Reflection on Chapter 10

• How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?

One important factors that this chapter discusses is the need to motivate children and instill self-motivation. According to the book, "In order to produce a generation of people who seek out learning, learners need to be given more control over their own learning." I think this statement is really focusing on the ways in which technology gives control to the learner. First, since students are using technology of all sorts in their free time, it is obvious that they enjoy using it, and therefore, will be more apt to use it for school as well. Another reason technology gives learners more control is because of the ease of editing. Students using technology can quickly and easily make changes to their work and receive feedback from others, which is a wonderful motivator. If the project  a student creates is being used by others (such as a game on the Scratch website) then the student can clearly see that their project had purpose. The final way in which technology can give students control over their learning is by offering a wide variety of resources, tools, and classes that they might not otherwise have. Using Google is like having tons of encyclopedias, dictionaries, videos, etc. right at your fingertips. The internet and other technology tools is like creating an art project with all the supplies you could find in Hobby Lobby; with endless supplies, you are able to create virtually anything you want!

•  What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

One line in this chapter that really shocked me stated, "We grew up with the idea that learning means taking courses in school." I truly believe that oftentimes this is still the message we are getting from schools. There are a few ways in which I plan to change this perception. First, I will give students the freedom of choice and let them explore for themselves. This way, they will be able to understand that they can facilitate their own learning and that it can occur in many different ways, not just the way the teacher showed it. For instance, I will give students a math problems that they have never seen before and ask them to try to find an answer and share their method of solving the problem before I show them a couple of ways to complete the problem. Another way in which I hope to show students that learning can occur in many different forms and a variety of places is by allowing them time to do what they want to do. This is especially true for the younger students I will be teaching. They will be given ample time to play in the different areas of the classroom to learn through play. I believe children are being forced to sit at desks and learn one way to do things way too often; they need to be given the opportunity to discover for themselves, and for preschoolers and kindergartners, that means play time.