From Judith McDaniel

I listened to an interview recently with an educator who insisted that online learning could never fully accommodate her students’ different learning styles.  She was particular emphatic that students who learned best in a “kinesthetic” mode would be left behind by those who excelled in either the audio or visual modes. 

Is that a valid concern when it comes to online learning?  Well, no, I really don’t think so. 

Negative kinesthetic learning experience

I know from my own experience as a learner that I am most comfortable learning new information when I can read it for myself.  I am a lousy listener.  However, education being what it is, I have learned to compensate for my poor listening skills—I have trained myself to pay attention when I need to absorb information in a lecture, for example, by taking notes, actively identifying themes, marking points I will need to return to and review. 

One of the assumptions of the Audio/Visual/Kinesthetic (AVK) description of learning styles is that while one style may be dominant in any particular learner, the capacity to use all three is present in each learner—with practice.  So a visual learner could be most happy with an online format that put everything right out in front.  But wait, what about those podcasts?  And even if we can accommodate the audio and visual learner, what happens to someone who is kinesthetic? 

First, kinesthetic does not mean I have to be jumping up and down to learn. It does not only mean that I learn a skill by touching or doing.  It does mean that I concentrate better when I can move.  K-learners are doodlers.  They are finger-tappers, they may fidget.  But put them in front of a computer and there is a mouse to click, cursor to follow, a game to play.

Several years ago I sat as a student in a law school class where everyone in the room had an open laptop and there was an internet connection.  It was a fairly complicated topic, the nuances of employment discrimination law.  I loved the topic and the professor and did everything I could to take down every word.  The twenty-something student in front of me played complex games on his computer during the lecture.  But when the professor asked a question, his hand was among the first raised and he usually had the answer right.  Playing the game kept him focused.  For me it would have been a distraction. 

I’m not ready to say we need to ditch our attachment to AVK right away.  I am saying it is not the most useful way to think about online learning.