EDC 665--Blog 4

Melissa asks: Blog: Using the same learning experience you reflected on last week, did each activity explicitly map to a goal? Implicitly? Did this impact your learning during the activities?

Due to the nature of my learning experience, I feel that the activities that were planned explicitly mapped out in the trainer's mind, but were implicitly transferred. Simply stated, the teacher/trainer implied the various learning activities and did not specifically state the specific aspects of the Mimio board that we would be learning. He had directly implied what we were going to be learning.

In some ways, I feel that this did impact my learning during the activity and lesson. I felt that I went into the training blind-sided (I was signed up for it on a Tuesday and trained on the following Friday.) For something that I have not had any experience with, I feel that the initial training should have given explicit instructions on how to utilize this new tool within our classroom. When you explicitly learn something, one is involved in "an active process where people seek out the structure of any information that is presented to them." This meaning goes hand in hand of exactly how the Mimeo training should have been structured.

Implicit learning is " characterized as a passive process, where people are exposed to information, and acquire knowledge of that information simply through that exposure." While implicit learning could work very well using the Mimeo board, we would have needed to have a hands-on experience to utilize this type of learning process. Exposure is the key word. We were exposed to it visually, however, because it was a training in how to use it, we should have also been exposed to it through an active experience.

In the end, this instructor could have had his objective met had he been consistent and had a specific goal in mind. I feel that he mixed up implicit and explicit learning. He will be coming back for another training this month. Hopefully the next learning experience will be more beneficial and will better my understanding of the Mimeo Board.


Definitions and quotes obtained from : http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~epritch1/impnexp.htm