Learning Styles; Can they really help?

As we look at the various learning styles that have been developed over the years it becomes evident that they all seem to share the same ideas about the style of learners.  The three basic learning styles seem to be; Visual, Auditory, and Tactile/Kinesthetic, but is it really that helpful for educators to use the preferred learning style of the student in order for the student to learn?  As we investigate learning styles everyone has an opinion about the importance or nonimportance of educators identifying the learning style preferences of their target audiences.  But what about personal responsibility of the student?  Yes, by helping the student identify their learning style educators can assist them in their learning, but do the educators really need to deliver the information in three different ways in order to reach all students?  In a paper by Simon Cassidy; Learning Styles: An overview of theories, models, and measures, Cassidy explained  some of the key terminology that is used in the field of learning style theories.  He says that learning styles and learning strategies are two different things.  The learning style of an individual is the way he or she prefer to learn information, such as visual, auditory, and tactile.  While learning strategies are how the individual goes about the studying and learning process, such as a visual style learner using flash cards or highlighters to study.  In contrast to the auditory style learner using tape recordings of lectures or reading out loud in order to study and learn the information.  In essence learning strategies are the tools students use in order to compliment their personal learning style.  Knowing this educators should plan for a variety of ways to deliver information to students.  By being aware of the different learning styles and incorporating all of them into delivery of information educators can ensure that every type of learning style will be hit on.  This will ensure that all the students have had at least a portion of the information delivered in their preferred style.  At that point I really think that the student then has the responsibility to use different learning strategies to grasp and comprehend the information that may have been delivered in a style different than their preferred style.  In order for students to achieve mastery of information in the school setting as well as in life they must be able to learn and process information from all types of learning style delivery options.  No one in life is going to cater to one person's learning style all the time and in order to be successful we all have had to come up with strategies to grasp and process information that is essential whether it was delivered in our preferred style or not.