First Post (you know.... ever!)

So here I am making my first ever contribution to the world of blogging and to be honest, I'm a little disappointed with myself. I'm a frequent reader of several comedy and fashion blogs so I guess I thought that if I was going to enter this world it would be in a hilarious and witty manner poking fun at the many fashion faux pas of the general public. However, being thrust into this world dragging my heels (Tony Bianco, cobalt blue, peep toe stilettos in case you were wondering) has reminded me of the impact the internet has on the students I teach. I don’t think a class goes by without somebody mentioning Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr so why aren’t more teachers harnessing the benefits of this gigantic and largely free resource? Luckily for us courses like this one are being included in Learning Management degrees to help teachers use their student’s fascination with technology to their advantage and create engaging learning experiences for modern classrooms.

So let’s begin the hard stuff.....

Our first task in FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning was to nab ourselves a partner and create or update a Wiki article to show our findings on a reading. I was lucky enough to have two partners, both students I frequently study with out in the ‘real world’ and it was our task to examine Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and then briefly discuss the Plus, Minus and Interesting points of the topic. We were already familiar with Gardner from previous educational theory courses and I personally find his theory an interesting one. He proposed that intelligence is not a single factor but is made up of several elements in varying quantities. These multiple intelligences are linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal (the exact classifications are still under debate but these are Gardner’s original ideas). From an educational stand point we can use this theory to assess which intelligence is most prominent in a student and then convey the information in the way that the student will respond to best. For example, a student with strong logical-mathematical intelligence may respond best if a task is set out in logical steps or a useful pattern can be indentified in the information that may be then used to discover the answer. Today we take this information for granted as we have been exposed to the theory and its associated teaching strategies for many years but Gardner’s theory was originally quite controversial; up until that point it was widely believed that our intelligence was a blank slate until outside influences developed our ability. A detailed knowledge of this theory will help me to deliver more personalised learning experiences to my students that will encourage and engage them so they are able to reach their full potential.

Aside from getting to know a little more about Gardner’s theory, this activity also gave me a useful teaching strategy. I had never encountered the Plus, Minus and Interesting idea before and it would be excellent to incorporate it into a research activity or lesson for my students. It would give them a simple and clear method of gaining the best out of any article or piece of information they come across.

That’s my piece for the day readers, I hope you enjoyed it! To stay true to my roots I think I’ll try and incorporate a little humour and a little shoe love into each and every post, just to give you something to look forward to.

Stay fabulous dahhhlings!

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