Blog #4 - Growth from Within

Logic and practice often elude each other. This phenomenon is ever so clear for individuals learning the English language. Faced with holes and conundrums students of English jump between forms of conjugation and roots of diverse linguistic origin noticing lack of linguistic patterns. Frequently individuals new to English find these deficiencies frustrating and will carry past language terms into current practice to provide relevant terms for their experiences. We, as a culture, create and preserve words that emphasize interests and priorities and ignore subjects or ideas falling beyond our periphery.

Papert identified in his commentary A Word for Learning education’s this tendency toward egocentric language development. For eons those in charge of education were not the students but the “professionals”…those trained to teach. The locus of control was centered over the act of teaching not the students’ reception of knowledge.

Introduction of the computer and self directed learning into the “teaching” toolbox destroys the method-centric education schema and inserts many educators into a world of constructionist and constructivist approaches. Allowing students to direct knowledge quests on guided yet creative whims permits links between areas of knowledge thus delivering students to higher levels of cognitive process. Students are able to, on their own terms, confront personal misunderstandings much like Papert did in his flower example. The computer and other learner-centered technologies encourage nontraditional learning environments and promote increased levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy. (Clark, 2005) “Because non-formal learning environments are not constrained by the structure and policies of traditional schools, they allow participants to see the relevance of their learning efforts based on things that are important to them.”


Reference:
Ausburn, L. J. (2002). The freedom versus focus dilemma in a customized self-directed learning environment: A comparison of the perceptions of adult and younger students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 26 (30, 225-235).

Clark, K. (2005). SERVING UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES WITH INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES: Giving Them What They Need, Not What You Want. Urban education, 40(4), 430-.

http://sfx.lib.lehigh.edu:9003/sfx_local?genre=article;sid=ProQ%3A;atitle=SERVING%20UNDERSERVED%20COMMUNITIES%20WITH%20INSTRUCTIONAL%20TECHNOLOGIES%3A%20Giving%20Them%20What%20They%20Need%2C%20Not%20What%20You%20Want;title=Urban%20Education;issn=00420859;date=2005-07-01;volume=40;issue=4;spage=430;pid=Kevin%20Clark