Learning in a Digital Age

Learning is a life-long event that is the central focus to all our accomplishments.  Learning occurs across the spectrum of favorable circumstances and negative ones.  It is not only about what happens in school.  We learn every day of our lives and can benefit from having some level of control over our learning.  I have sat in classrooms as a student, learned while teaching, participated in book studies, completed online classes, and struggled through hands on experiments.  All of these produced learning, although some were more effective than others.  Critical elements include focus, willingness, and, in some regards, aptitude.  I can zone out during a training session and learn something, just not the topic of the training!  I can enter into a book study grudgingly, and learn very little about the book.  I can sit in a science class, and due to my lack of schema, struggle to master the troublesome material.  The nonnegotiable elements in teaching are garnering the attention of the students, demonstrate the relevance of the material, and scaffold the learning to avoid student frustration.  Many adult learners have the ability to manage their own learning by establishing focus and willingness on their own.  They will study supplemental material or find a tutor to master material above their learning level.  That responsibility transfers to the teacher for our younger learners, however.  Part of the learning process for them is to develop those self-management skills.

The concepts of focus, willingness, and aptitude tie in with key learning theories.  John Keller’s ARCS model addresses the elements of attention and relevance.  A student can apply a level of focus if the teacher captures their attention on the material.  Sometimes the student shows interest in spite of the teacher due to an innate interest in the subject.  The role of the teacher is to capture their interest if it is not naturally occurring.  Willingness relates to relevance.  When a student identifies the value in the learning, they are willing to give the lesson their full attention.  The aptitude of every student varies across all subjects.  In a single classroom, a teacher encounters students with various aptitude levels.  Lev Vygotsky’s proposed the concept of scaffolding to address these differing levels.  His learning theory suggests that each learner has a zone of proximal development.  If the material is above the learner’s ability level, he or she will struggle to mastery.  Some students will shut down and cease to learn entirely.  This is also true at the other end of the spectrum.  If the material is substantially below the student’s learning level, he or she might sleep through class!  It is quite a balancing act to meet the learning needs of students across such a wide spectrum. 

Further information:

ARCS model:

http://www.arcsmodel.com/ 

Vygotsky:

http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html