One size can’t fit all…
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011A theme I saw within the EDIT772 discussions was how to make a tool conform to your way of learning rather than the learning conform to the tool. We were always asked: “How would you sue this tool” or “How could this tool be better?” Both suggest that the tool must fit the learner. When it comes to e-learning, this conversation must continue and must listen and learn from all sides that are involved. This includes the teachers, the providers of the tool, and the students. Primary school traditionally is set up in a way that the student has to force themselves to learn something a certain way. For example, there are those who are visual learners and those who are not. There are students who can learn all they need to know from reading a text and there are those who get lost in a sea of words trying to understand. Both are learning the same thing, but the tool does not fit the learner. Web 2.0 tools can be customized in a way so that as long as the core principles are established, anyone can learn the same thing in a number of ways. As progress is made, with the learner in mind, then learning will be easier and customizable. There must be standards in learning. Students must have and show proficiency in something in order to function in life. However, reaching that standard needs to be more flexible to the needs of each and every student.