E-learning in the class and learning styles

Talia Carbis has an interesting blog with a lot of resources for Moodle users.

In one of her many worth-reading posts, Talia explains how e-learning can be successfully used in the classroom. In the classroom, no only for distance learning, as it is usually thought.

The reasons Talia gives of these opportunities (which I won't repeat, just go  here and find them), are based on something that I, although I am probably not alone in this, often forget: each person learns differently. If you read the post, you realize that Carbis thinks and writes in terms of people who learn visually, aurally, kinesthetically... That is a classification proper of some learning theories, that distinguish three main styles: visual, aural and kinesthetic.

Going beyond theories, which, I believe, are not always too on-the-spot, meaning that each author has his/her own theories often conflicting or not too well blending with the neighbour's, I think an attention to the cognitive and learning patterns and styles of our students is an attention that we rarely take the trouble to pay, but that would save our students, and consequently ourselves, a lot of effort in our daily learning-teaching job.

This said, I think Talia is right: multimedia, the potentials of the net and of e-learning can be useful for every learning style, and facilitate everybody's work, provided they are used well. The problem is, as usual, to change our mental habits...

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