Friday, January 30, 2009

U Blog 1

http://www.newhorizons.org/lifelong/workplace/billington.htm is an article about learning in the workplace. Because of the speedy change in both knowledge and technology we as adults can either keep on learning throughout life or just depend on our skills and knowledge and not worry about learning the new at all. This article explains seven important ways to keep people learning in the workplace starting when they are students. 1.) Make sure you have an environment were students feel safe and supported and where individual needs and uniqueness are honored. 2.) An environment that encourages intellectual freedom and experimentation and creativity. 3.) An environment that where faculty treats students as peers. 4.) Self-directed learning, where students take responsibility for their own learning and they work with faculty to design new learning programs. 5.) Pacing or intellectual challenge. Optimal pacing is challenging people just beyond their present level. 6.) Active involvement in learning instead of passive listening to lectures and 7.) regular feedback mechanisms about what works best for them and what they want and need to learn. By reading this article I gathered that if we start teaching these students at a younger age about learning and to keep on learning throughout life that they might take these techniques with them in to the workplace.

2 comments:

  1. How do you think these seven steps apply to an adult or even a retired person seeking to get back in to the flow of things. I can understand trying to create the "perfect" learning enviroment for a child but will these things apply to the rest? Would an adult find some of the steps mentioned silly? I can see that having them learn like this at an early age and having it carry on, but would this affect someone who already has a set style of learning they prefer?

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  2. Brandon, interesting questions. Let's return to them after conducting our computer workshops so we have some experience working with novice adult computer users. Let's look at these list of suggestions and see if they applied to the learning environment we create for the Heritage at Lowman participants. Dr. Keane

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