I have always been a kinaesthetic learner. I learn best when I am actively involved and participating through moving, doing, and touching.

For me, learning occurs when I use my hands and body to express a thought, idea or concept. Often this means that I like to move around when talking or listening, as is common for kinaesthetic learners, who prefer to do things due to their high energy levels. I am an innate explorer, who tends to relate facts or theories to my own experiences in order to solidify new knowledge.

In approaching this course, I have been prompted to think about what kinaesthetic learning means in the digital age. Like my other digital natives, I gather most of my information through online media. Does this mean that my habitual hands-on approach now translates to clicks of a mouse and typing on a keyboard? I learn by becoming physically involved with an artefact – whether that be by tracing my finger along a textbook with highlighter in hand, or by holding a moving image in my hand on my iPad. I am drawn towards physical products.

When setting up my mediafactory blog last week, I have come to understand that we are utilising the blog format so that we are working in the actual space we are talking and learning about. This way, we are constantly entwined. As is characteristic of this style of learning, we are now learning in ways which are directly meaningful to us. Adrian has already pointed out that the only tools we need for this course are a camera or camera-phone, a connection to the internet and the free software Korsakow. These devices are now carried in our pockets and bags wherever we go, and provide us with new and interesting ways to create and understand meaning. 

I’m really looking forward to seeing where this course will take me on my own personal learning experience. When thinking about the participation criteria I will need to draft this week, it is important for me to remember that I retain information best when I teach someone else about it, so I will aim to incorporate this appropriately.