September 28 - Class Thoughts

DAMASIO

Descartes error – separation of body and mind. He separated them and said that learning is not affected by outside influences.

Damasio – learning is emotional. Emotions and feelings are part of the learning process.

Instructional designers must take this into consideration – emotions and feelings are an integral part of the learning process.

** History of Creativity class – when the professor dressed up I remember I couldn’t help but pay attention. I remember that it was ridiculous and looked really funny but, he didn’t care. And when all was said and done I got a lot more out of that class than others.

Somatic Markers – our bodies create a response option to real or simulated decisions. I.E. if every time we try a math a problem our teacher makes fun of us and we feel bad – we begin to associate that bad feeling with math.

Smells, sounds, tastes, etc. are all tied to emotions. Many times I have been walking down the street and smelled something that has ‘taken me back’ to my mission. Anytime we have a strong emotional experience with something we create somatic markers that are triggered when we experience similar emotional stimuli.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

Origins in the medical field. Students presented with problems – they then assess their current knowledge and figure out how to solve the problem or find the necessary information to come to a solution.

**The idea is – since there is more than one right answer students will learn more information than otherwise.

**Don’t structure it too much – there needs to be more than one right answer

**Don’t use this too much with younger learners – may not be effective.

What is the difference between Guided Learning & Problem-Based Learning

PBL is a decision strategy – the tutor has very specific roles and responsibilities. The tutor’s job is to help the group become aware of their own problem solving progress. The instructor in guided learning takes a more proactive role in guiding, asking questions, leading, and pointing to discovery for the students. The tutor is more concerned with the following the process – doesn’t give them any answers.

**Learning how to find out what you need to know is just as important as actually learning the information they need to learn.

**Test group they did this with in medical school – when it came to actual practice the group that went through PBL performed better. Why? Because they had been working on solving problems for years. They learned the process rather than just memorizing facts.

---Need to be careful – if we don’t follow the process precisely we may throw the system off or undermine the operational principle at work.

HOW TO FIND THE OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLE

Take things away from it until it breaks.

When it breaks – add something again – repeat until you find the principle.

ISTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

ADDIE / ISD

ADDIE: analysis, design, development, implication, evaluation

ISD: instructional systems development

1 – Define objectives

2 – Create test items

3 – Develop Instruction

4 – Implement Instruction

5 – Evaluation

Design – making a plan

Developing – putting that plan into action

**Develop Instruction – what does that mean? How do we do it?

What happens inside the miracle box? Meaning: how do we develop the instruction? What does it look like? Why?

--We all know what the output should be (instruction to be implemented) but how do we accomplish this?

DECISION MAKING CYCLE

Process that rationalizes the steps and intelligent person goes through while making a decision. A design is (very simply stated) a bunch of decisions.