Random Thoughts
I am writing down some of the random thoughts swirling around in my head. I hope to get back to them and take a closer look.
Thought 1:
We keep seeking change in education and complain that it stays the same, but I do not think learning changes. Learning still takes place within the learner, the learner must interact with content to build meaning and understanding for themselves. Schools were designed to provide the greatest number of people an opportunity to interact with content in the most efficient and economical manner. What has changed is how we access and manipulate content. We have so many more tools available to help communicate, collaborate, create and share. The learning experiences and environments we can provide our students these can change.
Thought 2:
How do we document in-formal learning to receive credit that can be applied to such things as professional development credit? Some times I feel I earn ‘attendance credit’ for go to PD sessions, what about ‘learning credit’. Can our students document their learning outside of class for school credit? How do we emphasis that school is only a part of our education?
One thought on “Random Thoughts”
I agree with you that learning doesn’t change, but education does change all the time. With all of the things that our school provides their teachers, we are constantly changing and need to be flexible in everything we do. As a student going through elementary school, we didn’t have all the things that the students we teach do now and it is awesome that they have so much technology to use and discover their world (things we had to look up in books and encyclopedias) now can be reached at the touch of a few buttons on a computer. I know that I am a little skeptical when it comes to all of the new technology stuff and somewhat reluctant to try things with my students. The students of today are not afraid of anything dealing with technology and will be doing so much more than I can do. Technology is awesome and I believe as 21st century teachers, we need to learn as much as we can possible learn to help our students as much as possible.