Chapter 1
“Doug read the students final exams. The essays were intertwined with rich high textured sources from text outside of the assigned classroom readings. The students were working and designing the course by themselves and for themselves.”
The students in Doug's class students were working together and helping to design the class to be something more focused on the interconnectivity within the class in an online community through a online game. They were learning the content through experience and enjoying learning the application rather than the theory. I choose this quote because it shows the students actually enjoying what they are doing and making the classroom part of their experience and to deepen their understanding. They took control of their own learning and made it much deeper and more meaningful then a professor could have provided.
This is what we need in our classrooms. A way to kids to learn through experience and then think about how they can improve on the current model to make it even better. My question is how do we make this happen? How do we get kids to engage in the content and want to learn and improve on each others work in secondary education and in primary?
I think about how this program and this course has really challenged me. I love what we get to learn and the autonomy involved but I was trained in having no choice over my learning and having little say and autonomy. The freedom was a blessing and a curse, I loved what I studied but there were times when I strayed away from the work due to lack of dedication to maintaining the standard of work. I see a lot of Doug’s example in our 20% project. Each of us got to choose something to study and we are all learning different things at our own pace. Some of us are learning more due to the dedication they have to the project.
I know now that if we as an educational system are going to make this change going from a sense of static learning to a more dynamic and fluid aspect we have to take more time and consideration into being purposeful. I also am now aware that if I am going to be as successful as an educator as I hope to be then I need to be prepared for the coming change. I have experienced what education is going to be like for students through this program and with that I aim to make the shift for my students in their class as well.
Chapter 2
“In the new culture of learning the first example is a culture of teaching and the second is a culture of learning. In the culture of teaching the culture is the environment and in the second case the culture emerged from the environment and grows along with it.”
How can we make this transition happen? We cant just stop education, it’s already in motion. How do we build this plane while we are flying it (this new culture of learning while we live in the culture of teaching)?
I keep thinking back to Tony Wagner and I disliked the fact that I started to see that mass education is a process for socialization and a development in human capital for the workforce to be more productive. That is why our educational system is paid for my tax dollars, the tax payers are expecting a product for their price; highly skilled workers who are more efficient at their job and can help to build a stronger economy. With this style of learning I wonder how it will be supported by those who fund it. I think that an education is a great thing to have and everyone should be able to get one, with that being said; if we are making a culture of learning that is going to make students highly useful when they leave or schools then I am all for it, if however they leave highly educated but not very useful when they get to the workplace then we have done them a disservice.
I consider myself a progressive educator. Last year in my credential program I found out I was one of if not the most progressive educators in the room. I want kids to walk out of a school knowing skills and theories, they are going to need a blend of teaching culture and learning culture. I see teaching and learning cultures as skills and theory. Skills and theory both lie at opposite sides of the continuum that we are standing on. We are trying to find the best balance to produce the results we want; highly productive educated workforce, one that can problem solve and can produce effectively. If we run from one side of the scale to the other we are going to be out of balance no matter what side we are on. We need to find a proper balance of learning and teaching in our schools.
Chapter 3
Embracing change and seeing information as a resource can help us to stop thinking about learning as an information absorption and to start thinking of it as a cultural and social process of learning.
I understand that change is inevitable and that the more it is embraced with flexibility the more success it can bring. How to we make education fluid, but still hold some structure that can be help constant? If we are constantly reformulating education how do we know when to stop changing and when to begin again?
This chapter is all about change. Everything we are doing is changing around us as we change ourselves. As I look back at our class in general I realize how much I have changed and how much I have grown, as a person and as an educator. My view of what the internet is and how it can be used has completely shifted and I see it in a completely different aspect then I did before. Looking back at the first week videos when we watched about residency and guests on the internet until now is a shocking change.
My aha moment was when I started to think about the reputation that Wikipedia has about not being factual yet it is just as factual (mathematically more factual) then that of the Encyclopedia Britannica. That everything is changing and that wikipedia might become a source that is considered credible in academia. While this may seem very shallow as an aha moment. Think back to when google was just a search engine, what new websites are coming into fruition now that are going to be the next google?
“Doug read the students final exams. The essays were intertwined with rich high textured sources from text outside of the assigned classroom readings. The students were working and designing the course by themselves and for themselves.”
The students in Doug's class students were working together and helping to design the class to be something more focused on the interconnectivity within the class in an online community through a online game. They were learning the content through experience and enjoying learning the application rather than the theory. I choose this quote because it shows the students actually enjoying what they are doing and making the classroom part of their experience and to deepen their understanding. They took control of their own learning and made it much deeper and more meaningful then a professor could have provided.
This is what we need in our classrooms. A way to kids to learn through experience and then think about how they can improve on the current model to make it even better. My question is how do we make this happen? How do we get kids to engage in the content and want to learn and improve on each others work in secondary education and in primary?
I think about how this program and this course has really challenged me. I love what we get to learn and the autonomy involved but I was trained in having no choice over my learning and having little say and autonomy. The freedom was a blessing and a curse, I loved what I studied but there were times when I strayed away from the work due to lack of dedication to maintaining the standard of work. I see a lot of Doug’s example in our 20% project. Each of us got to choose something to study and we are all learning different things at our own pace. Some of us are learning more due to the dedication they have to the project.
I know now that if we as an educational system are going to make this change going from a sense of static learning to a more dynamic and fluid aspect we have to take more time and consideration into being purposeful. I also am now aware that if I am going to be as successful as an educator as I hope to be then I need to be prepared for the coming change. I have experienced what education is going to be like for students through this program and with that I aim to make the shift for my students in their class as well.
Chapter 2
“In the new culture of learning the first example is a culture of teaching and the second is a culture of learning. In the culture of teaching the culture is the environment and in the second case the culture emerged from the environment and grows along with it.”
How can we make this transition happen? We cant just stop education, it’s already in motion. How do we build this plane while we are flying it (this new culture of learning while we live in the culture of teaching)?
I keep thinking back to Tony Wagner and I disliked the fact that I started to see that mass education is a process for socialization and a development in human capital for the workforce to be more productive. That is why our educational system is paid for my tax dollars, the tax payers are expecting a product for their price; highly skilled workers who are more efficient at their job and can help to build a stronger economy. With this style of learning I wonder how it will be supported by those who fund it. I think that an education is a great thing to have and everyone should be able to get one, with that being said; if we are making a culture of learning that is going to make students highly useful when they leave or schools then I am all for it, if however they leave highly educated but not very useful when they get to the workplace then we have done them a disservice.
I consider myself a progressive educator. Last year in my credential program I found out I was one of if not the most progressive educators in the room. I want kids to walk out of a school knowing skills and theories, they are going to need a blend of teaching culture and learning culture. I see teaching and learning cultures as skills and theory. Skills and theory both lie at opposite sides of the continuum that we are standing on. We are trying to find the best balance to produce the results we want; highly productive educated workforce, one that can problem solve and can produce effectively. If we run from one side of the scale to the other we are going to be out of balance no matter what side we are on. We need to find a proper balance of learning and teaching in our schools.
Chapter 3
Embracing change and seeing information as a resource can help us to stop thinking about learning as an information absorption and to start thinking of it as a cultural and social process of learning.
I understand that change is inevitable and that the more it is embraced with flexibility the more success it can bring. How to we make education fluid, but still hold some structure that can be help constant? If we are constantly reformulating education how do we know when to stop changing and when to begin again?
This chapter is all about change. Everything we are doing is changing around us as we change ourselves. As I look back at our class in general I realize how much I have changed and how much I have grown, as a person and as an educator. My view of what the internet is and how it can be used has completely shifted and I see it in a completely different aspect then I did before. Looking back at the first week videos when we watched about residency and guests on the internet until now is a shocking change.
My aha moment was when I started to think about the reputation that Wikipedia has about not being factual yet it is just as factual (mathematically more factual) then that of the Encyclopedia Britannica. That everything is changing and that wikipedia might become a source that is considered credible in academia. While this may seem very shallow as an aha moment. Think back to when google was just a search engine, what new websites are coming into fruition now that are going to be the next google?