Week 9: Thoughts on Learning and the Connection with Digital Technologies

(Readings at Bottom)

The two videos “A Vision of Students Today” and the TED talk on “Learning” both had more or less the same theme in terms of the fact that today, students are not as engaged in learning and there needs to be a reevaluation of how learning is done in schools today in order to tap into everyone’s potential so that everyone participates in ‘real learning,’ as Michael Wesch says. I was surprised at some of the statistics. Some, of course, don’t really apply here at Le Moyne, like the average class size being in the hundreds. The largest class I have is 30 or so people, so I don’t really feel like the teachers don’t know my name either. I can’t say that I’ve ever really had a problem with learning in the way that Michael talks about, but I can definitely understand the perspective he is coming from. I know that the best experiences that I’ve had in the classroom were times where we could go and apply what was just ‘learned,’ especially when we were just encouraged to try new things without any threat of failure. As Michael said, I think the learning environment would be set up in such a way that failure is encouraged, that experimenting with new things and ideas isn’t just an immediate bad grade. In one of my classes especially I can see the negative effects the ‘old type’ of learning has. I have a group chat with the people in that class, and constantly there is discussions about “what if I don’t get a good grade,” “what are the requirements for this assignment,” “what do we need to study for the next test,” and so on. I’m sure this is also the case in other classes too, where people are so focused on getting a passing grade or worried about doing it wrong that they aren’t able to truly focus on engaging with the class or the teacher. It becomes all about the number or letter that they get at the end of the course, and I think that is hindering the students. I have always seen learning as an opportunity to grow, to work on oneself, as Michael said in his talk. The phrase that my guidance counsellor said that really helped put me in this perspective in high school is “No one will care what your GPA in your high school trigonometry class will be. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you understand the material.” My parents always said something similar, always asking me after I brought home a test: “but did you understand the material?” I think this is some of what Michael was getting at, that learning is less about knowledge but understanding, and I think the second part of that is an understanding of self, not to get too philosophical. I think that real deep learning is about taking what you understand and applying it to your own world. That’s where the self comes in, because only then is the ‘material,’ or whatever it might be, worthwhile to you in a very personal sense. The baby with the stairs especially, but the talk in general, connected a bit with the video we watched on video games and learning. The baby was able to learn how to get down the stairs with trial and error. Perhaps he knows a little bit of how to do it based on watching others get up and down stairs, but that knowledge isn’t useful until he understood it, and more importantly how he applied it to his own situation. It took a lot of tries, but eventually the baby was able to get up and down the stairs. Similarly, in video games, you might see something being done by someone else, then you might understand the button combination to do it, but until you apply it to your character in game, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t mean anything. There might be a few failures that you go through, some without consequences (like the sandbox idea mentioned in the video game learning video). Then, you can master the technique and apply it to your character elsewhere. In that sense video games do a good job of helping players participate in ‘real learning,’ where even after you succeed, you keep wanting to do more and building on it, and you constantly apply it to your personal situation. In a video game, after you learn how to jump or run, you don’t just suddenly say “good thing I’ve learned that, now I don’t have to do it again.” Instead, you apply what you’ve learned to new situations and constantly engage with the game (the learning device) as yourself, and I believe it is that more personal connection and application that Michael was talking about.

The article discussing the potential positives and negatives of banning laptops really made a lot of sense to me. At least personally, I prefer taking class notes with pen and paper, largely because it’s faster and it gives me more freedom in terms of how I take the notes. I can more easily draw arrows to connect ideas, as well as organize the notes into various categories how I choose. It isn’t that easy to do it on the laptop, at least for myself. Regardless, the discussion of the laptop in class and how it can distract people from learning reminded me a lot of my high school’s 1 to 1 program with iPads. I believe I mentioned it in a previous blog, but often these iPads were very distracting for students, because they could easily get on the Internet whenever they wanted. However, I was always in the sort of mindset that ultimately it is up to the individual student whether they get distracted or not, because they can decide if they go on those sorts of sites and essentially waste their school time. Of course, some people can’t focus on class for extended periods of time, but I think there’s a difference between trying to focus and not being able to, compared to just giving up before you even start. I will admit, the way the school system is set up now encourages the sort of classrooms where a student is more likely to tune out, but at the same time, it becomes hard to pay attention to each individual student and help them succeed in their own way, since higher levels of education and even jobs need some sort of standard to decide whether or not a student can enter into the institution or company. If every student ‘becomes successful’ in their own unique way of learning, as Michael was mentioning, it becomes hard to have that sort of standard in the current situations. The economy of higher education and jobs would have to change to fit this new way of learning, and it all comes back to whether or not people decide to have laptops in class. There also has to be a point where students have to take responsibility for their own lives, where the teachers can’t prohibit them from doing what they aren’t supposed to. At some point it’s up to the individual if they want to use a laptop in a positive way to learn more, or in a negative way to multitask and browse the internet. The teacher or the school can’t be faulted for that decision that a student makes, and at the same time, the student has full freedom to make that decision on their own. I think that the teachers and school should encourage students not to use their laptop in a negative way during lectures, but not just say to put them away, because it could be for some students that laptops or other technologies are really helpful for their personal learning process. Thus while in my personal situation I think I learn better just taking notes by hand, that won’t apply to everyone, and ultimately teachers and schools need to encourage students to find the learning style that best suits them from an early age on. The students can make the decision of whether or not they use the laptop as a tool or as a distraction, because at some point, students need to take that responsibility.

A Vision of Students Today Video

What Baby George Taught Me About Learning – Dr. Michael Wesch TED Talk

The Case for Banning Laptops in the Classroom Article