Learning Styles and Technology

When your child enters a primary school classroom, they will most likely be greeted by a row of computers by the wall. These are predominantly used before school and during rainy lunch breaks to play educational games, although the teacher may include a lesson on Google searches for older children. The library may have iPads with graphic novels and interactive texts. Still, most learning takes place the old-fashioned way: number games, plays from the School Journal, exploring the orchard in search of inspiration for poems and pitching real tents during Outdoor Education Week.

At intermediate school and college, though, computers become essential learning tools. Most teachers love tablet computers because they make textbooks come alive. Education simply is more interactive and fun with electronic gadgets. Computers encourage a natural form of discovery through trial and error. They can tutor those who are falling behind, repeating the lesson as many times as an individual learner needs it. E-simulations empower students to experiment with and experience a variety of complex systems such as weather patterns, mechanics, business models, and political phenomena. Working together on projects that involve computers fosters collaboration among students, as well as between students and teachers.

So is computer technology in the classroom a giant step for mankind? “There is very little evidence that kids learn more, faster or better by using these machines,” says Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. He believes the money would be better spent on recruiting, training and retaining teachers, who still form the essence of education. “IPads are marvellous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning.”

The absence of real human interaction, such as facial expression, body language, and tone of voice cues, make education software a very poor teacher of everyday social interactions.

The lack of physical interaction with the real world is also an issue, and we’re not only talking sedentary life style. If a child has only experienced something on the computer, like driving a car or playing golf, they won’t know what the real thing feels like. The simulation will not mean anything to them and won’t prepare them for real life. The weightless tenpin bowling on the Wii is misleading compared to the real heavy ball, so a Wii bowling champ may be lost in a bowling alley.

Some children learn better with the aid of a computer than others. It all depends on their learning style preferences. What is your child's learning style?

Computers are an integral part of the civilisation in which our children are growing up. If we want them to keep up with the fast-paced world of technology, then we need to accept that some of their learning will have to come via a computer screen. Just as long as a good portion of learning continues to come from real trips to the zoo, mixing real paints, and smelling real roses, the computer can be a superb learning tool.

The Ultimate Pinterest Guide for Business

This week's blog post will explore the many ways in which businesses can take advantage of the social networking medium called Pinterest.

Pinterest is a social bookmarking site that allows users to create a visual, online pinboard with images they love organized around topics of their choice by category. It’s the fastest growing social media site in history, the third-largest network after Facebook and Twitter and has over 25 million members and 10 million unique visitors a month. 

 

Because the medium is image-rich and online, it best appeals to people with a visual-tactile working style, with a non-preference for mobility. How many of your clients have such a working style? Check your own working style.

 

Karen Leland, author of the new book “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business,” has created a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide to hitting the road running and quickly making Pinterest into a valuable source of prospects, promotion and profits. “Great business brands are about telling compelling, congruent stories, and Pinterest is at its core about storytelling in pictures,” says Leland. “Pinterest has tapped into this visceral lover of visuals, and no small business, entrepreneur or corporation can afford to miss the boat on bringing what they offer beyond words and into images.”

“The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business” is designed to help businesses use Pinterest to its maximum potential. The book provides both beginning users and seasoned veterans with the ability to find their specific area of interest “at a glance.” It uses step-by-step how-to, sidebars, examples, case studies, expert interviews and tip sheets to show how, from setup to strategy, to use Pinterest for promotional, branding and marketing objectives. 

The book explores the ins and outs of signing up and getting started on Pinterest and how to create boards that get noticed, drive traffic and convert fans into customers. Special chapters are devoted to creating a strong community and enthusiastic following through high-engagement activities, contests, social media outreach and smart pinning strategies.

In addition the book outlines specific marketing applications to small businesses, from architecture firms to theater companies.  

 

 

Karen Leland is the bestselling author of 8 business books including the recently released Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest For Business, which can be purchased at http://bit.ly/Amazonbook. She is the president of Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with small businesses and Fortune 500 on building stronger personal and team brands. She writes the Modern Marketing Blog at www.karenleland.com.

Should You Cyber-Spy On Your Kids?

Cyber spying is when you read the emails your children send and the emails they receive, when you check their browsing history and, in extreme cases, record every keystroke they type.

The case in favour of cyber-spying: "If your child refuses to talk to you, yet you sense something is going wrong in their life, it’s OK to read their emails and check what sites they’ve been visiting (making bombs, depression clinics, suicide pack pages), just as it’s OK to read their diary, their poems, their school essays, their blog, their Facebook updates. What they write can be a warning or a cry for help. If you read it in time, you can prevent disaster."

The case against: "School essays, Facebook and blogs are meant for public viewing. If your child writes something alarming in one of those, it’s because they want help, or perhaps just need to get your attention. Emails and texts, though, are private conversations, particularly for tween-agers and teens. The diary is like the child’s personal psychotherapist, and therefore strictly confidential."

Whichever option you choose, here are a few indicators that your child may spend too much time on the computer:

• Their learning style shows a preference for tactile and visual learning.
• Their learning style shows a non-preference for mobility when concentrating on something difficult.
• They prefer studying alone.

What is your child's learning style? Find out today.

Why A Students Work For C Students

"Why A Students Work For C Students" is a book by Robert T. Kiyosaki, the author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad" (see the video here). It's full of fascinating ideas, such as:

• getting good grated at school, going to university and getting a good job is just one of four ways of earning money;
• getting good grated at school, going to university and getting a good job will not make you rich;
• getting good grated at school, going to university and getting a good job will put you into the rat race.

The author advocates becoming a business person, starting another Apple or Facebook, or at least owning a lot of property like rental homes and hotels. He admits not everybody is a born entrepreneur, though, and he recognises not only different personality types, but also different Learning Styles.

If you have children, read the book to discover how to further their financial education. If you're stuck in the rat race, get the book for yourself.

Do you have the Working Style of an entrepreneur? Is your Learning Style integrated, your preferred social group friends and peers, your communication style talking and listening and doing?

Find out.

Motivation and Learning Styles

A friend of mine has recently taught me a valuable lesson about motivation: you can incentivize people to take action, but the result may not necessarily be what you expect. 

He used the example of his daughter and hockey. In order to motivate his daughter to try harder, he promised her an expensive reward if she scored a goal (she hadn't scored at all that season). The very next game, she scored a goal in the first five minutes, gave him a thumbs up... and stopped applying herself to the game. After all, she'd already achieved her goal of obtaining the expensive gift, so why bother?

Therein lies the danger of motivating our children, our employees, or even ourselves with external "carrots": the person we're trying to motivate with usually focus on the wrong goal.

Of course, some people are more externally motivated than others. Which one are you? Your Working Style Analysis will tell you.

Your Music Learning Style

Dr Yvonne Eve Walus talks to Barbara Prashnig, Director of the Creative Learning Centre in Auckland about the different styles of learning.

What are learning styles and why is it important for parents to know about them?

·         If you ask a child who needs movement to sit still and memorise a times table, you’re unlikely to get good results. You would do far better if you allowed them to walk around or play hopscotch on a makeshift map of times-tables.

·         Tactile children, would love to use Koosh balls and learn better by using self-correcting learning tools and other hands-on activities. 

·         Auditory children benefit from making tapes of their lessons (either recording their teachers in class, or reading the material themselves out loud). 

·         Kinesthetic children may make schoolwork more interesting by miming the lesson or staging a production.

Your Learning Style helps you answer the following questions:

·         Do you like working alone or with a friend?

·         Do you like doing your homework at the desk or on the sofa?

·         Can you solve problems better in the morning or in the evening?

Case Study     

Tanya is eight. She loves reading and completing jigsaw puzzles.  Her teacher says she has a lot of potential, but she simply doesn’t want to learn.  In class, she’s forever looking down, cracking her knuckles or folding the corners of her books, or doodling on the margins. The teacher says this proves she’s not listening. In fact, Tanya is listening.  She’s trying to listen so intently, she has to keep her hands busy to help her along. In LS terminology, we would say that Tanya is a visual (words-based) and tactile learner, with a non-preference for auditory input. But that’s only a small portion of Tanya’s Learning Style: we don’t yet know whether she has analytic or holistic tendencies, what her environmental preferences are, whether she needs bright or dim light, likes to learn alone or in a group, what motivates her, what her persistence is like, and so on.

A child’s greatest asset is their sense of self-worth.  It comes from ‘being good at’ things. To analyse your child’s Learning Style click here.

Easter Week

It's almost Easter! How do you celebrate it in your country? Do you get time off work? Do you cook a feast, paint egg shells, hide chocolate eggs? Or do you do something even more surprising?

In Poland, for example, people celebrate Easter Monday by pouring water onto one another... often in sub-zero temperatures. Girls who get drenched, folklore tells you, are the ones who'll get married within the year.

In Finland, children dress up as witches, carry broomsticks and build bonfires.

In Greece, people throw pots and pans out of the window.

In one French town, the inhabitants cook up a gigantic omelet using over 4,000 eggs.

Norwegians book publishers love the season so much, they release special “Easter Thrillers” around Easter time.