Increasingly I find myself turning away from learning theories and looking to brain science to hel p me design engaging and effective learning content. Many of the established learning theories were conceived decades ago before the advent of the internet or even networked computers. Applying these theories to a 20-minute elearning module delivered solely by computer can be somewhat nonsensical. Learning theories are like fashions – they come and go, whereas the way the brain processes and stores information is fixed, changing only with evolution. MORE >>

Andrew Churches is curriculum manager of computer studies and teaching and Learning technologies at the Kristin school in Albany Auckland, New Zeeland. What makes his wiki so interesting is that it focuses on the core of TELearning, the learning itself. In just 75 pages Andrew succeeded in giving me a deeper understanding of everything I collaboratively set up with learners and link it to Bloom’s learning framework. If you ever did a Bloom analysis on any of your mobile learning or eLearning projects, let me know, I would love to read up on them. MORE >>

It's time for some whole brain thinking. More learning and development I have been reading with interest Stephen Downes' analysis of Kirschner, Sweller and Clark's paper Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work. have myself commented on this paper back in June of last year under the heading A Challenge to Constructivism. What we have here is a sort of religious war, a battle of educational ideologies, in which neither party seems to be able to appreciate the perspective of the other. Am I missing something? Less new-age voodoo. Less analysis paralysis. MORE >>

Soon after, I attended a presentation about m-learning by Jan Herrington, in which she too mentioned connectivism. So after several hours of unenlightened googling, I decided to bite the bullet, go back to first principles and read George Siemens’ seminal paper, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Siemens describes connectivism as “the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organisation theories&#. While chaos may appear a random mess at first glance, the theory holds that order does in fact exist. MORE >>

Cognitive learning theory focuses on  learning with understanding (as opposed to memorizing fact) by teaching the underlying concepts and meanings–and thereby increasing the depth of processing. Learning with understanding means we understand the underlying core concepts, the meaning behind the facts. Once we have a deep understanding of what we are learning, we can relate it to or transfer it to something else. 2000 ) Learning with understanding is critical because: “…‘usable knowledge’ is not the same as a mere list of disconnected facts. 2000). MORE >>