Week 3 Presentation Styles

How do you personally view your learning and the use of "presentations" - what works for you as a learner?

A few years ago I ran across a website http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/ that helped me discover the type of learner that I am.  I was doing some research for a class and when I discovered this website it really helped me to understand how I like to learn.  I am definitely a person who can be taught things through showing rather than simply giving me verbal instructions. I was not very good at word problems in math class but I could follow a recipe whether it was for sugar cookies or lemon meringue pie.  I did not have problems, I remember in the early 80's I had an old car that my mother gave to me and I had to learn to change my own oil and spark plugs.  My uncle bought me the book Car Repairs for Dummies and I followed along with the pictures in the book with no problem for me it was as easy as any recipe that I had tried.

From the learning styles that are listed on the site, I can say that I am a visual learner who enjoys using my hands to build things and to discover how things work.  I am a very logical person who definitely prefers to work alone or use self-study  to learn.

The Seven Learning Styles

• Visual (spatial):You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
• Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music.
• Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
• Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
• Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
• Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
• Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I am loving technology and what I can do with it.  I like to use videos such as those found on TED Talks, I have used Netflix to find documentary films that I feel will help my students understand different concepts that I am teaching. Often when I am teaching about the history of computers they have never even seen an adding machine or typewriter for that matter so having a presentation, whether it is created in Powerpoint or Keynote it does not matter.  What matters is that the content is clear. Because our students have electronic devices in their hands it is pretty easy to send them to a website to view the images of things that I feel they can not relate to because they have never been exposed to it in their short lives.  My goal in my classes is the help my students think about technology everyday in their everyday lives and to come back into our classroom and show me what they have encountered.  I teach them how to use presentation software by creating a presentation myself that incorporates the various components of the topic into visual and audible content. 

I like to use props also in my classes so that the students that the ability to touch any of the hardware that we are discussing in class.  Hands on learning and electronic presentations via either Powerpoint, Keynote or even HTML websites work best for my personal style of learning.