Thing 16 - Learning Digitally

  Thing 16 - Learning Digitally 

On the scale below, I rated myself on the following six metrics, identified by Clarke (2008) as the characteristics of successful elearners. 

 

	1 - Very Low	2 – Low	3 - Average	4 - High	5 – Very High
Self-confidence.				ü
Motivation.					ü
Positive attitude.					ü
Good communication skills.				ü
Good collaborator.				ü
Competent user of ICT.				ü

 

I have been working on improving my self confidence for some time now and after starting my Open Badge and Digital Learning journey I must say it has improved massively. I plan to continue to achieve Open Badges and extend my learning in order to keep gaining confidence in my abilities.

I am a highly motivated person when I want to achieve something and I will continue to do my best to keep that motivation up there along with a positive attitude.

My communication skills are generally good all round however I do struggle a little with oral communication when I feel I am in the spotlight. This is something I work on daily at my workplace so I will continue to improve it.

I enjoy working on projects and often these are challenging both personally and intellectually, I feel that these have improved my collaboration skills and I aim to continue to do so.

My ICT skills are in a constant state of improvement and now that I am working on 23 things digital as well as joining in with Digital Champion training, I imagine they will only keep getting better.

Digital learning verses Traditional learning. There are pros and cons to both styles of learning and they definitely differ from one another. As stated under traditional learning, there are some aspects of traditional learning that people take for granted such as the means to access the site of learning, learning in a classroom or venue with a teacher on hand for face to face demonstrations or one to one support is valuable to say the least; however, learning in a classroom/venue means there is a time restriction; whereas with digital or self-directed learning, despite the absence of a teacher, you have the luxury of working at your own pace and in your own environment which can have a positive impact on your learning; the downfall of this however is that your learning time is not guaranteed to be protected like that of a classroom, especially if you have had to commit to learning at home with family distractions; also, you lose access to materials and resources that you might find useful were you to be learning in an educational setting.  

The characteristics differ also, where with digital learning you gain skills which will no doubt positively impact your character as a whole, such as being a good collaborator and being a competent user of ICT, you miss out on the opportunity to develop more socially appropriate skills such as an understanding of appropriate behaviour and customs in the learning community and the ability to appraise the quality and reliability of resources. The one thing that both types of learning share is the ability to improve skills such as communication skills, positive attitude and self-confidence. If anything, Digital learning might be more helpful in improving self-confidence allowing you to work at your own pace until you are confident in your learning but traditional learning would help to improve communication skills as you are expected to interact with others daily as well as often being expected to give presentations to an audience.

Both types of learning are hugely different from each other but they both hold positive factors as well as negative impacts on learning. I guess it really is a case of each to their own when it comes to learning style.

My organisation unfortunately is a fan of eLearning and as much as this is classed as digital learning, it is by far the most boring version of it. Monotone lectures provided by computerised voices and small multichoice quizzes to test your learning are not effective methods of expanding your knowledge and understanding. There are no challenges, no opportunities to inject you learning into your practice and strive for improvement. Personally, I find it to be very drab and I feel that 23 Things Digital far outshines it.