Lisa+Cullen

Lisa V. Thorpe-Cullen ISTC 541 Summer 2012 media type="custom" key="20328014" media type="custom" key="19581102" Isn't this so true with people who've always done things one way and don't like change? Regardless of whether a person is good at his/her job, he/she needs to be open to learning - lifelong learning as it's now known. __**Virtual Field Trip Reflection**__ The virtual field trip experience was very enlightening. This is an exciting resource for teachers and students. Though like most things, I found that there were definitely better quality and more engaging “trips” than others. Some of the virtual “trips” were no more exciting and engaging than a video that may be presented in the class, thus would probably not be as beneficial as a classroom tool. Yes, unfortunately, this is the case, but there are some others that could really enhance a classroom lesson. I found that Memorial Hall provided interactive activities such as dressing to fit the era. This provides students not only with information but engaging activities to help them relate. It provides more than one venue for learning, thus has a better chance at grabbing and keeping the attention of more of the students. Equally, the Louvre provides an amazing opportunity for students to visit a place that the majority could only dream of visiting. This in of itself is an outstanding tool. I also visited the knot tying sights, which were very informative, however, not very interactive and somewhat difficult to follow. I did manage to tie bowline knot!! Great Job!!! Virtual trips within the corporate training world can be beneficial, especially as more and more business is global. Organizations are rapidly increasing global activities and operations. Having the ability to take a virtual trip to global offices, or even cross country offices, provides business partners to familiarize themselves with satellite offices. To put into a personal perspective, my organization is national and global. We have offices in Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland (Baltimore, Harford Co. and Salisbury), California and Honduras. It is not realistic for board members or administrative staff to travel to each and every location; however, it is important for those individuals to understand the operations of each location and their similarities and differences. The ability to take a virtual trip with guided tours would provide an opportunity to meet these needs while remaining within budgetary restraints as well as maintaining realistic schedules. What a great idea! You could even do short videos to embed in a site (a Wiki would make a great site for a virtual field office fieldtrip).

In completing the learning styles survey, I found that I have a very diverse learning style. **Visual/Nonverbal 36 Visual/Verbal 36 Auditory 26 Kinesthetic 30** These scores show that I am lucky enough to be able to learn in just about any format presented to me. This is not particularly new information as I have utilized multiple learning environments while continuing my education and I have been able to do so relatively successfully. One of the suggestions this survey provided that I have not considered is color coding information. I have always utilized highlighting key terms or important ideas; however, I have never considered the usefulness of color coding the information. Overall, I found the CAST website extremely informative. As a non-education major, a lot of this information is “foreign” to me in the context of my career. The CAST website was informative and detailed enough that I have been able to apply a great deal of the information to my needs as a corporate trainer. Learners are learners regardless of the age of the student. I also find that adult learners are a great deal more difficult to teach than younger students, requiring a great deal of variety in educational delivery. Yes, adult learners are different in their learning needs and styles. Adult learners are often not as "cooperative" as younger learners because adults don't like to waste their time and they want to know up front what they're going to learn and why they have to learn it. What I found most interesting about the //Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age// was the shift in thought regarding the plasticity of the human brain. Prior to this research, it was the belief that the human brain essentially stopped developing and growing after a certain point and that new events and experiences did not have a lasting effect on brain development. This has since been disproven. As someone that will be working with adult learners, this is extremely important information. It helps adult learners dispel the age old adage “you can’t teach old dogs new tricks”. As someone new to education and curriculum, the CAST website provided a multitude of techniques and strategies to help adult learners be successful. As stated previously, adult learners can be the most difficult to educate as they are more resistant to new information and have spent a lifetime being educated in their own personal fashion. This site provides an excellent resource for me to be able to personalize training curriculums to the level of knowledge and educational abilities of my learners. Developing a curriculum was a new experience for me. Doing the research for this project opened my eyes to the difficulty of the task. As a non-education major, it was a bit more difficult to apply these assignments to my personal needs, however, once the research was completed I found that regardless of the learning environment and the learner’s age, all of this information can be tied to together. It's just as important to adult learners that content be organized and delivered in a way that makes sense to them. Though I am not an educator in the traditional sense of this assignment, I am an educator all the same. I found that the material provided at CAST is absolutely something that I can share as a resource with my colleagues and fellow trainers. Being able to provide learners with a variety of options in the process will reinforce the learning process as well as foster a more positive outlook for the learner. I would like to learn more about ways in which CAST can be applied to the corporate learning environment. Though I was able to manipulate the information to suit my needs as a corporate trainer, I would like to see more concrete examples and information that could be applied to this learning environment.
 * What was your overall impression of the CAST website?**
 * Did you find any interesting information in the electronic version of //Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age//? Describe how you might incorporate that information in your teaching.**
 * Differentiation of instruction is a topic that is stressed in public schools today. Did any of the resources provided at the CAST website give you some new tools in helping you plan lessons for all learners?**
 * What was your reaction to the 2 activities in which you participated? Did you gain any new insight into your strengths and talents through these exercises?**
 * Many of my graduate students who are teachers have expressed concern that they don’t feel equipped to sufficiently plan differentiated lessons for their students, but they have responded quite positively to the materials at CAST. Is this a resource that you may put to use in your teaching or share with colleagues at your school?**
 * What would you like to know/explore more at CAST?**