Social Learning Theory

One of psychology's most famous debates is the argument of nature versus nurture. Does genetics have more of an influence on our behavior and personality, or are we products of our environment? Julian B. Rotter’s Social Learning Theory supports the position that environment plays a larger role in the development of behaviors and personality than that of instinctual drive. Rotter's Social Learning Theory was developed during a time when the prevailing belief of personality development was influenced by Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory held that behavior was influenced by inner forces operating below the level of consciousness, or interactions between the three components of the mind, id,ego, and superego.  Albert Bandura called Psychoanalytic theory “pseudo explanations” because they ignored the complexity of human responsiveness. The ideas for Social Learning Theory was formulated in Brooklyn New York where Rotter was born to Jewish immigrant parents in October 1916. His father operated a successful business within the city until the Great depression hit, Bonnie R. Strickland wrote in Rotter’s obituary published in the Journal American Psychologist, that growing up in this time period is what led Rotter to realize how much environmental influencer's can shape one’s life. Rotter’s first work Social Learning Theory and Clinical Psychology was published in 1954, the book was written as an attempt to account for human behavior in relatively complex social situations. To this day Rotters ideas shape the way we view behavior and personality, and psychologist such as Bandura and Mearns continue to expand and evolve the theories that Rotter put forth.

I've been thinking a lot about Rotter's Social Learning Theory and how it applies to my life, my son is due to be born in less than a month, I want to make sure the environment I provide for him is one where he can grow into a moral and successful adult. As Rotter says we are products of our environment, children learn from observation and imitation, I need to set a good example for him. My parents didn't finish traditional high school, and neither received a college education. I'm the first in my family to graduate from college, and I would like my son to follow in my footsteps. I'm going to be sure teach him the importance of education, but I also realize that he might have different ambitions and need to respect whatever it is he wants to do. Growing up my mother always seemed to know what I was up to, like she had eyes in the back of her head. I suspect she might have unknowingly been using Rotter's formula for predicting behavior, I look forward to developing these super powers after Marcelo is born.

Julian B. Rotter

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A reflection about relecting

This week was Thanksgiving, a time to sit and reflect about the good things in our lives. With our busy schedules it can be hard to take a moment to sit and reflect, but the holidays let us have time to focus on the important things, like family, friends, health, etc. We shouldn't just reflect during the holidays, its important to remind ourselves of how fortunate we are, especially during the rough patches that crop up from time to time. I'm a big fan of apple's watch, with the recent update it started giving me reminders about taking a moment to breathe and meditate. Usually I would just dismiss this notification, but if we can't take a minute out of our day to breathe then maybe we need to change something in our lives. Here lately every time I receive the notification I've been taking the time to breathe, during these sessions I like to focus on my goals and the positive things in my life. I'd like to encourage all my readers to try to find time each day to close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing and the positive things you have going for you. 

Learning from Experience

My fiancé and I had our baby shower last weekend, all of our closest family and friends attended and it only made us more excited about our little peanut. We're first time parents and it was an eye opening experience unwrapping all the gifts, we got stuff we never would of thought we needed! We got a stroller and a travel system (they do the same thing but I guess they're different), a wipe warmer to keep the babies butt happy, a bottle steamer to keep everything sanitary. It was a little overwhelming to say the least but I think we got everything we need. 

At the entry way to the hall we had a advice box where our guest could provide us with parenting tips. One that particularly stood out to me said " don't worry about making mistakes, you'll learn from your experiences, we were all first time parents at one point." I don't know who provided this advice but it helped put me at ease. I've been stressing out lately with the due date inching closer and closer, I've even developed a twitch in my left eye that won't seem to go away from all the stress. It's not that I'm worried about being a bad parent, it's just that I don't want to mess up, I want make sure everything is done right. Reading John Dewey this week reinforced that I need to breathe and stop thinking to much into things, I'm going to make mistakes but those mistakes will lead to knowledge because all knowledge is gained through experience. I'm going to learn as I go through doing, I might change a diaper wrong or struggle with getting the car seat perfectly leveled but its not the end of the world and I will only make that mistake once. 

I also have the benefit of a great support system of experienced parents and teachers, if any of my readers would like to provides me some advice please comment below :-)

Communities of Practice

This weeks in my Foundations of Learning Theory Class we focused on Communities of Practice or CoP's. You may find yourself asking, as I did, what in the world are CoP's? Etienne Wenger defines CoP's as a congregation of people who come together to partake in collective learning in a shared domain or human endeavor. Communities of Practice differ from clubs or other groups because they aren't just a gathering of people with a common interest but a group of people who come together to hone their skills and learn from one another.

Members of CoP's are all practitioners of a craft or domain of knowledge, while its perfectly fine for members to differ in expertise, they should all have a grasp on the area of focus. The benefit of this collective learning is that members can share knowledge with one another which can lead to greater competency for all.

An example of a CoP is a group of local wood workers who come together twice a month to share their latest projects, the members always document their work with pictures so during their meetings they can show their process. During these meetings the wood workers share best practices and tips with one another. Since the members share their process so that others can learn from and provide feedback this makes this group a CoP rather than just a wood working club.

What CoP's are you a member of? Share below in the comments. 

Is the future classroom strictly digital?

Seymour Papert in his book Mindstorms talks about the strong emotions that are provoked when the subject of a future without schools is brought up. Papert says that many people envision a dystopian world where kids are running wild in a Lord of the Flies scenario. Papert says that people who imagine this model are envisioning a world where we get rid of brick and mortar schools completely. What those who decry the idea of a schoolless future can't seem to grasp is that we're not getting rid of schools, just digitizing them, so we can reap the benefits of what computers and the Internet bring. Computers are tools that provide teachers and students a new way to teach and learn, we shouldn’t fear this change just because it’s different then how we learned when we were in school. What is becoming increasingly evident though is we’re moving towards a future where the entirety of lessons and course work is going to be done through digital mediums. In this model teachers move into a role of facilitator and learning becomes more student centered. This is a natural evolution of the traditional classroom, in this model students have the reigns and teachers act as a guide to their educational pursuits. I believe Students will still attend class and have a face to face with an instructor, but all course work and a lot of instruction will be conduced through LMS's. What do you guys think, will we ever come to a point where all course work and instruction is strictly digital?  

Connectivism

Recently I have noticed a extreme lag in my desktop computer while doing graphically intensive task, usually this is a sign a component is on its last legs. My suspicions were confirmed when I took my case apart and heard something rattling around inside. As I was shaking my computer around like a mad man a plastic stud and a loose spring fell out of the case onto the floor. 

I had no idea where these loose parts came from, but knew it couldn't be good. I turned to Google to source the answer for me, after scouring multiple blogs I came across someone who found themselves in the same conundrum. The user was able to identify the part as the arm that holds the heat sink to the graphics card, others were chiming in with their own experiences. I was able to determine that eventually my card would fail due to excessive heat and this was the most likely reason I had been experiencing lags during task that required some extra extra oomph.

The article that we read from Christopher Guder identifies the basic principles that make up the learning theory of connectivism. Connectivism has been called the learning theory for the digital age, the basic principles that make up this theory is as follows

• Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process and connecting specialized nodes of information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances. 
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activity.
• Decision making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. 

In my search for discovering the cause of my computers hard ware failure I exercised many of the principles of connectivism. I turned to a diversity of opinions in order to narrow down a solution for my issue. I connected to specialized nodes of information sources when I accessed a forum discussing hardware failure on computers. I found the most up to date post so I could ensure that I had the most accurate information available. 

There's no denying that technology has had a major impact on the way we learn, we have access to a almost unlimited amount of information. Learning has become more collaborative, we use others understanding of subjects or problems in order to form our own understanding. We have access to the most up to date information the minute it becomes available. Technology allows the learner to be an active participant in their learning, which makes learning more student centered. The learning theory of connectivism explains the processes of how modern technology is used in the learning process, and the impact tech has had on students and teachers. Technology isn't static and we may find ourselves needing to redefine this theory as tech like virtual and augmented reality change the way students learn.