- Experiential Learning
- Interdisciplinary Learning
- Service Based Learning
- Place Based Learning
- Networked Learning
- Project Based Learning
- Community of Practise Learning
I have chosen to explore: Experiential Learning and Networked Learning, given my post-secondary focus:
Experiential
Learning Mind Map Connections
While colleges teach career skills and interdisciplinary
content, the growing consumer expectation is that they will also provide
opportunities for students to mature and transition to new life roles. By working with business and community
partners as mentors, the students engage in a journey that connects the dots of
theoretical learning to the real world.
In venturing outside the classroom, students are challenged to go beyond
their comfort-zones, and when they do, social learning, personal
accountability, values clarification and emotional investment in learning
follows (Schwartz, 2).
This experience can be highly valuable but it is
ill-structured and can be, as Schwartz put it, chaotic and confusing to the
learner (7). In order to solidify
learning, Schwartz points to “patterns of inquiry” that are highly effective
because “thinking occurs not only after an experience but also throughout the
entire experience”, including real-world problem solving, relationship
building, making personal relevance and connections (6).
During this reading, I gained a more full appreciation for
the importance of student reflection in the experiential learning process. The role of the teacher shifts to provide the
structure, focus and questioning that leads the student to incorporate the
learning and “make sense of his or her experience” (Schwartz, 7). Thoughtful
reflection, throughout the process, can make experiential learning meaningful
and aid in student transition into the real world. The learning between the community and self,
facilitated through thoughtful reflection, makes experiential learning relevant
to the lives of students and provides learning connections that can help in
future career transition.
Networked
Learning Mind Map Connections
Networked learning also redefines the role of the teacher as,
“no longer valuing only the traditional roles of the “expert” teacher” and more
toward an instructor model that is supervisory, process-oriented and socially
mediating (Hodgson, McConnell, Dirckinck-Holfeld, 296). This expanded teacher role is designed to
uphold the beliefs and values of networked learning “to educate them for an
unpredictable future, to support their understanding of emerging learning
paradigm and to scaffold their process of becoming self-initiated and critical
life long learners” (Hodgson, McConnell, Dirckinck-Holfeld, 298).
The orientation to the community is another connection to my
initial mind-map. Hodgson McConnell,
Dirckinck-Holfeld emphasize the “openness” of networked learning as a “mirror (of)
the openness of the learning process itself” (298). The underpinning of openness influences both
the learning and assessment processes. Here, there is a “high value on the
development of skill in judging one’s own learning and that of others” as well
as a collaborative approach to assessment (Hodgson McConnell,
Dirckinck-Holfeld, 299). This leads to
less “instrumentation and more participation” in the assessment of learning and
takes students from “passive to active participants in learning” (Hodgson
McConnell, Dirckinck-Holfeld 298). In
doing so, students gain an important learning connection- that they are
positioned as “producers, rather than consumers of knowledge” (Hodgson
McConnell, Dirckinck-Holfeld 299).
Networked learning goes far beyond the technology used to facilitate it,
it creates an efficient and socially connected learning opportunity, as well as
increased access to all who chose to participate.
Resources:
Hodgson, V., McConnell, D. & Dirckinck-Holmfeld. (n.d.).
Exploring the Theory, Pedagogy and Practice.
Lancaster University. Lancaster,
uk.
Retrieved
from: DOI
10.1007/978-1-4614-0496-5_17.
Schwartz, M.
(n.d.). Best Practices in
Experiential Learning. The Learning and
Teaching Office. Retrieved from: https://onq.queensu.ca/content/enforced/172958-PME832/2.%20Experiential%20Learning%20Report%20Ryerson.pdf?ou=172958
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