New Culture Learning

CSLE impact on learning
Education and learning for many years have had a check-the-box type approach, meaning completing these laid out tasks equals you being knowledgeable or should be knowledgeable on a certain subject. However, education and learning are far more complex things than the simplistic style that learners and educators alike have been following. Thankfully, the approach to teaching and learning has shifted and continues to shift to a more personalized approach based on the learner. Learning like the world has grown and altered in so many ways and as educators, our learners must have an educational environment that highlights this constant evolution of learning. Dr. Tony Bates, perfectly explains what an educator should consider creating a more realistic learning environment. “A total context in which students are working, and it would include things like…When you’re doing the design, taking account of student differences and diversity, taking account of what skills and knowledge you’re trying to develop, what kind of support you can give them throughout their learning, and how you’re going to assess them” (Chang School, 2015). Utilizing these considerations allows us as educators to create a learning space that reflects real-world learning and not just box-checking.

Innovative learning and CSLE
One of the single biggest aspects of creating significant learning environments (CSLE) is being objective-specific from the start. As we’ve talked about earlier, this is all
about understanding the learner’s differences and needs, and then creating around those aspects. CSLE serves as a monumental tool in progressing learning innovations. In
course EDLD 5305, I had the opportunity as both an educator and parent to create an innovation proposal based on the severe lack of communitive support tools available
to neurodivergent learners. “While we may think that today’s Learners are born communicators the reality is we have a diversity of Learners who have a diversity of
communication needs” (Harapnuik, 2015, 2:08). This statement couldn’t be any truer than it is for neurodivergent learners. With the use of CSLE, the issue of underserved neurodivergent learners and my innovative proposal fall directly in line with putting the learners and their needs first, helping to give a louder voice to this issue and the solutions that require support to advance further.

CSLE, the organization, and the broad stroke
As educators who are responsible for constructing a realistic and productive learning environment, we must ensure that proactive initiatives are being created rather than relying upon reactionary feedback. “All too often we do not apply this holistic approach when we build our courses rather than allow the learning environment to come together inadvertently and respond reactively to the learning dynamics that arise or look to the latest Trend or hottest activity of the day to spice up our classes” (Harapnuik, 2015, 1:22). To be proactive, educators must ask themselves proactive questions regarding their educational intent and the best way to facilitate this intent as it pertains to the learner.

“The needs of the learner have to become the measuring stick and for that to happen, we must ask questions like How will this LMS support the learner how will this curriculum support their needs how will this pedagogy enhance learning will our formative and summative assessments help the learner” (Harapnuik, 2015, 1:48). Learners have more autonomy over their learning, educators must be mindful and purposeful in the way they construct their learning environments and the style in which they distribute the information. “We live in an age when we can access all the world’s information from the palm of our hands there’s never been a better time to be a learner” (Harapnuik, 2015, 3:11). As this stands true, our learning organizations along with educators must shift our instructional design. “Research shows that we need to shift to more coaching and mentoring because formative evaluation and feedback given within a trusted relationship yields the highest levels of student achievement” (Harapnuik, 2015, 5:00). Moving forward, organizations utilizing CSLE will enhance not just a learner’s overall knowledge but also their ability to thrive in life and careers.

New culture learning and the hurdles to overcome
As learning and educating continue to evolve towards a more individualistic style, the more important it becomes for educators to care about invoking passion and imagination within their learners just as much as they care about instilling knowledge. “When a piece of knowledge comes to them, they want to see it from lots of different sources. They want to have lots of different contexts to situate what that piece of knowledge means” (Tedx Talk, 2012, 13:24). Today we live in a world full of information that allows us to question and break down things that in the past we might not have, because of this learning opportunity, our learners get to operate in a learning space full of color where there was once only black and white. As educators, we now have to also utilize this full-view perspective to continue to push education further. “Most teachers and most professors are living in a world where they believe they are content, but in our student’s minds we’re just another context” (Tedx Talk, 2012, 14:33). This disconnect of what was versus what is serves as some of the biggest challenges to overcome for both educators and learners when utilizing a new culture of learning. “We need to reevaluate what expertise is. And this is a very hard thing for teachers to let go of because we’re used to being the people that stand up in front of the room and tell you the information you need to memorize” (Tedx Talk, 2012, 15:50). Learning looks different today, teaching looks different, and knowledge is different in the landscape of new culture learning. “The teacher’s job becomes creating context. Our job is to create a context where we can cultivate imagination, where we can honor passion, and where we can help people connect their passions to the things that they need to learn” (Tedx Talk, 2012, 17:08).

References

Chang School. (2015, Dec 14). Dr. Tony Bates on building effective learning environments [Video].

Youtube. https://youtu.be/3xD_sLNGurA?si=Ialg-mPiCzb7Z8mo

Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 9). Creating significant learning environments [Video].
Youtube.

Tedx Talks.(2012, Sep 12). A new culture of learning, Douglas Thomas [Video].
Youtube.