There’s nothing like learning something new to remind you of what your students might be feeling or to refresh your pedagogical practice. The post below is linked to the Wikipedia article for Constructivism (learning theory). I wrote the reflection first and was surprised that my learning experience linked easily with the article’s explanation to the nature of constructive learning
LEARNING JOOMLA
I decided to teach myself how to use the Content Management System, Joomla for a number of reasons – I needed a new way to present the school web page, it fits in with my Master of Education studies in Online Education, I was curious how Content Management Systems work and it gave me a chance to be involved in active learning.
For me it has been a typical learning experience (responsibility for learning) in that I experienced the whole range of feelings and thoughts when faced with a challenge:
- at first it was all too hard
- I doubted the point of it and wondered if I should change topics
- I struggled to find the right information
- I had to change my preconceived views of what I could do (background and culture of learner)
As my daughter walked past and heard me exclaim “This is too hard!” she repeated the message I had always told her while working on her maths problems “If it is too hard then maybe you are going about it in the wrong way.” My experience was that math problems have a way of working out if you are on the right track so if it is too long and complicated you’re probably barking up the wrong tree. As it turns out, it was good advice and along with this blog (quoted below) that helped me see that I was trying to change something that wasn’t meant to be changed.
“Joomla? Getting the right modules (in Drupal “blocks”) in the right place on template can be nothing short of a nightmare, especially if you get things set up in one template and then decided to try another template.”
I had to “accommodate” my approach and look for a simpler way to start to get to know Joomla. I stopped trying to change how Joomla should look (at least for now) and concentrated on the content.
Gradually as I learned to place content I learned more about Joomla in total and I developed a better understanding of the other features. I felt I was beginning to make progress, but with each step
- I needed to practice it more than once,
- I needed a lot of instruction (online tutorials)
- repeating it helped me to understand the concepts and relationships
- success led to more success
- as I mastered certain aspects I really wanted to share that knowledge. (It reminds me so much of my classroom where the students want to share everything they have done which is one of the reasons why it is important to have class blogs).
MENTAL MODEL – LEARNING CURVE
My mental model of the “learning curve”, is that it isn’t a curve at all. It starts pretty much as a steep cliff face where there is lots of input that doesn’t necessarily make sense and so progress is very slow. You need motivation, perseverance and stick-ability at this stage to keep going. The next stage is a little less steep but progress is still slow and input at the “zone of proximal development” is required. Eventually however you reach the stage where you get some momentum and you move along much more quickly and the knowledge you have already acquired is useful in learning new modules. Finally you come to the top of the learning mountain where you have enough skills and background to use intuitive learning to add new knowledge quickly.
I think it is important to have mental model of learning so that you know what to expect and understand the range of feelings that a challenge will evoke. It is important to know that if you keep going the odds are that you will learn.
