Personal+Learning+Theory

=** Learning Network **=

**Ideal Learning Experience **
My ideal learning experience took place during was during my graduate studies in graphic design. While developing a semester-long web design project, the professor utilized a unique combination of real-world advice, academic contribution, and technical precision together to allow each class member to determine entry abilities, and quickly upskill to meet the course and project objectives. This professor was not content with mere recitation or testing proficiency; rather, the class revolved around the proper information schema development, in tandem with the implementation of that schema in a real world scenario. For instance, we got a one day crash course in the field of information architecture (IA) (a very complicated field, indeed), including reading multiple websites, articles, and other resources. Incidental to this discussion of information design, we were required to develop a complete site structure and information strategy for a large, content-driven site, while experimenting through the lense of the IA field.

Within the field of multimedia, similar examples abound. When technical issues popped up (as they often do during site development), the professor was present to direct us toward resources, asking leading questions, and provoking us to understand our needs and path to completion better. The teacher was not the dominant figure of this learning encounter; instead, the resource **became** the learning methodology. The teacher was only the guide, whereas active learning was perpetuated through the initiative propagated by the professor. The primary thing I learned through this experience was the true, independent power of learning, and the ability to learn. The focus was not on learning particular buzzwords or conceptual frameworks, per se, but rather the application, implementation, and **understanding** of these concepts in their functional role. Technology was important in developing a structured framework of knowledge, that could be quickly adapted to similar scenarios, or cross-referenced in further research. Particularly within IA, technology also helped to visualize the constant shifting of information frameworks as the user interacts and changes in relation to the data set.

**Personal Learning Theory **
My learning theory is based on the power of learning to learn, and what motivates this behavior in the most effective and efficient way. My approach is largely constructivist, as it relies on the powerful interaction of new knowledge to compatible, linkable, previously acquired knowledge. Scaffolding is one of the most powerful learning tool, as it contextualizes the content **through** the learning process, instead of as an ongoing process. This feature of learning is especially crucial when dealing with multidisciplinary problems. As an art director in a learning consultancy, I often need to learn through a visual communication lense, learning theory lense, interactive lense, and discipline specific (SME) lense simultaneously to provide the correct level of content/interaction integration. The cognitivist approach allows these varied bases of knowledge to interact with ease, sharing information from one subset into a scaffold to build new knowledge. This type of knowledge is highly adaptable, and is characterized by quick adaptation of new knowledge, and the love of the process of learning.

Effective instruction within this framework essentially involves teaching that "knows when to get out of the way." The constructivist learning process takes place most easily when initial information and resources are provided, and discovery is encouraged to contextualize that information. Lecture, facilitator led, and highly behaviorist methodologies are generally ill-suited for this learning type, as it does not provide enough individual customization (the cognitivist aspect) to each learner, or the flexibility to build on each learner's unique scaffolding background (the constructivist aspect). Technology-oriented, independent projects are ideal for this learning methodology, as it allows time to think, research, find more information where appropriate, and construct the information in a learner-centric output or deliverable.

**Teaching and Training **
Teaching and training are not synonymous, as each term reflects a particular theoretical positioning on the process and desired outcome of learning. Teaching implies the emparting of conceptual order or thought, while training denotes the conditioning of a learner to produce a desired outcome. While the former learning verb describes a sustainable, lifelong process, springboarded by the **understanding** of the content, rather than the mere mechanics, the latter is an end unto itself, resulting in the achievement of a specific result in a specific context. This conditioning is generally not easily transferrable, and gives little credence to the structuring of further knowledge upon the "training" framework.