Module 2: Instructional Design Modalities and Learning Theories

 When we begin to talk about types of learning and the environments that we learn, we are going to discuss the two basic types of learning.  The first is the formal learning environment and the second is the informal learning environment.  The former is the formal type of learning which has goals and objectives defined by the training department, instructor, learning designer, and/or institution of learning. The informal learning environment is a little more convoluted in respect to its definition. Informal learning has a global learning approach with knowledge, skill, or understanding that occurs outside the formal/traditional classroom learning studio.  Informal learning encompasses holistic digestion of information that takes knowledge gained from families, internet searches, vacations, and everyday interactions with the environment that we live in. 

The learning environment of the past was based on teacher-centered and instructor lead platforms of driving tons of information unto the learners' minds so that would hopefully regurgitate it all back to the teacher the in the same way it was presented. This type of teacher know-all approach was based on learning in the 20th-century industrial revolution model. Technological devices were yet to be incorporated into the classroom like we have at our disposal today.  The most technological machine at that time was the typewriter.  And after decades the computer began to migrate into the computer laboratories in certain privileged schools and academic institutions of higher learning. Most students struggled to learn from this type of model if they had difficulty recording information audibly in their minds. There wasn't a large database of information on the internet called the worldwide web, google, and social media outlets with information pouring in on a constant basis. The majority of schools decided if you can't learn with that particular model, then you must be a tradesperson or "skilled worker." Most untraditional learners were either left behind or pushed into the world of work and maybe they stumbled upon a trade school or found education through their employment. This was the model of learning in the 20th-century and to some areas in the United States still the same.  I was one of the "lucky" fortunate ones that could grasp information from the lectern.  I didn't have a difficult time learning, but what was challenging about this model was that if I didn't take good notes or recorded the session, I would struggle to retain all the information at once.  

But today is so different for students and educators that ingest and digest information.  The computers are portable, I mean very portable.  Like the ones that fit in the palm of your hand.  The information is in abundance and it's not the lack of information, but what information is relevant and true. How do we pick through all the stories and journals that rest in the storage warehouses of information earth?  Data is moving faster than the speed of sight, and the collection of information is growing businesses and institutions to degrees that required experts to design programs just to code and explain it all. Social media channels now have television capabilities to drive network television shows, not to mention independent story banks of educators pushing their wealth of knowledge to the next viewer that has the time to learn something new about health, education, business, or technology. Youtube is the new couch potato of the 21st-century.  Instead of watching, recording, or waiting for the show to appear you just think about what you want and it magically appears on your phone or notebook. 

My children all grow up in the era of on-demand television programs. And they learned to operate a cellphone before they could read and write. My youngest four years old is a professional Youtube watcher and cellphone operator.  He hasn't started kindergarten or first grade, but he already knows how to read and type. Without technology, our children are horrified and immobilized from the world.  Parents have to detox themselves and their children from the grips of the cellular phone.  Many spend thousands of dollars on vacations that take them away from the connection and constant vibration of the pocket computer. On average most families have more cellphone and computers than televisions.  And the high-speed internet is over 400mbps.  Gone are the days of the plug-in dial-up phone and computer, and gone are the days of traditional learning. If nothing else good happened out of this virus called Covid-19, the virus put a treatment in the classrooms.  Teachers and students had to get techie, parents, and grandparents, and babysitters had to learn how to navigate google and LMS.  Welcome to the world of remote learning and distance learning platforms. Say hello to Zoom video conferences, which are second or first nature at this point. If you haven't moved online, then you are probably off the grind. It is almost impossible to escape the connection and world of emoji responses in the chat. 

One thing that still remains the same after all these changes in some respect is the impact on our minds. Learners and teachers still need to submit and commit to the information. This is where classical and operant condition still plays their role. The classical conditioning model is as much a part of us as drinking water from a river. This type of learning process creates a conditioned response through associations between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus. Whether we choose to make it pleasant by creating that environment for our students and learners or not, the conditions are still the same. One said in the world of ethics long years ago, "to be or not to be" that is the question. 

With technology, something in our brains is being rewarded for our behavior. If you buy enough shop at the right store or sign up for the rewards program, you will get a reward.  Your cellphone is going to notify you and keep track of your buying habits so that you can save and catch the biggest deals. When our children do what we require of them, they get to retain their cellphone privileges. When they want the cellphone, it's typically not a request anymore, but an expectation. When you sign up for programs online and in-stores, there is typically a benefit to begin a part of the club. Show up at Costco on the weekend and you get the cheese and the crackers too. Show up at the grocery store after hours and you get the beer and the wine samples. Show up to class and you get the points for signing on and listening to the instructors.  

Whether the outcome is positive or negative is of course up to us. Will we adapt to the new information or will we suffer the punishment of forgetting our cellphones at home due to multi-layered data protection? Positive reinforcement is an object or stimulus that will increase the chances of a certain desired behavior happening again in the future. The negative side of that is of course you increase a certain behavior by the removal of a certain stimulus/object. This brings us to reinforcement schedules, which are rules stating which instances of behavior, if any, will be reinforced.  Will it be continuous or partial schedules?  Are we or do we have the ability to predict or are we left to wait? The waiting is the hardest part.  What if the teacher decides to give out homework only on certain occasions and not on a regular schedule. Or if the school didn't have regular sports events or holiday breaks. This type of conditioning would rack our nervous system and bring terror to our social and emotional health. Now schools and districts are providing training for teachers and students that are more likely, us all, to experience social and emotional disruption and trauma.  The education system isn't a single line drawn in the sand, but an evolving compass of components the habitat join together to make a health system.

We can outline continuous scheduling as consistent delivery of the desired behavior which is reinforced, whereas partial scheduling is only reinforced by the desired behavior occasionally. And more to partial reinforcement is the complexity of fixed or variable, and either interval or ratio. Furthering the complexity of when are what will be the reinforcement tactic that he or she decides to use as the illicit for further behavioral response manipulation.