Greetings friends!
As the first quarter comes to a close - we are turning the corner to helping students become active in their own learning!
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As we pick up on the story of the WOL - from The Classes They Wouldn’t Have Taken to Welcome Home, our journey brings us to I Can Learn Online.
Because we work together with schools to provide support, you can count on a relationship with our team. Whether it's your guidance department or support staff, we work together to help your learners become self-motivated, self-directed, and planners and managers of their time.
In our story, Dorothy learned to advocate for herself, right from the start, but to avoid the pitfalls on the road (the online journey), we take a team approach to finding the bumps and making adjustments, so that all the students on a journey can find success.
As you can see we have embraced a narrative approach to learning. The narrative approach to streamlining our courses and instruction allows the learner(s) to see themselves clearly as a character with a role in their own learning.
In order to help our folks understand the concepts that support this brain friendly approach, Lauren and our team created some microlearning with our Appalachia IU8 partner JoltEDU.
Our Brain Friendly learning series comprised three micro courses:
The first in the series is Cognitive Load Theory - If you've ever had to turn the radio down when looking for a parking spot in a busy area, you understand cognitive load and its impact on us. As teachers, we have the power to turn that "volume" down so our students have the bandwidth to focus on the essential learning objectives.
The second is Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Learning - we see Teachers as designers. Not all teachers have a background in design, but there are guiding principles to help teachers to produce clear, brain-friendly materials. In this course we explored Richard Mayers’ (2009) Principles of Multimedia Learning so teachers can begin to envision how to apply the strategies in their own setting to improve student learning experiences.
The third course is In Context - As virtual teachers, we are not able to see and interact with our students each day, which makes our live session time and communication with students all the more precious. We ask our folks to consider how to apply the concepts of Cognitive Load Theory and Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Learning for learners’ as we work to create brain-friendly learning spaces everyday.
Listen in for how Lauren describes ways that we ‘turn down the volume’ so our students have the power to master the essential learning objectives!
Understanding how the brain learns is crucial for educators.
The concept of a working memory bottleneck is emphasized, encouraging educators to identify potential bottlenecks in the learning process and work to remove them from instruction.
Clear, concise instruction and streamlined curriculum. A must!
We cannot say enough how important relevant and contextual learning experiences are.
And, creating a comfortable learning environment conducive to the needs of learners - goes a long way to improve for students, considering their individual needs.
We hope you enjoyed this episode! Here are a few links to help you start your own journey to offering Brain Friendly resources and lessons for your learners’.
Take a Brain Friendly learning series with JoltEDU - Check it out HERE
As always, if you have a need or just want to find an alternative for your students - reach out. We love to learn what you are up to and learn with you.
Have a great week,
Pat
[Updated] Putting Learning to Action