George Siemens, author of the Connectivist theory of learning, explains in less than 4 minutes, the how and why of our networked learning environments today…
YouTube link: The Network is the Learning
Posts Tagged ‘learning theory’
The Network “IS” the Learning…
November 17th, 2009
Essential Questions K-12 Students Should Ask…
July 1st, 2009What are the essential questions K-12 students should ask?
According to Howard Gardner, Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, they are: “the essential questions of human life: who are we, where do we come from, what’s the world made of, what have humans achieved and what can we achieve, how does one lead a good life?” (see Reference below).
Are today’s K-12 teachers qualified to facilitate such inquiry openly and honestly? Hmm…
Reference: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/gmklass/foi/read2/gardner.htm
Passive Learning is a Brain Drain?
April 8th, 2009In his 1899 book, The Idea of a University, John Henry Newman warns of the dangers of superficial learning and, reciprocally, argues for the need for learning substantively.
“A man may hear a thousand lectures, and read a thousand volumes, and be at the end of the process very much where he was, as regards knowledge. Something more than merely admitting it in a negative way into the mind is necessary if it is to remain there. It must not be passively received, but actually and actively entered into, embraced, mastered. The mind must go half-way to meet what comes to it from without.”
Like Sir Ken Robinson alluded to in his speech on Ted.com, education often strip-mines the mind rather than furnish it.
Pedagogical Relativism…
February 7th, 2009A question was asked in my Educational Technology class: Why not use a variety of theories as a basis for teaching?
My response to that is to say that it seems the theories are not compatible with each other. Theories of learning are based on the hypothesis that humans learn best in one way or another. A hundred years ago it was Behaviorism. Then in the early part of the 20th century it was cognitivism. Today it is constructivism.
My experience at the grade school level is interesting in that teachers all agree constructive learning is ideal but many feel pressed for the necessary time to build such lesson plans and so resort to cognitive approaches such as lecturing and if things get out of hand, step back even farther to some behaviorist approach to consequence and/or reward the students.
What this country really needs is a paradigm shift in our educational philosophy. At this rate, China, India, and Russia will engineer the future and Americans will stock the shelves.
