Essential question: What are the challenges in shifting from what to where and how
A culture of new learning ch 6-7
In reading A new culture of learning I was struck by the reminder of how amazing human beings are at adapting and changing to meet their environment. This is truly evident when we look at how education has changed. This book spoke about the question of what. What do we know about a topic, what do we hope to learn, what do we need to work through to find the answer we are looking for? All these questions are ones that need to be addressed before any real teaching and learning can take place.
For me I related to the idea of "what" in teaching with my experience of giving students a pre-test. My goal in giving them this test was to look at what they knew, what they were unfamiliar with and what I needed to focus on to fill in any gaps in their knowledge. The idea of staring with what provides a fantastic starting point for teaching and guide the lesson.
When we shift our focus from what to where we are forced to remember the topic in the context of our where, our community and background knowledge. To put it simply we "reframing knowledge as a where question underscores the increasing importance of context" (Thomas pg 93). As teachers it is our responsibility to teach students in a way that relates to their lives. A simple example of this is when we focus on a plant unit we wouldn't use a cactus as an example because students in Alaska don't have an understanding of that specific plant is. But if we shift our thinking to plants students are familiar with it becomes far more easier for them to understand the concepts because the students come into the learning experience with background knowledge.
The biggest challenge in shifting our teaching to where and how is the methods the information is delivered to the students. Students today as very familiar with technology, my almost 5 year old son can turn on my tv and navigate to his favorite show, he can also use my iPhone to zoom in and out on a picture. When he starts kindergarten he will come in to the classroom have a far better understanding of technology than I did when I started kindergarten. This shift has happened rapidly and for the most part is a positive change as it relates to education.
While the sift to more reliance on technology for educational material delivery in the classroom has many positive aspects there are also many negative and harmful consequences including the increase of young peoples self value and self worth being directly related to their standing on social media platforms, cyber bullying and children being exposed to devient or abusive materials on the internet.
While these things could be viewed as reasons to shy away from technology in the classroom I believe that the good far out weighs the bad.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A New Culture of Learning. Douglas Thomas and John Brown.
A culture of new learning ch 6-7
In reading A new culture of learning I was struck by the reminder of how amazing human beings are at adapting and changing to meet their environment. This is truly evident when we look at how education has changed. This book spoke about the question of what. What do we know about a topic, what do we hope to learn, what do we need to work through to find the answer we are looking for? All these questions are ones that need to be addressed before any real teaching and learning can take place.
For me I related to the idea of "what" in teaching with my experience of giving students a pre-test. My goal in giving them this test was to look at what they knew, what they were unfamiliar with and what I needed to focus on to fill in any gaps in their knowledge. The idea of staring with what provides a fantastic starting point for teaching and guide the lesson.
When we shift our focus from what to where we are forced to remember the topic in the context of our where, our community and background knowledge. To put it simply we "reframing knowledge as a where question underscores the increasing importance of context" (Thomas pg 93). As teachers it is our responsibility to teach students in a way that relates to their lives. A simple example of this is when we focus on a plant unit we wouldn't use a cactus as an example because students in Alaska don't have an understanding of that specific plant is. But if we shift our thinking to plants students are familiar with it becomes far more easier for them to understand the concepts because the students come into the learning experience with background knowledge.
The biggest challenge in shifting our teaching to where and how is the methods the information is delivered to the students. Students today as very familiar with technology, my almost 5 year old son can turn on my tv and navigate to his favorite show, he can also use my iPhone to zoom in and out on a picture. When he starts kindergarten he will come in to the classroom have a far better understanding of technology than I did when I started kindergarten. This shift has happened rapidly and for the most part is a positive change as it relates to education.
While the sift to more reliance on technology for educational material delivery in the classroom has many positive aspects there are also many negative and harmful consequences including the increase of young peoples self value and self worth being directly related to their standing on social media platforms, cyber bullying and children being exposed to devient or abusive materials on the internet.
While these things could be viewed as reasons to shy away from technology in the classroom I believe that the good far out weighs the bad.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A New Culture of Learning. Douglas Thomas and John Brown.
You seem to have a good handle on this. Nice thoughts.
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