- synthesize for yourself key points from the reading and weekly discussion, and:
Key points from the reading and discussion for me are the ideas behind gifted learning students, how they are chosen, by what parameters as well as the possible impact of environments on learning. In the field I work with criminal offenders, I have to say I strongly feel that environments often do impact, yes a huge slew of things, but also our learning behaviors, habits, goals, discipline. I often have cases of offenders, many still young adults, who learning simply was not a priority in their environment. When you think about, how did you grow up learning……did your parent/guardian encourage and support learning or did no one care whether you learned anything…. I often find the latter to be true for many of the cases I see and have seen. When you are progressing through school and no one is there to support or encourage you to learn, it will likely be a difficult experience. When you have no one to ask questions, no one who will say you did a great job. I know this is not true for everyone sure, but I do think at times associations and surroundings make a difference.
- reflect on the implications of the key points you identify for learning designers.
For learning designers this means a creative, genuine, challenging approach will probably be in order. Invoking one to learn who does not desire nor want to, well if the learning designer can master that, then I think they are making progress. I would venture to say mastering that however, will always be evolving…… I think it will be important for the learning designer to be open to new ideas, new ‘schools of thought’, and not be afraid to implement them, at least on a test run. Learning designers will have an endless fountain of information, but how they go about presenting it to the learner will make all the difference. I think variety, openness and a positive attitude can help.