Constructivism? Yeah, I've heard about it. Now I get it...

Constructivism has been one of those words that I hear tossed around that I kind of understand, but never really grasped. As a student of affairs administration, no one actually spends time explaining instructional techniques. Sure, we present at conferences, so I'm sure someone's mentioned the notion once or twice, but it's never a focus. The word's kind of like that lace doily on grandma's table--I've seen it, but I've never actually looked at it. As a graduate student, I have spent the majority of my time learning about student development theory, identity association, diversity training, and leadership theories. Administrative awareness is clearly more important than learning (please hear the sarcasm dripping from my words).

That said, after reading Mayer's article, Theories of Learning and Their Application to Technology, it was like a world of understanding opened up t0 me. I felt like interrupting the lovely, bald-headed gentleman sitting next to me on the train to tell him that I finally get it. While the article may have been fairly basic for someone with any background knowledge of instruction, for me it was eye-opening. I was (and am) very impressed and interested with the distinction between the cognitive activity that is associated with constructivist instruction and behavioral activity that seems so apparent in the classrooms that I've observed/participated in. Furthermore, the concept of transferrable knowledge seems so obvious, so reasonable, yet it's not something that I've considered extensively. Of course you would want your students to be able to apply what you've taught them to other scenarios. It only makes sense that you would encourage them to see how what they're learning will help them in the future. Yet, it seems to me that many times that is not the case.

I'm interested to see how what I've learned about constructivist instruction will influence my work in this course. Mayer's description of the pro's and con's of simultaneous presentation vs. successive presentation in technology fit the experiences that I've had when working online (I can't tell you how many times I've skipped a page just because there is way too much going on) and I am hopeful that I will be able to apply what we've read to the webpage that I create to make it useful. We'll see, I guess...for now, here's hoping I pull it off!