Week 5 reflection

Sorry I forgot to post my reflection! We didn't have any readings for the week so I will just comment on what we learned in class last week. Nothing really surprised me but it was fun to work in groups again, to design instruction for the sundaes and poetry. It's refreshing to work with such different learning styles and to see who naturally gravitates to which style or design. I tend to gravitate toward the written word whereas as one of my usual teammates who is a proponent of online instruction is always advocating for visual tools. This works well together with my ideas because I feel like we cover a lot of ground. I always love to hear when we go around the room though because I gain so much insight into what other styles people are thinking of. It's always interesting to me to hear what other people coke up with from the same initial concept. Sometimes that's what's surprising! At times I wonder why I didn't think if that! I think the whole aspect of behaviorism is quite interesting and I can't wait to see what the cognitive theorists have to say. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed to peruse back through my Smith & Ragan book from 631 and to read that behaviorist theories, specifically classical and operant conditioning, do not really serve a purpose in instructional design today. I like the idea of knowing learning has occurred due to measurable and observable changes in behavior and I wonder how the cognitivists make sense of that. I am excited about cognitivism though because I think my two favorite topics in learning (motivation and change) will be addressed in greater detail (if at all) within that framework. Both of those have a lot to do with how things are perceived so how the mind works is of greater importance that in behaviorism. Until next week....