Digital Blog Post #B – Chapter 2

Digital Blog Post #B – Chapter 2

In Methods for Teaching with Technology, the author shows two distinct teaching philosophies.  “Teacher-centered” also known as, “teaching as telling,” the teacher presents and explains academic information to the students; the teacher uses scores from the tests to determine who has learned and who has not.  Student-centered, teaching is also known as constructivism, i.e., encouraging students to develop their own knowledge by discovering ideas and concepts themselves. According to this concept, students learn more deeply and retain information longer when they have a say in the teaching process.  Most middle school and elementary grade teachers, report that their personal thinking falls in between this two philosophies (Maloy, et al, 2013, p.35). “Plato believed that children would never learn unless they wanted to learn. In The Republic, he said, " ... compulsory learning never sticks in the mind." (Education reform, n.d.).    

Moving forward; National Educational Technology Standards, (NETS), is for teachers and students, a broad vision of schooling that features technology-supported learning environments for every student.  NET’s core believe is that technology broadens the scope of the learning experiences.  The role of schools is to teach academic content; promote innovative and creative thinking; and prepare students for citizenship in a digital world.  The goal of NETS is to decrease the density of Teacher-centered learning and increase the concentration of Technology-based learning classrooms.  “Students learn through participation in project-based learning where they make connections between different ideas and areas of knowledge facilitated by the teacher through coaching rather than using lectures or step-by-step guidance. Further, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, constructionism is connected with experiential learning and builds on Jean Piaget's epistemological theory of constructivism.” (Constructionism, n.d.)

In the section of, Your Teaching Philosophy, I learned that younger people who were born after 1980 grew up using interactive computers and wireless technology.  This class of young people are digital natives. Digital Immigrants are the teachers who are still learning how to interact with computer technology.   Digital native students, are moving away from traditional school-based literacies of book reading and writing on paper.  It is intuitively obvious that the digital immigrant teachers must think about how to change their teaching methods to accommodate their digital native students. 

In conclusion traditional classrooms have to make way for technology-based classrooms.  NET mandates technology in the classroom.  Students simply learn better using technology.  Teachers have no other choice.  They must learn how to use technology to facilitate 21^st Century students.  If traditional teachers resist the 21^st Century way of teaching; students will move to self-directed learning known as autodidactic. “Autodidactism is a contemplative, absorbing process, of "learning on your own" or "by yourself", or as a self-teacher. Some autodidacts spend a great deal of time reviewing the resources of libraries and educational websites. One may become an autodidact at nearly any point in one's life. While some may have been informed in a conventional manner in a particular field, they may choose to inform themselves in other, often unrelated areas. Notable autodidacts include Abraham Lincoln (U.S. president), Srinivasa Ramanujan (mathematician), Michael Faraday (chemist and physicist), Charles Darwin (naturalist), Thomas Alva Edison (inventor), Tadao Ando (architect), George Bernard Shaw (playwright), Frank Zappa (composer, recording engineer, film director), and Leonardo da Vinci (engineer, scientist, mathematician).” (Education, n.d.)

  

By aspecte.gr
[Public domain]

Reference

Constructionism (learning theory) (2016). . In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionism_(learning_theory)

Education (2016).. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education

Education reform (2016).. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_reform

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA:Pearson Education Inc.

Record. M. (September 11) Class. Created with Toondoo. http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10397112

TEDx Talks (2013, March 6). The future of education: Sajan George at TEDxUNC Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah-SmLEMgis