want to yell about how much that class cost me, but I know why I learned "nothing" in that class - our instructor simply lectured from the first second of class to the last. Many times as a class we would get caught up in the stories our prof told us, but if I didn't write down detailed notes, make charts or draw pictures everything was out of my mind as soon as I walked out the door. I remember the whalebones tidbit because on the day of our lowest attendance we were told that would be the extra credit answer on the next test and I wrote it down in my notes, circled it, highlighted it and drew little pictures around it. Andrew Jackson stands out because our prof was kind of short and during one story he jumped up on the table in the front of the lecture hall every time he was speaking as the former President. Because I saw the action and associated it with Jackson I remember that lecture very vividly - but can't tell you one thing the prof said! Even in my science courses, I struggled to get through lectures (which didn't include visual aids) but excelled in the lab. I could finally see what was talked about the week before and understand its importance. Thankfully I was motivated enough to read the textbook on my own and take detailed notes for most classes, but I can still think back to courses that relied less on the textbook and more on the lectures and how they were much more difficult for me.

Since more of the population fall within the visual learners category (and because it is my strength), I tend to cater to those students in my classroom. Being a science class we also tend to pick up the Kinesthetic learners during labs and demos (gotta love those student helpers!). I also keep a drawer of stress balls that my true Kinesthetic learners can play around with while they work/listen (also works great for ADD and ADHD kids). Auditory learners aren't completely swept under the carpet - I do lecture for short periods during several classes a week and their online activities include the option to have the information read outloud. I guess its important to try to hit as many kids as you can and this is where UDL can help too. By varying the components of the lesson or unit teachers can be more successful in reaching all types of learning styles.

Creative Commons and Windmills

Windmill and old house in Schipluiden

(Walking in The Netherlands)

taken by waterwin



Photo can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waterwin/675038306/
Released under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

On my recent trip to The Netherlands I took a lot of pictures of Windmills in anticipation of using a couple of the photos in my Environmental Science class when we talk about Types of Energy in the Wind Power section. Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of a full windmill from the front or back! All my pictures were either very distant, from the side or close-ups of the inner workings. I would have to add a picture or two to my presentation in order to show students what the windmill structure from all angles so they get a better understanding of what one looks like and how it works. Photos are especially important since I don't have a full sized windmill in my schoolyard for the students to explore.

I added one of my own windmill pictures that I took while in Zaanse Schans The Netherlands to flickr. It can be found here and is seen below. It was licensed as an Attribution License with Creative Commons.

Hawaiian Wikis

I'll admit that I've used Wikipedia from time to time, sometimes when I'm bored its interesting to just click around to several different articles. I've even played along with a game on the radio where they tried to link two subjects in Wikipedia with the fewest clicks. I guess its the 2000's version of six degrees of separation. After this week's lesson I'm beginning to realize the potential of a wiki - and how common they really are.

We were supposed to edit something on our school's page within Wikipedia, but since I didn't have any new and official information to post there, I chose to update the wiki for our former FIRST Robotics team within the FIRST Wiki. I was the team leader through 2008 when I moved up to the planning committee for a District Event. On the wiki I updated the current status of the team since it dissolved in 2010 due to lack of mentoring support, updated the names of the mentors and added an alumni section. I also deleted a student picture that was added to the site since its presence violates part our technology policy or posting pictures of students. You can see a portion of the wiki below or link to it here.

After exploring a few wikis and learning about their usefulness I set out to create a wiki of my own. I'm not sure yet how I would use it in my classroom, but the basics are there. Actually as I sit here and type, I'm formulating a plan. Instead of using it with my students, it might actually be a great way to communicate with my department and allow us to organize our courses and unit plans that we are working on this summer. I'll have to run it past my department. Anyways, my new (and at the moment very plain) wiki can be found at here.

While I haven't edited or organized the Idea Exchange for the EduTech Certificate wiki (waiting on approval at this time), I do like how it is organized. There is a lot of information here, but it isn't overwhelming and I learned a couple of new definitions as I read through the page. What's the old saying about learning something new every day?

UDL....does it apply to me?

Sometimes it seems like everyday there are a million new educational theory ideas and it would take forever to learn how to apply them to your teaching.  More often than not, I find that I've incorporated many ideas into my teaching but need to tweak my style a little bit in order to better fit some principles.  For example, I find that many of the ideas within UDL are in visible in my lesson plan.  I need to work on making some of these strategies more transparent to my students.  I also need to work on incorporating student goals more in my classroom as a strategies.  Below are the UDL principles and how they are incorporated into my lesson plan on Organic Molecules.

UDL Guidelines – Educator Checklist Version 2
I.    Provide Multiple Means of Representation:	Your notes
1.     Provide options for perception
1.1 Offer ways of customizing the display of information	Available – seen in notes provided visually for students.
1.2 Offer alternatives for auditory information	Available – seen in online activities, written transcripts for both videos and auditory clips.
1.3 Offer alternatives for visual information	Available – students use physical and spatial models to convey perspective
2.     Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols
2.1 Clarify vocabulary and symbols	Available – Vocabulary definitions read to learner in online activities.
2.2 Clarify syntax and structure	Available – breaking down scientific words into smaller parts (ongoing activity throughout year to understand definitions of key scientific terms)
2.3 Support decoding of text, and mathematical notation, and symbols	Available – seen in online activities, written transcripts, key terms
2.4 Promote understanding across language	Barrier – translations not available
2.5 Illustrate through multiple media	Available – information presented in text and accompanying representation of that information in illustrations and diagrams
3.     Provide options for comprehension
3.1 Activate or supply background knowledge	Available – students work with prior knowledge of how elements bond in order to make more complex macromolecules
3.2 Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships	Available – investigate patterns of elements and bonding, relationships between molecules; multiple examples of structures provided.
3.3 Guide information processing, visualization, and manipulation	Available – chunking present, scaffolding up to student inquiry of enzymes
3.4 Maximize transfer and generalization	Available – supported opportunities to generalize learning to new situations (d- and l-dopa, enzyme lab)
II.   Provide Multiple Means for Action and Expression:	Your notes
4.     Provide options for physical action
4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation	Available – alternatives in requirements to interact with materials/manipulative/technologies
4.2 Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies	Barrier – alternatives not available
5.     Provide options for expression and communication
5.1 Use multiple media for communication	Available – models, text, speech, illustrations, videos all used
5.2 Use multiple tools for construction and composition	Available – Web application (animation/videos), pre-formatted graph paper and calculators
5.3 Build fluencies with graduated labels of support for practice and performance	Available – Scaffolding present through unit, differentiated feedback available for online activities/group work, multiple examples of macromolecule structure provided
6.     Provide options for executive functions
6.1 Guide appropriate goal setting	Barrier – goal setting is not an obvious part of the unit/lessons, somewhat present during enzyme lab in terms of setting up/designing portion of the lab.
6.2 Support planning and strategy development	Available – planning template present for enzyme lab (setting up an experiment), show and explain your work present in several activities.
6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources	Available – templates for data collection (enzyme lab), guides for note-taking available
6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress	Available – self-monitoring review questions, checklists and rubrics used
III.  Provide Multiple Means for Engagement:	Your notes
7.     Provide options for recruiting interest
7.1 Optimize individual choice and autonomy	Limited Availability – tools used for information gathering during labs are left to group, most other activities are very structured due to nature of activities
7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity	Available – macromolecules explained and exampled in terms of how the human body uses them, age appropriate
7.3 Minimize threats and distractions	Available – supportive classroom climate in several areas.
8.     Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives	Available – assessment discussions, prompt to restate goal, prompts for visualizing desired outcomes
8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge	Available – differentiated degree of difficulty within activities, emphasis on process and effort of some activities
8.3 Foster collaboration and community	Available – cooperative learning groups, PBIS present (school-wide initiative), expectations for group work present
8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback	Available – feedback available
9.     Provide options for self-regulation
9.1 Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation	Available – PBIS covers behavior (school-wide initiative)
9.2 Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies	Available – PBIS covers behavior (school-wide initiative)
9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection	Barrier – not obviously available to students

© CAST 2011

Uh, What's that in English?

Finding out the hard way that its not easy to log into Google applications while out of the country.  If you click enough blue links though you finally find a way around things : )  Hopefully I didn't do something bad while on my search for a way into my blog.  Guess I'll find out tomorrow if my name appears on the news for illegal wire transfers or something....

RSS Believer????

My RSS Feed

So if you asked me a couple of weeks ago I would have told you that following RSS feeds is a waste of time.  Why not just go to the websites you find interesting and look specifically for what you need.  Well, I admit it, I was wrong - take note of this I don't admit that often : )

I'm actually having fun checking in everyday to see what new information has popped up.  I've been using both iGoogle  and NetVibes to compare them in order to figure out what works best for me.  A couple of times I've gone to google something of importance only to be distracted by an article or post that has caught my eye - not sure if this is a good thing yet.  That was how I found a blog discussion on how to educate students about engineering and how we can improve STEM education to give students a true understanding of what the field involves.  Its been interesting to see how people from all over address this issue.  I'm interested to see if my department can try some of these tactics this fall.

I've also found several interesting articles on Forensic Science (which I will be teaching for the first time this fall) and DNA and even one on the evolution of potatoes!  I've pulled a couple of journal articles to use with my students for when we discuss authentic sources for writing papers and I've added a couple of new ideas for activities.  NetVibes seems to be easier to share with others and I like the format a bit better than igoogle.  NetVibes made it very easy to add my Twitter feed and Delicious links which makes it more useful than iGoogle.

One Blog that I followed prior to starting any classes at MSU was Bill's Blog - Bill is the director of FIRST and I would have to check his blog daily to see if there was anything new.  After adding his blog to my RSS feed I see if there is a new post on a daily basis without having to check multiple locations.  Nice time saver!

In the past I've been passive when it comes to Blogs. I didn't have a Blog before this summer and when I looked at someone else's Blog, I just read it and moved on. I officially made my first comment to a Blog this summer - I found an interesting opinion on teaching technology and how to encourage students to become engineers. The author wasn't providing a lot of answers, rather she was asking how educators could encourage students, especially female students, to explore engineering. My response centered around the fact that many of our students just don't know what an engineer is or what they do. I suggested several things which may help students to overcome this hurdle. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much other discussion associated with this post, but it did get my creative juices flowing for some of our classes.

For now, my RSS page will probably be used for personal use keeping me up to date on new topics in Science.  I can definitely see sharing it with my department in order to share resources - another good application for Delicious also.   I'd like to see how practical it is to use the RSS feed to help students find research, but that's something that will have to wait until school starts!

Maintaining and Securing your Computer

One of our assignments in class was to select three videos on PC Maintenance and Security and share a little about what we learned.  Here we go....

1.  Understanding how malware spreads.
The entire video was one big lesson.  You think of your security software as taking care of everything for you without having to think about it - that's why its there...right?  But think about when you installed your security software.  Now think about the last time you updated it.  Were you like me?  You just hit the ignore or not at this time button?  You're too busy to take the time to allow something to download and install and then your computer has to restart?

Now take into consideration that viruses can be attached to free software you download, e-mails you receive, files you share, or even through instant messages you receive.  Maybe that security update wouldn't be a bad thing....

2.  Explaining what firewalls do and don't do.
Every time I read the word firewall I think of a brick wall literally being on fire.  Well, thats not quite what a firewall is.  There are two types of firewalls, your hardware firewall and your software firewall.  Hardware firewalls do not stop things from entering your computer but can block your computer from being visible on the internet (thanks to my hubby for explaining that one in more detail).  Software firewalls are your 2nd line of defense and those constant little warnings that pop up are evidence of it working!

3.  Demonstrating Spybot's Tea Timer (I totally picked this one because title sounded a little off)
Spybot Search and Destroy sounds kind of neat (not sure if it is Mac compatible - have to do a little more digging).  Spybot is an IDS - intrusion detection software.  I like that it allows you to block certain "bad pages" as they call them in Internet Explorer.  Again, being a Mac person, not sure how useful this is to me, but worth seeing what comparable programs are out there.  I'm sure the old adage of "I'm safer because I use a Mac" is quickly going out of date if it isn't already!

GTD - I hardly have time to tie my shoes!

As a busy ____ (fill in the blank with whatever hat you are currently wearing) how do you get everything done that is currently on your plate?  The ideas of GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen is a way to focus on priorities and organizing what you need to do in terms of the levels of when things need to get done.

After looking at the stages of GTD I realized that I have been doing many of these steps over the years, but maybe not in this specific order or sometimes leaving out a stage.  I currently am a pencil/paper person who is moving into using my Google Calendar.  I prefer the paper/pencil form of organization because I often don't have access to my Google calendar during work meetings (which is when I double check and/or add a lot to my organization).  Luckily I've always been a bit OCD with my organization so most of the steps of GTD come easily to me and I've been doing them for years.  Once I sat down and looked at my process and compared it to the flow of GTD it was just a matter of putting in a little more reflection into my organization process.  I think this reflection helped me see what I could add to my organization process for getting things done and come to an understanding of why I did the process in my particular order.

After this introduction and taking my GTDiq to find out that I am a Captain and Commander/Autocrat I now know that I have to work on the following:

"The challenge that you face is more about fine-tuning the practices that you already (at least to some degree) have in place. Your improvement opportunity is to pay attention to the more subtle aspects of your work and life. Once you pay attention to what has your attention, you'll discover what really has your attention. As long as there is anything pulling or pushing on your consciousness—no matter how subtle—there will be an opportunity to practice and refine your facility with perspective and control. Are there things you should be doing to stretch "out of the box?" Are there things you ought to be learning, to keep yourself fresh and on your game?"


I look forward to working on tweeking my process to make myself more productive in all aspects of my life : )

Social Networks

Have you ever had that feeling at the pit of your stomach that you're forgetting to do something?  I often have this feeling when packing for a trip - I always forget something important.  It never fails, even if I create the most detailed list, I always forget something : )

In the age of social networking I often feel this way, but its getting better.  There are so many things to check on a daily basis - your Facebook page, your twitter feeds, blogs you subscribe to, news websites you enjoy, personal e-mail, work e-mail and much more!  If you let it, your personal network can overtake your life and actually make it harder to get work done.  It is important to simplify your network to the point that it doesn't overtake your responsibilities.  Make sure your social networking makes it easier for you to work and communicate.

Once you have learned how to manage your social networking, it can become a valuable piece of your teaching toolbox.  Your social network can be designed to bring information that can be valuable to you and your classroom right to you.  No longer do we have to spend hours searching for information or answers - by sending out a question in the form a tweet we could get answers from all corners of the globe.  Students who are a part of your social network have easy access to their teacher for questions, feedback or just gaining information.  (Of course there are different boundaries between you and students than you and friends - don't get them confused with each other!)

Social networking can also provide an escape from your professional life.  Connecting with friends and family can keep you grounded and prevent what I call internet tunnel vision.  Often as teachers we become so focused on searching for information that we loose sight of the bigger picture.  We can also get a different perspective of people who we connect with on a personal level versus a professional level.  Personal connections sometimes allow us to let some of our guard down and let more of our personality shine through.

Don't look at networking as a chore and remember that networking should make your life less complicated and more connected!