Students today spend nearly a quarter of their day within an educational institution where they are trusted to the care of teachers who will instruct students and help develop their education. However, our world is constantly changing and evolving. In the book, “A New Culture of Learning,” Thomas and Brown describe the necessity of a certain atmosphere in order to produce educated individuals, In reference to this new culture of learning they write, “It takes place without books, without teachers, and without classrooms, and it requires environments that are bounded yet provide complete freedom of action within those boundaries.” They are not calling for the removal of educators or books, but they are saying this is not the only means through which learning in occurring. Students are engaging in mediums that require them to learn in a certain environment. An environment that allows them the freedom to play, question, and experience in order to achieve understanding. This connects well with my Tech class where we have been given the freedom to learn something that we find interesting. In our 20% project we are given the freedom to experiment, question, and play to learn something new. One of the key points that stood out to me markedly and caused me pause was when the authors discussed how children learn much through playing and through their experiences in doing so. It causes them to question and draw conclusions as they interact with people, places, and things in their experiences.
Thomas and Brown greatly stress the need of a specific environment to cultivate learning. As in my Tech class and the 20% Project we are taking a learning-based approach where we learn through experience and using resources around us in order to learn, so should students in this new culture of learning. In my Tech class I am not just being told about different technologies, but I am able to go out and use them myself for research, implementation, and learning. Thomas and Brown write, “Learning should be viewed in terms of an environment-combined with the rich resources provided by the digital information network-where the context in which learning happens, the boundaries that define it, and the students, teachers, and information within it all coexist and shape each other in a mutually reinforcing way.” In this new culture of learning students are not just demonstrating what they know, but also searching for answers to what they do not know. However, what they don’t know is available for them to find out because this environment is conducive to their learning. It teaches students how to use the resources all around them to learn. This portion of the chapter struck me because often times we should be teaching students to embrace what they don’t know as an opportunity to learn.
As time has evolved technology has greatly evolved. The book states, “If the twentieth century was about creating a sense of stability to buttress against change and then trying to adapt to it, then the twenty-first century is about embracing change, not fighting against it.” This portion of the book, Chapter 3, is discussing how technology has evolved rapidly, even in the last ten years, Our students must have an environment that teaches them to embrace changes and learn these new technologies by experiencing them themselves, even if a teacher is not available to explain how they are used. I would like to know how we can engage students to such a degree that they will absorb information without simply using rote memorization that they won’t use very often in their everyday lives? If technology is going to continually change then we need to find practical ways to teach students how to deal with these constant adaptations. Thomas and Brown talked about the saying that roughly says if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he be able to provide sustenance for himself. Yet the authors question this saying by saying this assumes that there will always be fish available and the means to catch the fish will never change. This should not be the approach we take to education. We must create an atmosphere that teaches students to learn and how to do so independently. As teachers we must facilitate learning rather than disseminate information.
Thomas and Brown greatly stress the need of a specific environment to cultivate learning. As in my Tech class and the 20% Project we are taking a learning-based approach where we learn through experience and using resources around us in order to learn, so should students in this new culture of learning. In my Tech class I am not just being told about different technologies, but I am able to go out and use them myself for research, implementation, and learning. Thomas and Brown write, “Learning should be viewed in terms of an environment-combined with the rich resources provided by the digital information network-where the context in which learning happens, the boundaries that define it, and the students, teachers, and information within it all coexist and shape each other in a mutually reinforcing way.” In this new culture of learning students are not just demonstrating what they know, but also searching for answers to what they do not know. However, what they don’t know is available for them to find out because this environment is conducive to their learning. It teaches students how to use the resources all around them to learn. This portion of the chapter struck me because often times we should be teaching students to embrace what they don’t know as an opportunity to learn.
As time has evolved technology has greatly evolved. The book states, “If the twentieth century was about creating a sense of stability to buttress against change and then trying to adapt to it, then the twenty-first century is about embracing change, not fighting against it.” This portion of the book, Chapter 3, is discussing how technology has evolved rapidly, even in the last ten years, Our students must have an environment that teaches them to embrace changes and learn these new technologies by experiencing them themselves, even if a teacher is not available to explain how they are used. I would like to know how we can engage students to such a degree that they will absorb information without simply using rote memorization that they won’t use very often in their everyday lives? If technology is going to continually change then we need to find practical ways to teach students how to deal with these constant adaptations. Thomas and Brown talked about the saying that roughly says if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he be able to provide sustenance for himself. Yet the authors question this saying by saying this assumes that there will always be fish available and the means to catch the fish will never change. This should not be the approach we take to education. We must create an atmosphere that teaches students to learn and how to do so independently. As teachers we must facilitate learning rather than disseminate information.