Comments on Temple Grandin and Learning Technology

• All things for all potential thinkers
• Posted by David , Asst. Professor of History at Dominican University on March 2, 2010 at 11:30am EST

• My question when I read such posts (and watched the talk), is that first I completely agree, and second that one cannot reasonably expect faculty to develop their course so that they provide all modes of learning/testing to all potential types of thinkers. But we can, and do I hope, demand that faculty pay attention to the specifics of their class while teaching within a set of norms that they and their discipline feel is reasonable. And when they encounter a student whose mode of thinking requires different norms, adapt.

  We can demand reaction, but not preemptive reaction. Maybe it would be nice if every teacher could design every course so that every kind of thinker could thrive in it - but that's not realistic.

• Getting outside our own brains
• Posted by Betzi Bateman , Doctoral Student/Part-time Instructor at Kent State University on March 2, 2010 at 11:30am EST

• Thank you for posting the link to Temple Grandin's TED talk. I'm a big admirer of hers and recently watched the film about her life. Here's a link to an interview with her on NPR's Fresh Air: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99009110

  I think that educators should learn how people learn and design instruction accordingly. This may or may not go along with our own preferences. I happen to prefer learning individually. Reading material, working through it myself, and writing papers is how I prefer to work academically. However, I also know, that even though I don't prefer it, I learn A LOT from group projects and group discussion. I may perceive or understand content in a certain way, but until exposed to the multiple perspectives of others, there is only so far I can go.

  Though I prefer to learn individually, I have designed my own classes to include group collaboration and discussion. I also include audio materials along with transcripts so students can choose the format they prefer and will serve the needs of students who may be audio or visually challenged. Every instructor has a responsibility to work flexibly with students with special needs and their office of disability services.

  I am still hesitant, however, to focus on individual preferences, sometimes called learning styles or "types of thinking" in this case. Including choices and different types of assignments for different students sounds like a good idea to me. However, even Temple Grandin is an author. She may be a visual/realist thinker, but she has also overcome great obstacles to connect with others and write. Sometimes, as long as it doesn't cause great distress, all students should learn how to learn and to push themselves in different ways. A student on the autistic spectrum may find the loud volume of an in-class movie overwhelming. That student should be provided another means of watching the film, maybe take it home so that he can watch it in a way that does not cause distress. Or, other options could be explored.

  I think any student's understanding of a combustion engine would be enhanced with a well-designed visual (or tactile for visually impaired student). I also can't imagine being able to get a full understanding of Wuthering Heights without reading the book. Where do preferences, special needs, and general understandings of how people learn combine to create the optimum learning environment?

• Restated Questions
• Posted by Al Lind , CEO at Kentucky Virtual Campus on March 2, 2010 at 1:30pm EST

• Let me restate your questions in a more generalized form:

  1) How many of our students sit somewhere on the other spectrums? In a class of 100, how many learners are different than me?
  

  2) Do we have a responsibility to design and deliver our courses so that learners on the other spectrums can thrive in our courses?

  3) Does learning technology hold the potential for designing and delivering courses that would work for brains like my own and brains on other spectrums?

  My answers to the questions are 100, yes and yes.

  Our challenge is to design courses that accommodate and dynamically adapt to the learner, to optimize the learning experience. Personalized learning or mass customization if you will.

• Universal Design
• Posted by Lynda Harding at California State University, Fresno on March 2, 2010 at 1:45pm EST

• Autism is but one of the challenges faculty face when teaching a diverse student body. The Universal Design for Learning approach is preferable to a strong focus on specific "learning styles" or disabilities. Quoted from http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html, UDL makes use of

  Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge

   

  Multiple means of action and expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and

   

  Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn

  California State University faculty members no longer have the option of waiting until a student requiring an accommodation appears in a class, as we are mandated to make all instructional materials accessible to students with disabilities. Although this mandate presents a challenge, it is not a bad thing. As Betzi sort of implies, providing multiple avenues to learning will benefit all students.

• Ask our students how we might teach more effectively
• Posted by Dr. Jude Rathburn , Wisconsin Teaching Scholar at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee on June 30, 2010 at 12:45pm EDT

• Lynda Harding's post brings up a great point that a focus on "how teachers present information to students" provides only one piece of the puzzle as we try to figure out how to motivate, engage and help today's students learn to the best of their abilities. Many faculty object to the idea that we should adjust how we teach so that we address the wide spectrum of differences in how people learn. While I agree with the sentiment that it is impossible to design our presentations of information so that they fit with the strengths of all learners - I believe quite strongly that we need to shift our attention away from "what the teacher does" and provide students with more choices regarding how they "demonstrate what they know."

  Various researchers have pointed out that today's students are much more visually oriented than the faculty who are attempting to teach them. I know this is true of me - I am much more in the verbal camp that Dr. Grandin mentioned in her TED talk and it is extremely hard for me to think in terms of or express my thoughts through pictures or images. For many years I expected students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through verbal or text-based mechanisms - because that was the way that I could best make sense of their "performance of understanding." I have started to recognize that allowing my students to demonstrate what they know through mechanisms of their own choosing, provides the opportunity for students to showcase what they know AND be more engaged in learning at the same time.

  I am also more cognizant that presenting information to students in multiple modes of representation, such as text, audio, images and hands-on demonstrations - helps me to communicate more effectively and gives more students the chance to understand what it is that I am trying to teach. Yet a very uncomfortable feeling comes with admitting that I am not good at visual thinking - because that means I am no longer the "expert" and might have to ask my students to become more equal partners in the process of becoming educated. I urge my "verbally oriented" colleagues to develop their visual thinking skills, while at the same time allowing students to have more options for expressing and sharing what they know.