Class Reflection

It's sad when you can't recall what you did two days ago.  I'll blame it on the bug I seem to be fighting.  Yeah, that's it.

Okay, so we started with a review of what we did the previous class.  What did we learn from that session?  What did we learn from having to defend a point of view about a learning theory.  Did this activity impact our understanding of learning theory?  This was an open class discussion. 

Next she had us continue the exam.  There were four questions.  The first was more of an activity.  She had us describe the elephant drawing exercise that we did during the first class using one learning theory.  Although multiple people were assigned to a theory, we wrote our answers individually.  Then in open class discussion, each group took turns discussing how they viewed the elephant drawing exercise from their learning theory.  We took turns describing and then adding/building to other members descriptions.  After all groups went, we discussed the exercise as a class.

At some point we were asked what our definition of learning was.  We discussed what the major/key attributes for the concept of learning were -- that it's a relatively permanent change in the learner, that is a result of experience.   

Then we continued with the remaining questions on the exam.  I don't recall the questions exactly, but the result was a synthesis of learning theory, instructional theory and instructional design.  This lead us to discuss  the role of instructional design, and why learning theory was important.  While I'm not a fan of tests, this one was okay, especially day 2.  The frustrating part is that each time I think I understand this stuff, the exams/activities point out that I don't quite get it.  I understand a lot, but not as much as I would like.  I understand that more reading is required to fully understand this stuff.  I want to know it all now.

Next everyone shared their cover pages.  Saw some great stuff, but nothing that I wanted to include in mine.  My only pet peeve is people who use powerpoint and fail to make their slides readable at a distance.  If I can't see the words, then why use them?  when I can't read the words, I get distracted.  So make them readable or omit them.

Gotta go nap.