Welcome to MD-400. In this class we will be exploring technology and its relationship to education. We will have the chance to work on a number of hands-on projects. You should set up a free BLOGGER account so that you can sign in to make a posting to this blog. You will be making your own blog so this will set up the account for you. Post a response by clicking on the comments button at the bottom of the post.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Learning Styles
Try one of the learning style web sites found in the email or on the "Class Links" page of the MD-400 web site. Where you surprised at what you found? What implications are there for teaching and technology?
I found these VAC learning style quizzes very interesting. The ones I'd previously seen did not go into nearly as much detail. Also, its nice that the web derives the results.
First, I must say that I have taken many of these quizzes before and have used simpler ones to better understand the needs of my third grade students.
With that said, the edutopia quiz, "What's Your Learning Style?" had more unique questions than I have commonly seen and it was quite fun thinking up my answers to them. I quite like that the results were given in percentages for the 8 learning styles. My highest percentages were Linguistic (83%), Intrapersonal (81%), and Interpersonal (81%). I have to post this assessment on my blog!
The other "What's Your Style" quiz was similar to the other quizzes I have taken. My results stated that I am an auditory learner. I prefer the other quiz questions and results. I think it paints a more detailed picture of my learning styles.
I was happy to see that the results of the "What's Your Learning Style" quiz were consistent with my personality. My highest scores were intrapersonal (81%) naturalistic (75%) linguistic (67%) and interpersonal (63%). It also said I was a "musical learner" which I didn't agree with. I just responded highly to the music questions because I love to sing and dance for fun, not necessarily because I learn best through music.
My scores suggest that I'm in tune with myself, the people around me, and the world around me. It also says I can learn and communicate well through reading and writing, which is obviously true since I love to read and write and will be teaching English. That's a great cocktail mix for being a teacher, but I'm concerned that if I become too dependent on technology in my classroom, it will make it hard to connect with students. I don't want kids to become solely intrapersonal learners (where they're doing all their learning by themselves with their computers and MP3's) We need to encourage them to explore and learn through dialogue and interpersonal experiences as well.
I have taken these quizzes before, and each time the results vary slightly. With these particular quizzes, while I felt i have taken simpler ones, I loved the results and the detail of the answers.
The percentages on the "What's Your Learning Style Quiz" were not only helpful but I though they were very accurate. I also really like how the results offered study tips and really helped me understand my best way to learn.
As a student whose ultimate goal is to become a Special Education teacher, I think these would be so informative with students who may not be able to know or understand how they learn. As a Special Ed teacher I must develop IEP's for each student and make sure that they learn all they can and I think that by looking at these results side by side with a students personality it can really be of use in making them more effective learners.
I found both of these quizzes interesting but quite different from each other. I scored as a "visual" learner with the "What's Your Learning Style" quiz. I agree with this result because I do believe I learn best this way. I tend to memorize diagrams, textbook pages, and my notes; I can even visualize these materials in my head as I'm taking an exam! The questions were creative and I can see how my answers came up with "visual" learner. I really liked the question that asked how we would like to learn how to put a computer together. I knew instantly that I'd prefer to watch a video than try to do it myself or listen to someone explain it to me.
I found the Edutopia Test a bit more challenging to answer. I am not entirely sure if I answered the questions to the best of my ability; I could not decide between a few of the answers as they were very hard to differentiate between "a little" and "a fair amount" and "a lot." I scored 88% in the intrapersonal category, 75% in linguistic, and 67% in bodily-kinesthetic.
I am not entirely certain if these results are truly in tune with the kind of learner I actually am. Although I do agree that I am an intrapersonal learner as I definitely know my abilities and limits when it comes to learning. I have good self-management and communication skills and enjoy exchanging information with others. I must disagree with the linguistic learner result as I would never, ever want to tell a story or want to use words to explain a complicated situation. Writing is not one of my strongest points so I definitely have to disagree with this result. I think for the most part, both quizzes got my learning styles right on point!
After taking both quizzes, I found the ‘What’s Your Style’ to be most interesting because my results said that I am an auditory learner and that could not be farther from the truth! I am 100% a visual learner. When participating in a class lecture, I tend to take copious notes and I always sit in the front of the class if possible. I always need a visual when someone is lecturing in order to be able to follow. I cannot follow someone if they are lecturing verbally without any handouts –I tend to get lost much more easily! I personally feel that I will benefit greatly from taking this technology course because it is so hands on and more importantly because I am a visual learner. I have always done well working with computers and this course will give me first hand experience in using technology in a new educational setting. It is important to note that every child/student learns differently and it is essential to take this into account, especially for students with disabilities. By becoming tech savvy and knowing the different tools available for my classroom, my students will hopefully be able to use technology to their advantage. For some students, specifically those with severe disabilities, technology can allow them to access the curriculum in a different perspective and one that is perhaps a bit easier for them. Knowing my students learning styles and their personalities is necessary to create the optimal educational experience for each of them.
I found both of the learning styles quizzes interesting and informative, but definitely liked the "What's Your Style" quiz more than the "Learning Styles Quiz." The former gave me a more concrete answer as to how I learn best, which is a combination of visual and kinesthetic learning. I completely agree with this, and believed myself to be a very visual learner in the past. The learning styles quiz did not tell me a lot about myself because it gave me very average results (40-60%) for nearly every category. I think it is very important not only to know what kind of a learner you are, but also to know, in general, about different types of learning and how to determine the styles of your students. Everyone has a particular style that they learn best with, but most of us can adapt to the various methods of teaching that our teachers use. However, for students with special needs, this adaptation will likely be more difficult and we as teachers may want to determine a students learning style in order to accommodate his or her needs. Unfortunately, we cannot do this unless we are aware of the different learning styles and how they influence our comprehension of knowledge and academic success.
I have taken a number of learning style quizzes over the past year or so and similarly formatted surveys for years. They don't tell me very much. My highest percentage was 50 in the intrapersonal learning style category. I was pleased to read that intrapersonal learners can make good teachers, but my percentage was not particularly convincing. I was a little surprised at my lowest percentage, which was 6% in the musical learner category. I actually have rather extensive musical training and was considered talented when I was practicing. That is the problem with surveys of this kind. The question asked how willing I would be to play a musical instrument. I answered that I would be reluctant. That is because it has been a few years since I played and I am out of practice. I don't think that is an accurate estimate of me with regard to that learning style. The survey and results were interesting, nevertheless. -Tom Forde
I enjoyed taking these quizzes and was pleased at my results because they both came up with similar results and were what I expected. Both of the quizzes described me as a kinesthetic learner.
In the quizzes the two highest scoring types of learning for me were kinesthetic and naturalistic. I would completely agree with this because I am constantly on the move and learn best when I can practice things in a moving way. I tend to never sit still or do one thing. I am always doing many things at a time and love to be active. I am an avid horseback rider and learn from practicing. I find in school when I learned any various things I learned best when they were taught in some sort of interactive way. As for the naturalistic style of learning, I love to be outside as much as possible and would do anything to keep from being in doors whenever there is daylight, even at night too.
I think that these learning styles are somewhat unique and I think they will be beneficial in helping me relate to my future special education students. Many students of this kind need various different hands on techniques to best learn. Students could really benefit from being given opportunities to reach different learning styles that incorporate naturalistic and kinesthetic approaches.
I have taken similar quizzes in the past and had a good idea where I would fall. There were no real surprises for these quizzes. For the learning styles quiz I am logical-mathematical, visual-spatial and intrapersonal and for the "what's your style" I am a visual learner. I preferred the “edutopia” learning styles quiz over the other since there were more specific learning styles, not just the broad three. The mantras were a nice touch. The implications for teaching are that as teachers we will have to keep in mind that students are going to have a variety of learning styles. Knowing students learning styles can help teachers be better prepared. The best way for one student to learn may not be the best way another, so teachers need to learn to adapt. Technology can offer assisance and can open up more possibilities for students to learn and study in a way that is consistent with their learning style.
I always wonder about the accuracy of these surveys, but this one seemed to point out things that I already knew about myself... So, I agree with the results. My three strongest areas were Linguistic, Intra-personal and Inter-personal. I went back to the links to confirm the descriptions, and they were pretty accurate. Surprisingly, the careers that the results pointed to were things I have done in the past... It was also nice to get the results with percentages.
I think this quiz was very accurate. My results said that I was mostly a visual-spatial learner, which I am finding is more and more the case, especially when it comes to educational technology! The next largest percentage I found I learn mostly is with interpersonal skills, which is extremely accurate, I much rather prefer the face to face communication when it comes to learning rather than the person to email communication, however I am able to work and learn with both, I typically can learn better using the interpersonal skills.
I have taken these quiz's before and each time I get the same results. I am a kinesthetic learner that needs to act, sing or perform to fully understand what is being learned. I also am a musical learner and I like to sing to my class, make up songs and listen to music while they are working. A more relaxed environment is good for the classroom when needed. I feel that if you connect with your students, the better they learn. I am a visual learner and I always write things on the board for the students. I think of ways to have students remember what they are learning using song and dance. I like how the quiz's gave me the percentages of each section, it made it easy to read.
I took the online survey and found it fairly consistent with other learning style test results that I have taken. The tests give a basic idea of strengths, but I find them to be simplistic and broad, in nature. It's not like the Briggs that gives you more in-depth knowledge. Check out implications this test has on education:
http://www2.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html
I am primarily a visual learner, but this is based more on memory that learning style, in general. It's nice to know how your students learn best, so you can offer different types of assessments that your students will enjoy.
Learning Styles Quiz It is interesting what you get in this quiz, I took the one titled "Three Different Learning Styles" and it talks about: Visual Learners, auditory Learners and Kinesthetic Learners. I did not take it before but for me was interesting what I got that is a combo of Visual and Kinesthetic. Visual is someone who learns by seeing and looking. Kinesthetic is someone who learns by touching and doing. This combo did not surprised me it is mostly true, but I pay lot of attention, so my surprise is that the conclusion is that I do not have good auditory skills. This is just to share. I enjoy your writing. Jose
16 comments:
I found these VAC learning style quizzes very interesting. The ones I'd previously seen did not go into nearly as much detail. Also, its nice that the web derives the results.
First, I must say that I have taken many of these quizzes before and have used simpler ones to better understand the needs of my third grade students.
With that said, the edutopia quiz, "What's Your Learning Style?" had more unique questions than I have commonly seen and it was quite fun thinking up my answers to them. I quite like that the results were given in percentages for the 8 learning styles. My highest percentages were Linguistic (83%), Intrapersonal (81%), and Interpersonal (81%). I have to post this assessment on my blog!
The other "What's Your Style" quiz was similar to the other quizzes I have taken. My results stated that I am an auditory learner. I prefer the other quiz questions and results. I think it paints a more detailed picture of my learning styles.
I was happy to see that the results of the "What's Your Learning Style" quiz were consistent with my personality. My highest scores were intrapersonal (81%) naturalistic (75%) linguistic (67%) and interpersonal (63%). It also said I was a "musical learner" which I didn't agree with. I just responded highly to the music questions because I love to sing and dance for fun, not necessarily because I learn best through music.
My scores suggest that I'm in tune with myself, the people around me, and the world around me. It also says I can learn and communicate well through reading and writing, which is obviously true since I love to read and write and will be teaching English. That's a great cocktail mix for being a teacher, but I'm concerned that if I become too dependent on technology in my classroom, it will make it hard to connect with students. I don't want kids to become solely intrapersonal learners (where they're doing all their learning by themselves with their computers and MP3's) We need to encourage them to explore and learn through dialogue and interpersonal experiences as well.
I have taken these quizzes before, and each time the results vary slightly. With these particular quizzes, while I felt i have taken simpler ones, I loved the results and the detail of the answers.
The percentages on the "What's Your Learning Style Quiz" were not only helpful but I though they were very accurate. I also really like how the results offered study tips and really helped me understand my best way to learn.
As a student whose ultimate goal is to become a Special Education teacher, I think these would be so informative with students who may not be able to know or understand how they learn. As a Special Ed teacher I must develop IEP's for each student and make sure that they learn all they can and I think that by looking at these results side by side with a students personality it can really be of use in making them more effective learners.
I found both of these quizzes interesting but quite different from each other. I scored as a "visual" learner with the "What's Your Learning Style" quiz. I agree with this result because I do believe I learn best this way. I tend to memorize diagrams, textbook pages, and my notes; I can even visualize these materials in my head as I'm taking an exam! The questions were creative and I can see how my answers came up with "visual" learner. I really liked the question that asked how we would like to learn how to put a computer together. I knew instantly that I'd prefer to watch a video than try to do it myself or listen to someone explain it to me.
I found the Edutopia Test a bit more challenging to answer. I am not entirely sure if I answered the questions to the best of my ability; I could not decide between a few of the answers as they were very hard to differentiate between "a little" and "a fair amount" and "a lot." I scored 88% in the intrapersonal category, 75% in linguistic, and 67% in bodily-kinesthetic.
I am not entirely certain if these results are truly in tune with the kind of learner I actually am. Although I do agree that I am an intrapersonal learner as I definitely know my abilities and limits when it comes to learning. I have good self-management and communication skills and enjoy exchanging information with others. I must disagree with the linguistic learner result as I would never, ever want to tell a story or want to use words to explain a complicated situation. Writing is not one of my strongest points so I definitely have to disagree with this result. I think for the most part, both quizzes got my learning styles right on point!
After taking both quizzes, I found the ‘What’s Your Style’ to be most interesting because my results said that I am an auditory learner and that could not be farther from the truth! I am 100% a visual learner. When participating in a class lecture, I tend to take copious notes and I always sit in the front of the class if possible. I always need a visual when someone is lecturing in order to be able to follow. I cannot follow someone if they are lecturing verbally without any handouts –I tend to get lost much more easily! I personally feel that I will benefit greatly from taking this technology course because it is so hands on and more importantly because I am a visual learner. I have always done well working with computers and this course will give me first hand experience in using technology in a new educational setting.
It is important to note that every child/student learns differently and it is essential to take this into account, especially for students with disabilities. By becoming tech savvy and knowing the different tools available for my classroom, my students will hopefully be able to use technology to their advantage. For some students, specifically those with severe disabilities, technology can allow them to access the curriculum in a different perspective and one that is perhaps a bit easier for them. Knowing my students learning styles and their personalities is necessary to create the optimal educational experience for each of them.
I found both of the learning styles quizzes interesting and informative, but definitely liked the "What's Your Style" quiz more than the "Learning Styles Quiz." The former gave me a more concrete answer as to how I learn best, which is a combination of visual and kinesthetic learning. I completely agree with this, and believed myself to be a very visual learner in the past. The learning styles quiz did not tell me a lot about myself because it gave me very average results (40-60%) for nearly every category.
I think it is very important not only to know what kind of a learner you are, but also to know, in general, about different types of learning and how to determine the styles of your students. Everyone has a particular style that they learn best with, but most of us can adapt to the various methods of teaching that our teachers use. However, for students with special needs, this adaptation will likely be more difficult and we as teachers may want to determine a students learning style in order to accommodate his or her needs. Unfortunately, we cannot do this unless we are aware of the different learning styles and how they influence our comprehension of knowledge and academic success.
I have taken a number of learning style quizzes over the past year or so and similarly formatted surveys for years. They don't tell me very much. My highest percentage was 50 in the intrapersonal learning style category. I was pleased to read that intrapersonal learners can make good teachers, but my percentage was not particularly convincing. I was a little surprised at my lowest percentage, which was 6% in the musical learner category. I actually have rather extensive musical training and was considered talented when I was practicing. That is the problem with surveys of this kind. The question asked how willing I would be to play a musical instrument. I answered that I would be reluctant. That is because it has been a few years since I played and I am out of practice. I don't think that is an accurate estimate of me with regard to that learning style. The survey and results were interesting, nevertheless.
-Tom Forde
I enjoyed taking these quizzes and was pleased at my results because they both came up with similar results and were what I expected. Both of the quizzes described me as a kinesthetic learner.
In the quizzes the two highest scoring types of learning for me were kinesthetic and naturalistic. I would completely agree with this because I am constantly on the move and learn best when I can practice things in a moving way. I tend to never sit still or do one thing. I am always doing many things at a time and love to be active. I am an avid horseback rider and learn from practicing. I find in school when I learned any various things I learned best when they were taught in some sort of interactive way. As for the naturalistic style of learning, I love to be outside as much as possible and would do anything to keep from being in doors whenever there is daylight, even at night too.
I think that these learning styles are somewhat unique and I think they will be beneficial in helping me relate to my future special education students. Many students of this kind need various different hands on techniques to best learn. Students could really benefit from being given opportunities to reach different learning styles that incorporate naturalistic and kinesthetic approaches.
I have taken similar quizzes in the past and had a good idea where I would fall. There were no real surprises for these quizzes. For the learning styles quiz I am logical-mathematical, visual-spatial and intrapersonal and for the "what's your style" I am a visual learner. I preferred the “edutopia” learning styles quiz over the other since there were more specific learning styles, not just the broad three. The mantras were a nice touch.
The implications for teaching are that as teachers we will have to keep in mind that students are going to have a variety of learning styles. Knowing students learning styles can help teachers be better prepared. The best way for one student to learn may not be the best way another, so teachers need to learn to adapt. Technology can offer assisance and can open up more possibilities for students to learn and study in a way that is consistent with their learning style.
I always wonder about the accuracy of these surveys, but this one seemed to point out things that I already knew about myself... So, I agree with the results. My three strongest areas were Linguistic, Intra-personal and Inter-personal. I went back to the links to confirm the descriptions, and they were pretty accurate. Surprisingly, the careers that the results pointed to were things I have done in the past... It was also nice to get the results with percentages.
I think this quiz was very accurate. My results said that I was mostly a visual-spatial learner, which I am finding is more and more the case, especially when it comes to educational technology! The next largest percentage I found I learn mostly is with interpersonal skills, which is extremely accurate, I much rather prefer the face to face communication when it comes to learning rather than the person to email communication, however I am able to work and learn with both, I typically can learn better using the interpersonal skills.
I have taken these quiz's before and each time I get the same results. I am a kinesthetic learner that needs to act, sing or perform to fully understand what is being learned. I also am a musical learner and I like to sing to my class, make up songs and listen to music while they are working. A more relaxed environment is good for the classroom when needed. I feel that if you connect with your students, the better they learn. I am a visual learner and I always write things on the board for the students. I think of ways to have students remember what they are learning using song and dance. I like how the quiz's gave me the percentages of each section, it made it easy to read.
I took the online survey and found it fairly consistent with other learning style test results that I have taken. The tests give a basic idea of strengths, but I find them to be simplistic and broad, in nature. It's not like the Briggs that gives you more in-depth knowledge. Check out implications this test has on education:
http://www2.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html
I am primarily a visual learner, but this is based more on memory that learning style, in general. It's nice to know how your students learn best, so you can offer different types of assessments that your students will enjoy.
Learning Styles Quiz
It is interesting what you get in this quiz, I took the one titled "Three Different Learning Styles" and it talks about: Visual Learners, auditory Learners and Kinesthetic Learners. I did not take it before but for me was interesting what I got that is a combo of Visual and Kinesthetic. Visual is someone who learns by seeing and looking. Kinesthetic is someone who learns by touching and doing. This combo did not surprised me it is mostly true, but I pay lot of attention, so my surprise is that the conclusion is that I do not have good auditory skills. This is just to share. I enjoy your writing. Jose
Post a Comment