Reflections

Well now that I've had to make an entirely new blog on a completely different website due to my old blog site (blog.ca) showing that's it's malicious and may download trojans; now I can finish my reflections and submit my blog. Thank goodness!
The three reflections that I am going to address are as follows:

1. What new insights have I gained in terms of the variety of roles that adult educators play?
2. What are some trends in my field and how am I going to prepare to address them?
3. Reflect on the web-conference experience with my learning partner; how it was and what was one thing that I learned?

I think the biggest insight that i've gained while reading and researching roles that educators play has been how educators need to mold their lesson plans to integrate self actualization by the learners, as well as how to make the subject relate-able to that learner.  Adult learners are more apt to learn if they can relate the content to their own life experiences.  Not only do educators need to be able to deliver their content but also be able to open discussion and drive that discussion where it needs to flow.  Educators also need to be crafty for lack of a better word.  What I mean by this is that they need to be creative in how they lay out their lesson plans to make it interesting, relate-able and thought provoking.  Gone are the days of standing in front of a class lecturing.  Self discovery learning is the way of the present and future when adult learners are involved.

Some of the trends within my field of work would be that more assessment type materials are being provided online. We use assessments for a number of different reasons.  It could be for career decision making tools, to assessing essential skills for funding applications to assessments to determine if someone has the right skills to be successful in their new selected field or training.  Many of my clients don't have a very high level of computer skills so this is a barrier to this trend.  How i'm having to address this is by spending more time with my clients to take them thru the assessments and by providing basic computer skills training.

My web-conference experience was short lived unfortunately.  My learning partner and I only got as far as introducing each other via email.  Due to my lack of answering back in a timely manner and her own computer and life issues, unfortunately she was provided another learning partner.  I have not been given another partner yet, so my web-conferencing experience is still hopefully to come.  Once this happens I'll for sure be updating my post here to fill in the blanks.

The journey begins....

Well ok then, post #1, here we go...
So as part of my educational journey, which is how i'm viewing my PID Program, I am to journal my way through. So my intention is to share what i'm learning, and my thoughts and views on it.
I'm really hoping that i've picked a decent blog site and posting will be easy. I don't have much experience with blogging so I hope embedding sites and pictures and images will be easy. Fingers crossed!
So my next step will be emailing back my partner for the Roles & Trends assignment. Oh and start reading the textbook! We'll leave it at that for now and i'll be back sometime soon.

Procrastination, if only I could make money off you!

As you can guess from my title, I have a love affair with procrastination...unfortunately. I haven't done much more than some reading in the book. Assignments - 1, Jill - 0. I did however complete the course 3220 on instruction. I found this very enlightening for many reasons. It also has given me a much needed boot in the butt to get moving on 3100. The 3220 course was great. I have very little experience with class instruction. The only experience has been in front of youth and only until just last summer have I written a lesson plan. Thank you BOPPPS model for making my future lesson planning more efficient and easier. I do love structure!
So next week will be difficult, as i'm determined to complete AND submit my assignments for 3100. This will be my X-mas present to me!

Trends & Roles - Article 2

My second article is from The New York Times of all places. You'll have to read between the lines a bit to determine what it is about the article that caught my attention, and no it's not the title!

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/01/nyregion/feng-shui-and-swing-for-the-not-busy-enough.html?ref=adulteducation

Trends of Educators
What I found interesting about this article is what they were saying about how the college changed the courses and programs they were bringing to the college. Not only was it the type of programs but more importantly how they changed the learning process for these adult learners. They shortened the courses, as well as offered more classes in the evenings, when adult learners were free from their work or personal responsibilities. Institutions are offering classes that are interactive, fast and provide the social aspect where discussions can ensue. As we know, this is one part of the puzzle important to adult learners. There has been a steady increase in adult learning and institutions and educators are having to change with the trends to appease the life long learners.

Trends & Roles - Article 1

As part of this assignment I am to post two articles or websites that discuss some the trends and roles of adult educators. I've had a surprising difficult time trying to find full articles that I don't have to subscribe to or pay for or be a student with the institution. Let's just say today was frustrating when I thought it was going to be fairly interesting. The one thing I did take away was that I read a lot of partial articles and journal entries and have taken away some interesting information. At least there was a positive! Okay then on to posting my entries. I still haven't determined how to import websites into this blog site, which is disappointing, so I'll just copy and paste what I've found.

ROLES OF EDUCATORS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformative_learning

My comments for this article from wikipedia have to do with the role of the educator. For adult learners to embrace new information they need to link it with six things according to Knowles (Wikipedia).

1. Adults need to know the reason for learning something (Need to Know)
2. Experience (including error) provides the basis for learning activities (Foundation).
3. Adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education; involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction (Self-concept).
4. Adults are most interested in learning subjects having immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives (Readiness).
5. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented (Orientation).
6. Adults respond better to internal versus external motivators (Motivation).

 In this article I want to comment on the role of the educator. It discussed tranformative learning. The role the educator has is to make the learners aware of their assumptions, as well as those of others. To also initiate discussion of those assumptions and how they relate to the persons beliefs, and assess how those beliefs and values effected their assumptions. Through this the educator will open learners to think autonomously. It is also important that the educator show that they themselves are able and willing to change and adapt, as well as learn. This will show learners that they are individual and authentic.

(Andragogy. (2012, September 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:24, December 17, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andragogy&oldid=513085505)