Learning Styles And Digital Technology

Digital Technology as a learning tool cannot be divorced from the fundamental fact that students are all different, learn in different ways, at different speeds and have an infinite variety of interests. This is important as a digital approach to curricular delivery may work very well with one student but may fail totally to achieve the learning goals of another. In seeking to re-evaluate the use of digital technology in the classroom the teacher must firstly gain an understanding of the students in the class, their individual learning style, their level of digital competence, their level of motivation, ability to concentrate and their ability to engage in self directed learning. Overuse of digital technology or inappropriate use is likely to hamper learning. Consequently the teacher needs to evaluate where and to what degree digital technology should be incorporated into their lesson plans.

Prior to discussing digital technology use in the classroom we will firstly examine how vocational students learn, this will including discussion on  learning styles and how this can fundamentally effect the students ability to concentrate and absorb the vocational material being presented. This will then lead on to consideration  on developing a better strategy for the use of digital technology, to harness its ability to present vocational learning material in a way that is appropriate to the individual students learning style.. This will include an examination of how digital technology can be used to deliver to the student with any preferred learning style./ These learning styles include:

• Visual
• Aural
• Verbal
• Physical
• Logical
• Solitary

This examination sets the foundation on which our project is based as it is from this re-examination of how students learn that we will adopt a better digital use strategy.