Summary-week+2+discussion

__**Behaviourism and Cognitivism Summary:**__


 * Week 2:** Classical Learning Theory


 * Moderators:** Randy White, Rebekah Bennetch and Rick Heise

Not only were the readings this week intense with information and concepts, the weekly challenge itself at first appeared to be a daunting task. However, as a testament to the group of students in this class, and to Stacey for getting the ball rolling, we broke down the Red Cross website to see how it really fed to the foundations of Behaviourism and Cognitivism.

Rebekah summed it up well in David’s post that many had found while investigating the Red Cross website, “...the strategic design of the RC site helps to stimulate the audience's empathy that is needed to solicit (and sustain!) financial and volunteering contributions.”

We found it interesting how a website could possess and contain so many attributes that play into people’s beliefs, morals and personal experiences. If one website can perform all of this, I am certain that we can incorporate many of these concepts into our teaching as well to help nurture our own student’s learning.

__**Summary of people’s finding:**__

Stacey discussed how the Red Cross offers swimming lessons and that positive reinforcement is applied in a variety of ways: Stickers, badges, use of hot tub after a hard lesson, etc… She also discussed how the Red Cross incorporates a variety of mnemonics to assist with the transfer of knowledge from STM to LTM. Her example was FAST – Face, Arm, Speech, Time as signs and symptoms of a stroke.
 * Stacey – A Tale of two Learning Perspectives**

Cheryl touched upon how the Red Cross has high quality courses for lifeguards and how participants are constantly receiving positive reinforcement through feedback and a certificate upon completion. She also states that rehearsal of skills information is passed from the participants STM to LTM making it easier to react upon their skills when required.
 * Cheryl – Lifeguarding**

Marilyn pointed out the the RC rewards it’s volunteers with various forms of incentives and she was the first to identify how the site incorporates use of colours and cues for directing the reader to specific sections.
 * Marilyn – Volunteerism**

The “Water Safety Contest” caught Roxanne’s eye and how the possibility of winning the concept could be influential for visitors to the website. She also identified how the “Schema Theory” was present enabling readers to better transfer information to LTM by having important facts written first.
 * Roxanne - Water Safety Contest**

Greg was immediately impacted by the visual of “DONATE” which will play on an individuals empathy. In regards to the Cognitive Theory, Greg found the combination of pictures and stories permit one have to their personal memories triggered.
 * Greg - Stimulating my Empathy? The Power of Colour!**

While navigating the website, there is constant cursor changes indicating “Click Here” and be rewarded with further information. On the Cognitive side, Elenna identified that the attractive format of the web site permitted visitors to focus on their goal which made processing the information less strenuous.
 * Elenna - Design of website**

Jon picked up on how the RC site utilizes PSI by allowing the visitor to focus on what they would like to learn and by allowing self-pacing by clicking on links at your own pace, Furthermore, Jon found the site provided supplementary instructional techniques by the incorporation of phrases and specific words “DONATE”.
 * Jonathan - PSI - Personalized System of Instruction**

Behaviorism was present in the form of social reinforcement by the many positive comments present on the site. She also discovered the site utilizes Gestalt’s Principle of Perspective where the website draws the readers attention to a particular message which then provides further information the reader can access at a later time.
 * Michelle - The Power of Social Reinforcement**

Lianne identifies how learning can occur without an explicit reward serving as a motivator/positive reinforcer. An individual’s desire to learn something new can be triggered by the realization of what could happen without specific knowledge of a topic. As Rebekah correctly pointed out, “Sometimes we’re more motivated by understanding what it is we have to lose rather than what we can gain from a situation.”
 * Lianne - Evidence of Behaviourism**

David describes how the use of high-res graphics serve as stimulus to encourage site visitors to respond by giving a donation to support Red Cross programs and initiatives. The positive reinforcer for giving a donation is the altruistic feeling of knowing your donation goes to support and great cause.
 * David Morin - Good Feelings and Using Examples for LTM**

Sarah observes how the choice of color is used to counter selective attention. The visually bold ‘give now’ and ‘donate’ buttons draw the visitor’s attention. The intent of the design is to draw attention to the buttons in hopes of a donation. Sarah also states how the use of praise is used to serve as a conditioned reinforcer.
 * Sarah Stack - The Red Cross**

Karen identifies the specific learning tools integrated into the Red Cross’ swimming program. The program is developed used chunking, specific objectives and feedback. Karen also discusses the importance of tapping into students’ prior knowledge of a topic and the effectiveness of including models into instruction.
 * Karen Fox - Red Cross and Learning Theories**

Corrine recognizes the use of cueing and proximity within the Red Cross site. Visual cues that draw the visitor’s attention to the donate button are used to encourage donations. Proximity is used to draw an emotive response via the images. When viewing the images, the visitor can draw a human connection between the people in the images and himself/herself.
 * Corrine Dutka-Stainbook - Principles in Action**

Ian makes an interesting observation of what curiously is not found in the Red Cross site. Most web surfers have a healthy disdain for popup windows. Most web surfers respond to popups (stimulus) by surfing to a different website (response). With that in mind, Ian suggests that the Red Cross purposely did not employ popups to encourage site visitors to remain at the site. Ian also states how the use of acronyms, abbreviations and other mnemonic devices are effective learning tools.
 * Ian Hecht - Missed Opportunities**

Beige draws an interesting connection between the Red Cross mobile app and the various learning strategies integrated into video games. Similar to video games, the Red Cross app employs motivational tools to encourage individuals to explore the app. Beige also states the importance of mnemonic devices to aid learning.
 * Beige Biggins - Red Cross, Learning and Behaviourism**

Janine identifies the role of operant conditioning within the site. Janine mentions the contest where you increase your chances of winning a life jacket by visiting the site. As Stacey so aptly states, most of us are “...conditioned to attend to the word ‘Free.’” Janine also points out how the site’s design triggers automaticity and pattern recognition via the use of italics, boldface, colored text and headings.
 * Janine Smits - Reading 101**