The E-learning Curve at Edublogs

Although I’m so tired I’ll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid get.*

(So Tired, Lennon & McCartney)

Slightly off-topic today, but let’s see if we can find an e-learning angle…

As I alluded to by quoting from So Tired on the Beatles’ White Album, a month ago I got tired of cursing Walter Raleigh - explorer, importer of tobacco to Europe, and erstwhile courtier of Elizabeth I of England, and decided to stop smoking.

Four weeks later, I’m delighted and rather chuffed with myself to say that I’m still off cigarettes and on the wagon (as it were). Rather than outline a whole bunch of clichés about how good I feel, all I’m going to do is say how good I feel, which I’ve now done, so I’ll move on.

Apart from the physiological aspects of smoking cessation (the cravings most recently-stopped ex-smokers are familiar with), I have found that I am having to “re-educate” myself to be a non-smoker again, as I transition away from well-established behaviors, activity patterns, and habits I acquired as a nicotine addict. Interestingly, I haven’t (yet) transformed from poacher to gamekeeper in terms of my attitudes to those still smoking (and I hope I never turn into a rabid anti-smoking fascist) - it’s now more in sorrow and pity than in anger that I behold people huddled outside office buildings, staring into the middle distance under bus shelters, or with their car windows rolled down , exhaling smoke into the rain.

And here’s the e-learning angle…

If you’re a learning professional you’re no doubt familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives as a means of evaluating a learner’s current knowledge- or skill assets. As is traditional, I will now mention the domains Benjamin Bloom identifies:

• Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

Now I will deviate from established custom and practice by actually discussing the affective and psychomotor domains - in my view it is in these aspects that my primary learning activities in relation to smoking are taking place.

Skills in the affective domain describe the way people react emotionally and characterizes their ability to empathize. Affective objectives typically target the awareness and growth in attitudes, emotion, and feelings.

Table <!–[if supportFields]> SEQ Table \* ARABIC <![endif]–>1<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–> Bloom’s Taxonomy: Affective Domain

Skills in the psychomotor domain describe the ability to physically manipulate a tool or instrument like a hand or a hammer. Psychomotor objectives usually focus on change and/or development in behavior and/or skills.

Table <!–[if supportFields]> SEQ Table \* ARABIC <![endif]–>2<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–> Bloom’s Taxonomy: Psychomotor Domain

…though of could when you stop smoking, you’re learning how not to do things…

Normal service resumes next time.

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*get Noun (slang). An idiot, a contemptible person.

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