The Yearn to Learn

The desire to learn is something that all teachers strive for all of their students to reach. Today, as Sugata Mitra stated, kids spend all day on their cell phone and dread grabbing their backpack full of books to class. The fun in learning and going to school slowly fades away as children grow up. I know that explains me exactly.  So what are teachers suppose to do to get the joy of learning back? Sugata Mitra made some excellent points in his speech called “Build a School in the Cloud.”

Today we take advantage of all the technology that is at our fingertips daily. I know I have my cell phone on me constantly and if I didn’t have it at work I would be lost and out of touch. It’s hard to take a step back from our world and realize not everyone around the world has all of these opportunities and barely know how to work a computer. For us, the internet has become so easy to use and you can get the answer at the drop of a hat. In the experiment done by Sugata, the children in the poor communities didn’t even know what a computer was, but they had enough curiosity and desire to learn it that they figured it out on their own.  This makes me think that people who have less are definitely more appreciative of things and want to learn as much as they can.

Relating this whole experiment to school and learning was amazingly done. When Suganta brought these hole in the wall computer to different parts of the countries they were only in English. Could you imagine someone switching your cell phone to Chinese and you have to figure out how to get back to that screen? I would be so frustrated and not try to learn the language by any means, but try to memorize how they got there. For these kids though, learning English was their only option because this computer was so new and different to them they wanted to learn everything they could. This in itself shows the great point he also mentioned which was, “It’s not about making learning happen, it’s about letting it happen.” This sentence really stood out to me because a lot of teachers need to sit back and allow this. If you give students something as simple as a question they have no idea what the answer could possibly be, then they need to research and learn themselves. You have to let them branch off and get the information they need so they can understand it on their own terms. This is exactly the idea Suganta had with giving the kids a computer with DNA and chemistry charts and diagrams and had young eight year old explain what that is better than he could. It is about allowing kids to learn on their own with positive reinforcement and guidance which also was given through an older friend, also known as the grandmother approach of subtly asking questions and giving positive reinforcement.

The biggest thing that I took from his speech was that sometimes you need to just sit back and let the kids answer. You want to be a teacher who teaches your students how to become efficient on their own. You want to be able to give them the confidence to go out and find the answer on their own and learn how to research and enjoy doing it. Like Suganta said, we don’t want to be spare parts to a computer, but we want to help design the future of learning. We don’t want schools to no longer exist because the internet tells us everyone we need to know instantaneously. We need critical thinkers who are going to work hard and be able to do things on their own without having to rely on technology for everything. I know the future isn’t looking like technology is going away, but we don’t want our whole life to rely on a quick fix. We need to never give in to that and continue yearning to learn as much as we can.

Give it a break..

The digital age has changed how educators can teach so much, and mostly for the better. I remember in grammar school having to go to the library to get books for resources, looking through encyclopedias and still being foreign to the internet. Citing these sources was easy to do because you knew exactly where it was coming from. That doesn’t make me want to go back to the days where Google wasn’t the go to for almost everything. The internet has made finding information easier and faster, but dealing with citing sources and copy right laws is a problem that sometimes is hard to deal with.

According to the article Applying Fair Use to New Technologies, it seems that there are so many rules and regulations for a teacher to simply use an article or story for her class. I understand that someone needs to be credited for their work, but if they are using a story or poem for a lesson and they are only allowed to print half of it out or only one copy without there being a copyright issue, how is anyone ever going to learn? The new fair use guidelines seem to be something that is beginning to solve the problems that are being seen. The old guidelines that were needed to be followed were seen to be too restrictive for educators and librarians which I can totally understand. At least with them, educators are able to get a good portion of whatever source they are wanting to use and be able to present enough for a lesson without issues. This also has lead to using multimedia as projects in the classroom to get around some of these limitations.

Using multimedia as a lesson taught by the students is a great idea for them to research and makes it their own. Sure, the students will still need to display their sources at the end of their presentation, but it still gives them the freedom to use more sources. In school, it is all about the education and not about stealing other people's work. I think that having so many restrictions on using certain sources is taking away from the students in a negative way. If they are able to get as much information as possible about a topic, it can only benefit them. Restricting educators on how much they can show and print out doesn’t seem necessary. It is all for the greater good and for the lesson. It shouldn't have very strict limitations and it should be encouraged. 

The internet has made finding articles and stories so much more accessible and now we are able to find almost anything we want. Copy right guidelines shouldn’t be the reason children can’t take home a story or print out the whole poem, or listen to the whole song. It is all a learning experience and I feel that making these rules against it is only hurting the kids. Education should be number one always and getting as many resources to learn from shouldn’t have restrictions, it should be an open door to learn.

All the Feels

Today in school, kids always want to find the easy way out. Doing the bare minimum to get something done is sometimes all students work for. As long as they turn something in they are happy. How has the value of our work turned into something we don’t want to be proud of? I know looking back to my college art class, I knew I wasn’t majoring in art and I wasn’t the greatest artist out there, so as long as I finished the project I was happy. I was never proud of my work or could care less if anyone could follow what I was trying to portray until it was on a topic that was important to me. 

In the article "The Art of Digital Storytelling," the teacher explains how when telling a story, the audience can follow it, but can’t always feel exactly what the author is. Giving a summary on what they are telling instead of going into detail is a flaw that this generation is facing. Again, finding the easy way out. But, when we are telling a story we need to express how we are feeling in detail so others can stay engaged and want to continue listening with full attention.

 In the article is showed how no one in the class wanted to present their written story first. It could be because the students were nervous to present, but it also could be that the students know they didn’t do well and it isn’t a story other people are going to want to listen to. When the teacher gave her two examples of her college experience, it showed how much detail can make a story completely different. A student commented on how the first story was a summary and wasn’t giving real feeling. It was just like reading the basic points straight off the paper. When the teacher read her second story that had exact quotes and feelings, then the student actually felt bad for her and respected her story more. It shows how if you care about what you are talking about and give your actual feelings, then others will be able to understand what you went through, maybe relate to a similar situation, and want to ask questions and be involved. 

So, with that being said, let me get back to my art class from college. I finally had a project I worked very hard on. I skipped the football game and homecoming activities that weekend to stay in and work on my mosaic painting of my dog. This project was very important to me because my dog had passed away earlier that year. I wanted it to show my dogs happy face and make sure it was an easy image to identify because it was a mosaic painting. When I finally finished and had to present it, my teacher could tell the difference in my attitude towards my work. I was able to tell a story through my art in a way I never thought I could and this is something I will never forget. It is possible to relate to others just by the amount of detail and emotion you put into something and I feel that teaching this to students at an early age is very important. I hope story telling is something that never goes away, whether it be through a book, art, or verbally, stories tell events that happened in the past and it is an amazing way to remember history and to help others communicate with one another on a different level.

Week 2: Communication is Key!

Technology in the classroom has been a controversy in many schools. Distraction of the students is one of the highest seen problems and finding the solution to that has yet to be found. But, what if using technology could distract a student in a positive way? Is that even possible? In the autistic population it can be.

When the iPad was invented, the main source for it probably wasn’t to change someone’s life. It probably wasn’t to help someone communicate for the first time. It was made as a luxury item to play games and go online. Schools have come to find that the iPad is much more than that. Autistic people sometimes could have problems with communicating with others because they don’t speak. The traditional way to communicate would be using a paper with the alphabet and have the student spell out each word they were saying. This is very time consuming and extremely frustrating for the student because they feel as if the other person cannot understand what they are trying to say. In the 60 Minute special on Apps for Autism, it showed a young child losing attention and crumpling up the paper they were using for learning numbers. When the student was given the iPad with a counting app on it, the student had complete focus and didn’t mess with the iPad at all. The teacher expressed that this could be because the voice was constant and it waited for the student to answer, unlike a teacher who might not wait and make them feel rushed and not wanting to continue to participate. 

Another person they showed in this video was 27 years old and couldn’t communicate with his parents until the iPad came into his life. Could you imagine for 27 years not being able to understand what your son was trying to say to you? The video showed how upset the mother was when her son would get frustrated about his lack of communication and would rather be alone and on his own for periods of time. The iPad changed everything for this family. He had an app that was able to talk in sentences and tell others how he felt and what he wanted quickly. They showed him ordering for himself at a restaurant and the joy he had when the waitress could understand him.

The final story that stood out to me was a student who was said to have an IQ of a toddler. This boy didn’t speak at all. The teacher tried the iPad technique which came to find this child had a much more extensive vocabulary that they had no idea about. The teachers all agreed that people with autism have much more going on in their brains than we can see, but the iPad is now a way to prove that. It is amazing to me how something as simple as a counting app or a picture identifying app can change the outlook on someone. The teachers didn’t even know some of these kids knew half the pictures they were identifying with. It is amazing how much technology can help someone with autism. 

In the normal classroom, technology can and will distract students. They can go on countless websites that aren’t educational or helpful for what they are learning. For children with autism, they want to be able to communicate with others and be understood. They stay focused on the iPad in a positive way. They are excited when they are correct and receive positive reinforcement from the app they are using. It is a positive distraction and this can be the way people with autism can communicate. It can be their own language and can change the lives of many people. I feel that iPads should continuously be used in these classrooms, and even if they don’t work for every student, which they won’t, it will still help a countless number of children communicate in a way they never thought they could. It could change their life.