Assignment 2: Analysis of digital technologies

In a day not too long gone, e-learning did not exist and scaffolding was limited to the confines of the classroom chalkboard, textbook and on the odd occasion – a loosely connected movie when the teacher wanted some quiet time in the classroom for an hour.

In this new era of learning however, teachers are presented with an armoury of ICT weapons for facilitating exciting and captivating learning experiences and stimulating higher order thinking.

In Assignment One we explored the concepts of learning theories and how these theories can be applied to effective e-learning design through the use of appropriate scaffolding.

This paper will investigate how the strategic use of ICT’s with a detailed understanding of learning theories, can be used to support higher order thinking.

Over the previous few weeks we have critically analysed a variety of these teaching technologies by assessing the positive and negative implications of their use. Through this critical exploration, the overall effectiveness of e-learning tools was discussed by contrasting their effectiveness with their legal, safe and ethical use.

In week 3 we began by investigating “online spaces”; and how blogs, wiki’s and websites can be utilised to facilitate learning. In my critical analyses of blogging I noted that whilst public posting of reflections may allow the progression of work to be monitored not only by teachers, but also by fellow peers; it also opens the door to potential plagiarism, bullying, and privacy issues. It is at this point we must remember:

(…except replace “Spiderman” with “a teacher”)

Teachers are privileged with the ability to educate the next generation. What many do not realise however, is that e-learning tools can also trigger negative outcomes if poorly executed. According to a study performed by Hinduja and Patchin (2008) cyber bullying has significantly increased in the last several years, which correlates with an increase in new technologies becoming available.
This may potentially become an even greater issue with the use of Wiki’s, as students are specifically instructed to interact with each other in an online environment. A good example of this is the profile wiki task from week one which encouraged students to post their student blogs for all their peers to view. Since then, extra columns have been added for students (possibly by students?) to add in their personal grades from Assignment One, and links to student’s personal blogs have also been made available in the profile wiki activity. Whilst this may be reasonable to allow amongst mature, adult peers; this must definitely be regulated much more stringently amongst students at an age where cyber-bullying is highly likely to occur.

As one of our activities we were required to create a website, demonstrating our ability to effectively engage students in e-learning. Websites are useful tools in stimulating thinking routines, as students can be directed to interact in a variety of different ways. For example in the website I designed, students are able to complete an online test to review their knowledge about year 12 anatomy. If they are unsure of a question, they can refer back to the content page for more information about a subject. Questions in the test can be crafted so as that answers are not easily available, so students must then research the subject further to answer the question. In this learning environment, students are not merely accumulating knowledge, but developing valuable thinking patterns which stimulate much more effective learning.

 In week 4 we began exploring digital images, podcasts and digital video. Digital images are available in abundance on the internet but as I reported in my analysis, it is not as simple as “copy & paste”. In order to use a digital image publicly on the internet, it must be uploaded correctly or the file will be empty when the web document is published. In addition to this, one must also consider the ownership of the file and the legislation protecting this ownership. Teachers are able to reproduce materials for educational purposes under strict conditions. For reference, information about these conditions (including media specific reproduction) can be found here.

Whilst developing my technical skills in these e-learning tools, I created a podcast using Podomatic. This online software allows users to upload sound files to the server, which can then be embedded in websites. As outlined in my analysis, podcasts are a useful way of engaging students, with little interaction required from the student. In an age where Ipods are a cultural icon, learning can be encouraged into a pre-existing habit through classical conditioning. This would be especially beneficial for students who are engaged verbally rather than visually.

Week 5 allowed us to delve into presentation software, animations and simulations. Powerpoint is most commonly viewed as a linear ‘slideshow’ used as a ‘lecturing’ tool; however, as outlined in my analysis it can be used for a much more interactive purpose. Story boards can be created, allowing students to view presentations in an interactive manner.

Glogster is another example of presentation software, and offers contemporary themes, bright colours and a large range of stock multimedia which can be used to decorate posters known as "Glogs". These "Glogs" (as mentioned in my critical analysis of group 3 technologies) are effective when used to convey basic concepts, but are simply insufficient in their ability to communicate information at a senior school level.
Prezi is an interactive online presentation editor which can be used to design interactive mind maps and storyboards. Powerpoint presentations can also be converted into Prezi to allow additional formatting. In my trial of Prezi I designed a basic interactive mind map where students can explore the subject of anatomy. The entire subject is displayed in a large mind map, which students can zoom in on and interact with each of the topics. Links can be shown between topics through the use of arrows, which are an effective tool in developing higher order thinking, in comparison to other linear platforms.


The role of teachers in the 21st century is to engage students in a stimulating environment which will nurture higher order thinking. The diverse array of technologies discussed in this article, when used effectively, can be scaffolded to the profile of individual learning needs. Students can then explore new concepts in a way that that will not only increase information retention, but build important thinking processes that will transfer into other areas.

Our job is not to make up anybody's mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of the decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking. ~Author Unknown

References:

• Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2009). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

• Raimi, S. (Director). (2002). Spiderman [Motion picture]. USA: Columbia Pictures.

 

Animations and simulations: a critical evaluation

Plus:

• Effective for engaging learners
• Appeals to a number of learning styles

Minus:

• Not able to communicate large quantities of information
• Takes up bandwidth

Interesting:

• What about the "real world"??
• Is this an effective ICT for senior students?

Interactive presentations: a critical analysis

Yr12anatomy101 on Prezi

Plus:

• Non linear learning
• Interactive

Minus:

• Time consuming to create
• Students may not see all information

Interesting:

Digital video: a critical analysis

Plus:

• Can be added to websites, blogs and wikis
• Video can be shot with mobile phone
• Can be made with still images, sound clips and stock footage
• Students can just sit back and watch

Minus:

• Takes up large amounts of space
• Time comsuming to produce

Interesting:

Podcast: a critical analysis

Plus:

• Students can listen to podcasts whilst doing other things
• Possible to develop a series of podcasts to engage students
• Can be used with a range of different technologies
• Can be embedded in webpages

Minus:

• Does ot require complete attention - may not take in information
• Requires a longer period of attention to convey information than simply reading at ones own pace
• May contain a lot of "padding" (irrelevant side topics)

Interesting:

• Mum: "Take those headphones out!".
• Student: "I'm studying!"

 



Flickr and digital images: a critical analysis

Plus:

• Referencing conveniently provided
• Can sort search results by relevant, recent, and interesting
• Able to reproduce other peoples images without permission for educational purposes
http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/946

Minus:

• Cannot simply "copy paste". Images must be uploaded and downloaded.

Interesting:

• Will have to check out http://www.picnik.com/ more in depth

Websites: a critical analysis

http://yr12anatomy101.weebly.com/index.html

Plus:

• Effective modality for conveying information
• Selective use of information
• Minimal upkeep required
• Able to support online testing

Minus:

• Less interaction amongst other students
• Unable to monitor student completion
• Easy to become distracted

Interesting:

•  Pontential to become a recource for anyone on the web

Wiki: a critical analysis

http://yr12anatomy101.wikispaces.com/home

Plus:

·         Below is a comprehensive a list of benefits outlined in our readings and sourced from wiki.org:

Open - Should a page be found to be incomplete or poorly organized, any reader can edit it as they see fit.

Incremental - Pages can cite other pages, including pages that have not been written yet.

Organic - The structure and text content of the site are open to editing and evolution.

Universal - The mechanisms of editing and organizing are the same as those of writing so that any writer is automatically an editor and organizer.

Observable - Activity within the site can be watched and reviewed by any other visitor to the site.

Convergent - Duplication can be discouraged or removed by finding and citing similar or related content.

Trust - This is the most important thing in a wiki. Trust the people, trust the process, enable trust-building. Everyone controls and checks the content. Wiki relies on the assumption that most readers have good intentions. But see: AssumeGoodFaithLimitations

Fun - Everybody can contribute; nobody has to.

Sharing - of information, knowledge, experience, ideas, views...

Interaction - This enables guest interaction.

Collaboration - A good collaboration tool, both synchronously and asynchronously.

Social Networks - Its power for supporting collaboration is great.

Minus:

• Requires stringent moderation
• Care must be taken to ensure valuable information is not lost
• Cost of extra features – basic package (free) offers limited accessibility
• Incorrect information may be taught
• May cause arguments/unrest amongst peers

 Interesting:

• Are students at a level of maturity where they can be trusted to responsibly handle such a technology?
• May potentially be hogged by teacher pet types.

Blogging: a critical analysis

Plus:

• Facilitation of learning outside the classroom
• Progression/completion of study can be monitored
• Encourages reflection/higher order thinking
• Enables linking to other resources
• Student gain sense of accomplishment through regular posting
• May encourage competition
• Can support a number of different learning frameworks
• Blog can act as a portfolio which student may later utilise

Minus:

• Privacy issues
• Inequality (not all students may have the same access)
• Cyber bullying
• Straying from the intended purpose (ie: non-coursework related posting)

Interesting:

• Are the benefits of sharing thoughts outweighed by the likelihood of plagiarism?
• Will some students embrace blogging more than others (who may have reservations about sharing thoughts, feelings and emotions…?)

Assignment 1: Learning design brief

Education is a constantly evolving field where new understandings of human psychology inform our approach to teaching. In order to adequately equip individual learners with knowledge and ensure optimum retention, teachers must engage students effectively.

ICTs for Learning Design provides a framework for developing the technical skills, and understanding of learning theories which enable us to effectively facilitate the learning experience, in this digital age.

Before we can successfully achieve this facilitation however, we must first understand the individual learners – their current knowledge, skills, motivation, attitudes, intelligences, learning styles and personalities.

In our first activity students were instructed to complete an online wiki profile. Once completed, students were to reflect on this activity in a public blog. Through this method of profiling, we were given an insight into how our each of our fellow students learn.

Felder and Solomon (n.d) have established an online learning style questionnaire which provides a summary of learning tendencies once completed.

Howard Gardner (1975) also saw value in establishing individual learning needs, as he argued for the importance of understanding the many forms of intelligence students possess. Through observation, Gardner (1975, 1979, 1982) contested that learners more readily learn in specific disciplines due to the theory of multiple intelligences.

In the second activity, students were required to collaborate in pairs to summarise an article relating to one of the learning theories. The 3 key learning theories assessed within this curriculum are:

• Behaviouralism – is the study of overt behaviour which can be observed and measured (Good & Brophy, 1990). It describes the mind as a “black box” (Mergel 1998) responding to stimuli in a predictable manner.
• Cognitivism – builds on behaviouralism by describing the thought processes behind behaviour via reduction (Mergel 1998).
• Constructivism – argues that individuals construct their own perspectives of reality via individual experiences and schema (Cennamo & Kalk, 2005).

 As described in my reflection blog, this activity is a direct example of how the theory of constructivism can be applied to learning environments to encourage students to construct their own understanding of key concepts.

Due to the factual basis of this required knowledge, a “rote” learning approach is often effective in retaining information. This activity has simplified this task for learners by summarisation through collaboration. Students can then avoid reading excessive article by reflecting on peer summaries.

The third activity required students to engage in an interactive discussion forum on a controversial topic regarding the use of mobile phones in schools, using de Bono's (1985) Six Thinking Hats scaffold. This scaffold provided students the opportunity to discuss the topic in-depth, from number of angles to completely explore the complexity associated with the effects of mobile phones as a learning and teaching tool in schools, and is thus an effective scaffold for such a contentious topic.

In addition to constructivism, social cognitive theory, described by Vygotsky (1962) suggests that an individual’s acquisition of knowledge can be directly related to observing others in within the context of experiences, social interactions, and external media influences. This theory supports the intended purpose of this group activity, which brings individual learners together to learn in collaboration with each other, thus refining the individual’s current schema of a concept and improving acquired knowledge (Sweller 1988).

With a sound understanding of individual learning styles and the different learning theories, it becomes possible to construct learning frameworks aimed at learners in the 21^st century. Bloom (1956) proposed a taxonomy of learning domains essential to designing such effective frameworks.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bloom%27s_Rose.png

This taxonomy classifies the learning objectives within a learning environment educators set for students. These objectives are broken up into 3 domains with subsequent sub-domains, which can be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” (Clarke 2004):

1. Cognitive
1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Application
4. Analysis
5. Synthesis
6. Evaluation
2. Affective
1. Receiving
2. Responding
3. Valuing
4. Organizing
5. characterizing
3. Psychomotor
1. Perception
2. Set
3. Guided response
4. Mechanism
5. Convert overt response
6. Adaptation
7. Origination

Whilst it is not within the scope of this reflection to investigate and describe each of these learning objectives in detail, it is sufficient to note that the third activity within this course (Mobile Phone Wiki) successfully addressed a great number of these learning objectives through the creative application of an in depth understanding of pedagogical and content knowledge, demonstrated with refined technical skills in e.Learning design.

This type of e.Learning design is referred to as Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPaCK) scaffolding, which adds the effective use of Technology (ICT) to the Pedagogical Contents Framework described by Shulman (Mishra 2006).

This framework presupposes the teacher’s expertise in the teaching subject area:

For example: My teaching specialisations are Science and HPE and have been allocated due to my experience and qualifications in Podiatry and the Health Sciences.

And that teachers, in their areas, have specific pedagogies (ways of learning) to support its learning.

The feature that brings these skills together and engages learners most successfully is the ability to combine them with appropriate technologies from the vast array currently available. This is effective use of TPaCK framework.

Within the first few weeks of ICTs for Learning Design, students have been exposed to a variety of different readings and activities prescribed to engage students and facilitate learning. As previously discussed, this has been achieved by firstly establishing the understanding that learners learn in a variety of different ways, and through knowledge of different learning theories, the teacher can create a learning environment to engage different types of learners.

To achieve this in the 21^st century however, teachers must adopt a variety of different technologies (ICTs) suitable to the learning content as effectively demonstrated in activities 2 and 3.

These concepts form the foundations for the development of educators who do not teach, but facilitate learning.

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to

discover new ways of thinking about them.

—Sir William Henry Bragg

References

de Bono, E. (1985). Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management. Little, Brown, & Company

Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.

Cennamo, K. & Kalk, D. (2005). Real World Instructional Design. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.

Clark, D. (2004), Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains: The Three Types of Learning Retrieved March 22, 2011, from http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/ahold/isd.html

Felder, R. & Solomon, B. A (n.d) Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire.  Retrieved February 23, 2011, from http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Gardner, H. (1975). The Shattered Mind. New York: Knopf.

Gardner, H. (1979). Developmental psychology after Piaget: An approach in terms of symbolization. Human Development. 15, p570-58O.

Gardner, H. (1982). Art, mind and brain. New York: Basic Books.

Good, T. L. & Brophy, J. E. (1990). Educational psychology: A realistic approach. (4th ed.).White Plains, NY: Longman

Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record 108 (6), p1017 - 1054

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning, Cognitive Science, 12, p257-285.

Vygotsky, L. (1962). Social Development Theory Retrieved March 1, 2011, from http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html



Mobile phones wiki

Strengths

• Encourages students to approach the topic from a variety of different angles
• The topic can be discussed in an easy to navigate framework used by many students
• Students contribute to an ‘information bank’.

Weaknesses

• Requires ongoing moderation
• Information may duplicate, requiring consolidation
• Informal discussion tends to encourage experience based comments rather than academic arguments

Opportunities

• Will controversy stimulate greater passion, discussion, and research?

Threats

• Can the learning group be trusted with a modifiable webpage?

What is the world coming to?? Mobile phones in schools? Surely not! What a great debate to set the scene for an introduction to digital pedagogies in the 21^st century.

By reading some of the comments posted by peers it seems that debate was obviously passion driven as evidence was routinely used to back up highly opinionated arguments.

Having the ability to approach this in depth topic from a number of angles was also beneficial to completely explore the complexity associated with the effects of mobile phones as a learning and teaching tool in schools.

I think the message from this activity is that e.Learning design can be hugely beneficial by engaging children in the digital world we live in, but at the same time, we must also be aware of the risks children may be open to by doing so.

Learning theories wiki reflection

Strengths

• Encourages students to actively share their understanding of concepts to be learnt – learning by teaching others.
• Students summarise key concepts
• Context is provided by ensuring students relate back to how learning theories affect the role of a teacher

Weaknesses

• Goup work can often be limited by “the weakest link”.
• May not suit individual learners
• Difficult to perform by distance/correspondance

Opportunities

• Will students then read other summaries of topics thus distributing work load?
• By stimulating discussion, will students be encouraged to research concepts further?

Threats

• Loss of interest in subject by individual learners?
• Unrest amongst group members?

My initial understanding of Behaviourism was that it is a rather primitive view on psychology, where the learner is seen as a black box, responding to stimuli in a predictable manner.

Whilst this positivist approach attempts to explain human behaviour in the most basic of means, it seems to be spot on if we look at the widespread use, and effectiveness of reward and punishment in the class room.

As my curiosity lead me to read further on the topic I came across a few articles of interest:

http://www.mendeley.com/research/undermining-childrens-intrinsic-interest-with-extrinsic-reward-a-test-of-the-overjustification-hypothesis/#page-1

This article argues that excessive reward has the potential to undermine the learners own intrinsic interest.

Conveniently this further investigation acted as a segue into other attempts to improve upon the theory of behaviourism, which form our current understanding of learning today.

Prelude to learning wikis reflection

I must confess, in the lead up to my wedding I was confident that I had all my activities under control – I had selected a partner (Catherine – whom I met at res school and who coincidently is the practice manager for a podiatrist in Rocky); had completed all the recommended readings and had selected ‘Behaviourism’ as the topic we would undertake; and finally, advised Wendy of my absence for the following 2 weeks. I figured that a whole week would be sufficient before the wedding to collaborate with my study partner to complete the activity. I can now (without hesitation or guilt) say that this was simply not an achievable task.

Subsequently, as I failed to respond to emails, my partner rightly found another to collaborate with and I can only now apologise for having not fulfilled my responsibilities to her.

Nevertheless, on return I have completed the activity with perhaps a greater advantage than others, having access to the plusses, minuses and interesting points discovered by my peers.

Learning theories wiki

Plus

• Implies the dominance of the instructor and is therefore of significant relevance to teachers in educational settings.
• Relevant to skill development and the substrate or conditions of learning.
• Conditioning - behaviour can be conditioned via the linkage of an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.
• Does not require the learner to 'do' anything.
• Operant conditioning - behaviour can be based on consequences which can reinforce, punish or lead to extinction (by lack of consequence) of the behaviour.

Minus

• Simplifies complex cognitive processes - the brain is viewed as a 'black box' (Mergel, 1998),with outputs in response to inputs.
• Many behaviourism studies are performed on animals and are generalised. The relevance of such studies to higher order animals and humans must therefore be challenged.
• Conditioning works both ways - stimuli can be associated with fear and thus negative outcomes in some instances. Must be aware creation of phobias is possible.
• Operant conditioning can be confounded by a phenomenon known as "feedforward" (Gardner et. al. 1988) where simple stimuli are paired, and consequences become ineffective.

Interesting

• What are the ethical constraints regarding punishment in operant conditioning?
• Learning theories assume that experience shapes behaviour, yet this is not always the case. What causes resistance to reward and punishment in shaping behaviour?
• How do different learning disorders affect conditioning?
• Conditioning can be used to develop addiction. Advertising, food, and gaming industries capitalise on this learning style. Can children be conditioned to become addicted to learning??...
• Could be attributed as an evolutionary trait - "survival of the fittest".
• What are the ethical implications of behavioural studies performed on both animals and humans.
• Are humans different to other animals with regards to their ability to anticipate punishment?

Profile Wiki

To be honest, when I first discovered I had to reflect on how "creating a profile" could be of any relevance to teaching and learning; I was at a loss as to where to even begin.
However as I pondered the greater context of the activity I began to realise that all classrooms start with an introduction.
Perhaps in this instance the classroom is slightly different to the conventional classroom, but in order to develop an environment through which students can interact with each other to share ideas and ask questions it seems that this activity is more valuable to my understanding of learning and teaching than I first thought.

The next question I subsequently posed was after bringing us all together and encouraging a professional voyeurism amongst peers of sorts, why would our teacher encourage us to then post up our blog addresses with all our assessable items for the rest of our class to see? This would have caused mass chaos in my undergraduate degree!

But then as I stumbled across the theory of social cognition, it became clear that these tasks were far from without purpose.

Multiple intelligences

As posted to the ITC Discussion Forum

Hi all,
I'm glad I'm not the only one worrying about all these activities accumulating.
I've attached my results below for all to psychoanalyse me. It is just a screen capture I cropped in MSPaint.
The quiz is available here. Click on the button up the top to "Take the test".



It seems pretty spot on in most areas. I'm a keen competitive runner and prefer locking my self in my room to study (I cringe at the thought of group assignments and team sports).
It also has me pinned as somewhat of an outdoor tree-hugging-hippie which is somewhat true. I would rather pay $23/night to camp for residential school than live it up on campus for $80/night!
So it looks like my strengths are solo, physical tasks, in the great outdoors. How about everyone else?

Regards,
Aidan Hobbs
GDLT Student - Secondary (Science & HPE)
Accredited Podiatrist

I will come back and complete the activity as others respond to the forum.



ACTIVITY

1. Review your results and compare them to those of others by posting them to the discussion forum.

2. How would you use this information to inform your learning design?

Felder and Solomon learning styles questionnaire

Results for: Aidan Hobbs


      ACT                          X                        REF
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->

      SEN      X                                            INT
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->

      VIS              X                                    VRB
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->

      SEQ                              X                    GLO
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->

• If your score on a scale is 1-3, you are fairly well balanced on the two dimensions of that scale.
• If your score on a scale is 5-7, you have a moderate preference for one dimension of the scale and will learn more easily in a teaching environment which favors that dimension.
• If your score on a scale is 9-11, you have a very strong preference for one dimension of the scale. You may have real difficulty learning in an environment which does not support that preference.

ACTIVITY:

1. What is your learning style? What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?

With regards to active and reflective learning, and sequential and global learning,  my result appears to be unremarkable/well balanced in terms of preference.
 
When comparing my preference of sensing vs. intuitive learning, there appears to be a strong trend towards sensing.
 
An implication of this may be that I require straight forward tasks to establish the key facts of learning areas (for example: lab work), through which I would more readily gain an understanding of a concept by observing how it is applied in the "real world".
 
There may be a slight trend in my results towards visual as opposed to verbal learning which may indicate I would learn more readily from visual aids such as:

• Diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is predominantly verbal

2. In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?

The most obvious answer in this instance would be to offer a broad range of activities to engage students on a variety of different levels. (eg: station rotation group work, provide verbal instructions, summary sheets, demonstrations etc.)
To ascertain any strong trends within a class (Eg: according to Felder and Solomon, many people are visual learners), one could perform a learning styles questionnaire or similar (and age appropriate) and subsequently design learning activities around these results.

3. With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?

One of the benefits of ICT's is that they offer a broad range of communication methods to convey concepts to students. It is essentially the use of multimedia to teach to students with varying styles of learning. Once these learning styles are established, ICT's can be designed to focus on catering specifically to these learning styles to better support the learners needs.

4. What sorts of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone's preferences?

Active vs reflective:
eg: What do you do with an instruction manuals?
a) Nothing - bin it and get to work
b) Read to establish a procedure and review progress

Seeing vs intuitive:
eg: when trying to establish how something works, do you:
a) take it apart and put it back together?
b) look it up on the Internet?

Visual vs verbal:
When meeting someone new, do you remember:
a) their face?
b) their what they do for a living?

Sequential vs global:
when learning a new unit of work, do you:
a) build a strong understanding of the topic as new information is introduced?
b) take in information but often have a "light bulb" moment towards the end of the course?

5. How does ICT support differences in learning styles?
Via the utilisation of multimedia.

Brilliant!

Yet another social networking tool to procrastinate from more important things...
Feel free to crack the whip on me if my blog is lacking in productive posting =]

Aidan