Identifying Learning Styles
Sierra has just released software called The Lost Mind of Dr...
Links
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.3adeebc6736780dddeb3ffdb62108a0c/
Sierra has just released software called The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain ($40) which allows students to use all of Howard Gardener's seven multiple intelligences to find this brain.His classification system includes verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal.Naturally various cartoon characters are onhand to help guide students towards repairing the brain via puzzles, tapping the seven intelligences. It is intended for ages 9 and up.
Our rationale for including this tool here is: in this era students are very mobile, and a class register may reveal a 50% turnover during one school year. Teachers want to learn and build upon a student's strength quickly and shore up less developed skill areas, but few fun "diagnostics" can be found. This software, then, will help teachers quickly identify learning styles (rarely included in a cum folder) so precious learning time is not lost.
Different Ways of Knowing builds on Gardener's work, also. This site is a community-building effort for conversations about garnering curriculum and assessment resources for this method.
Differentiated learning, i.e. learning in mixed ability classrooms, can be easily be extended to tools like computers.
Much of today's curriculum rests on Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy, a ladder with rungs for knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. A parallel taxonomy, developed by Cochran, Conklin and Modin) may suit the 21st century better; remember, understand, apply (including procedural and metacognitive), evaluate, and create.
FastForWord builds cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing and sequencing. This software adapts to individual learning styles.
Annotation
For many decades psychometricians have explored approaches to and methods for identifying a child's style. Some complex tests can be administered by specialists. Whether one supports Gardener's scheme or not is a theoretical issue for teachers in their classrooms doing their jobs. This software will help you quickly gain a glimmer of understanding; you can see which puzzles are easy or hard. Then you have accumulated a point of departure for individualizing student work.
