Reaction to Meaningful Learning with Technology

When reading the preface of this book I got really excited because its intentions seem to fulfill all the things I hope to get out of this class. The book “Meaningful Learning with Technology” states that it intends to engage and support the learning processes using technology. When I entered this class and after watching the video I wanted to do so much with technology in my classroom. The video got me thinking “well, if this is what is grabbing the students attention then why shouldn’t we use it in the classroom.” Things like Ipods, computers, and many other hand-held electronic devices seem to take up a lot of students time and attention. It seems that some students can type a paper better than they can write one, but send a text message before they can type. They barely hold conversations because their ears are plugged with ear phones blasting their music; and they are hardly outside playing because their eyes are glued to the computers to see their friends newest updates on MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter. It seems apparent that students aren’t “letting up” on these devices any time soon so I say we channel them to work to our advantage, turn them into positive and meaningful learning tools. I also appreciate the fact that they will offer specific software to use in order to carry out tasks with the students. I have also come to the understanding that students take notes and construct learning from what their teachers know and teach them. This means that I have to learn and have a good understanding of technology too. I learned from the book that I shouldn’t be learning to become an expert but rather learning in order to coach the learning of the students. In some aspects the students and I should be learning the technology together. Since students are “technology natives” and I am a “technology foreigner” then they may already know more about the technology than I do. Also instead of telling students what to know, how to learn it, and how to use it students must allow students to construct their own learning and help students discover what the larger community of scholars regards as meaningful concepts. In the chapter about “What is Meaningful Learning” it tells how schools today teach students to “take a test”. Students are tested from k-12 on things or in a way that is not relative to real life situations. It stresses that in order to foster meaningful learning students must be taught in an active, constructive, intentional, authentic, cooperative way. In order to learn actively students must interact with and manipulate the objects in the environment they are learning in. This how people have learned to learn for hundreds of years and should continue to do so. It also goes on to give an example of how students learn to play baseball by just going out and trying it, not lecturing and testing. For the constructive portion of learning students must be able to reflect on and articulate what it is they have been learning. Without reflection students may never stop to think about why something actually worked, what made it work, how it connected to other things, and how vital their role was in the whole process. In the area on intentional learning the text mentions how technologies have traditionally been used to support teachers’ goals but not those of the learners. We need to create a learning environment that encourages technology goals related to learners. Allow them to have goals that are in great relation to technology. For authentic learning, most lessons learned in schools focus on general principles or theories that may be used to explain phenomena that we experience.Often times those general principles are not mentioned when they are being taught so students don’t know what they relate back to. Instead of taking away those general principles and putting learning into basic formulas; why not learn them in relation to real world like learning physics through actual sports. Cooperative, be sure that students are apart of their learning and can cooperate with other learners to help construct their learning. In real world they interact with others while learning, so why shouldn’t they do so in school?When students collaborate without permission they are accused of cheating but isn’t school supposed to teach students about the real world? We should start constructing the classroom to prepare the students for more real world situations.
*B.C.*