Learning styles and e-learners

[Lynda Kelly]

This web post (via Mia's blog) 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner is a useful way of thinking about providing different e-experiences for a range of learners and has some nice web tools listed.

When I did my doctorate I found that people don't necessarily have one learning style - they have many learning styles (or learning identities as I called it) which are fluid and responsive. Learning identities are both integral, part of a person, or derivative, influenced by their sociocultural context. This is why in both the physical and online worlds we need to provide a wide-range of learning experiences I guess.

Any other thoughts on learning styles?

[Tim Sullivan]

Thanks Lynda--look forward to this. In other work in this field, the focus has been on the visitor's agenda being the variable in what they will attend to in a museum and what they will ultimately learn from it, i.e., if they come with a specific agenda related to a special interest, or if during the visit something particulalry grabs the attention, the visitor is more likely to engage cognitively, emotionally and physcially in the learning process. Do you reckon that this view of visitors and their agendas should first be understood as a result of their perception of themselves (their identity) as a learner?

[Lynda Kelly]

While I think agendas are important, my work found that they were only one part of the story. Visitors took on a range of different roles when they visited (often simultaneously) and due to the context of the visit (I'm talking physical visits now) demonstrated a range of learning styles (identities) - their original motivation was only one part of that (and a small one at that).

Jay Rounds' 2006 Curator (49/2) piece, Doing Identity Work in Museums, to me is more relevant than the earlier visitor agenda stuff of Falk et al (1998, Curator 41/2) that I think you may be referring to.