Post blog entry #7 in reaction to "Effective Teaching"

A coworker of mine often says "I'm not an expert, I just know enough about a lot of things to make me dangerous." This line resonated with me as I read through this week's chapter. Fortunately for everyone, my coworker uses his knowledge and deep understanding of technology to build and enhance rather than destroy. The teachers that Bransford describes, do much the same in their classrooms to create well rounded environments conducive for learning.

I had the opportunity to attend an event last week regarding Lehigh's presence in Second Life. During the session, many faculty discussed their experiences with Second Life thus far. There were two examples that really struck a chord with me that made me think these two individuals clearly exemplified what Bransford was describing.

Example 1
The first scenario involved using Second Life for a choral arts class. The teacher was using this service as a way for her students to have extra "recording" time. Each student was able to access the studio at their convenience and post a vocal recording. While this was a great idea and gave students additional recording time and availability, the next step taken by the teacher identified her as someone who can think beyond conventional ways. She encouraged all of her students to work with singers from other countries via Second Life. Since a lot of the songs the students had to sing were in different languages, the teacher identified the importance of understanding other languages, and working with singers with different primary languages provided and effective way for these students to improve themselves.

Example 2
The second scenario involved a science teacher that created molecular structures in Second Life. She described her research and years spent learning about one particular molecule and explained how she could never really wrap her mind around the structure until she built in a way that allowed her to fly inside of it and view it from many perspectives that were impossible otherwise. Although she noted that she had yet to identify how she intended to use this in class, it was clear that the intention was there to push this tool in ways that could help her students understand the content she is teaching. The drive that this particular teacher possesses is inherent in the examples in this chapter as well. You may not get something out of everything you try, but you'll never know what can be accomplished until you try.

As Bransford (2000) says, these kinds of teachers aren't just gifted individuals that can teach anything (p. 163). Effective teachers may not always be experts, but they know enough about a lot of things to do their job well, and help students to learn and understand. They posses a deep understanding of their discipline that allows them to use their pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge to lead a classroom and teach in sometimes unconventional ways.

Bransford, J. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Post blog entry #6 in reaction to ""Design of Learning Environments""

When I reflect on this week's reading, the phrase "everything in moderation" comes to mind. I'd like to think this is a fairly obvious statement, but I find that this often is not the case. The movie we watched last week, 2 Million Minutes, is a good example of this. Bransford (2000) also discussed it a bit with his discussion about televisions' role, or lack thereof, in learning. (p.150-151) Throughout the learning process, there are a lot of things that need to be kept in balance, including student learning environments, learning activities and learning content.

In the movie 2 million minutes, it appeared that in India and China, learning was divided throughout the four categories that were discussed in this weeks chapter (learner, knowledge, assessment and community). There was a whole lot of learning and assessment going on throughout every aspect of their lives. What content was being learned? How is their knowledge being applied across activities and life experiences? These areas did not seem to be quite as diverse. Math and science were primary focuses for the students. Having such a narrow focus limited learning opportunities in other areas including sports, music, arts, etc. All of the children seemed to have taken interest in some of these areas, but were limited in their time to experience them in their learning environments. The reason for this is probably because the motivating factor for investing time in learning is the summative assessment tests that measure each students knowledge in math and science related topics over others.

For American students, it seemed quite the opposite. While they understood the importance of classroom based education, extracurricular activities were also important. Television's ability to teach, for instance, is a hot topic of discussion. Bransford clearly identified research that supports the fact that television can assist learning in small doses, but TV should clearly not be a child's babysitter. While this is true, video can be a strong learning tool in small doses. Youtube has become a breeding ground for short tutorials to teach content. This may be helpful in small doses, but interest tends to wane over time.

Although these are two very diverse ways of learning, in moderation, they have the ability to coexist quite nicely together. Life experience is just as important as classroom experience. As the chapter showed, children spend a lot more time out of the classroom than in the classroom and it is important to use that time to learn something. Skills and learning is applied through a variety of ways including while playing video games, having a job, practicing an instrument, or doing homework. However, balance needs to exist in order for effective learning to take place. I always thought the goal of schools is to develop the abilities of learners so that as they grow, they can use their knowledge and skills to contribute to society. If this is the case, then why do we only test knowledge in topics like math and science? Last time I checked, we need a lot more than multiplication and equations to get through life.

Bransford, J. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Post blog entry #5 in reaction to "Mind and Brain"

This week's reading took a far step away from the learning process and focused more on the science behind how the brain works. Although it discusses how we learn in a very scientific perspective, it is highly unlikely we will be dissecting the brains of our students to figure out how smart they are based on the ratio of capillaries to each nerve cell. The chapter does indicate ways in which a teacher can use instruction to exercise the brain and increase the capacity for learning. This idea builds upon my blog last week regarding how we can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the learner, and what methods are most efficient and effective.

This combination of brain exercise in tandem with learning methods reminded me of a game I own, Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo Wii. The point of the game is to be a student in the academy, and your task is to complete different exercises to increase learning and knowledge. You score points based on your skills and abilities to learn efficiently and effectively. I had not played the game in over a year so I decided to pop it in, put my figurative TLT hat on, and evaluate the software from an educational perspective. As I started to play, I noticed the following points of interest:

* Your brain is broken down into five categories of capabilities; identify, memorize, analyze, compute, and visualize.
* Your score is based on an algorithm that measures the amount of correct answers, as well as the time it takes to complete the tests.
* Although you can compete against others, your "grade" is based on your own abilities.


The game saves your best scores so that you can compare your current status to past ratings. After a few practice sessions, I took the test to measure my brain. It was not surprising to me to see that I had regressed from the last time I played. This coincides with the theory that you lose connection to certain things in your brain when you do not constantly exercise or use the information learned. The next day, I performed the same tasks, and came close to the score I had the year prior. On day three, my progression lead me to beat all of my previous best scores.

So what does this all mean? My experience supports a few different concepts. Although it is not the answer to all learning issues, technology such as the Wii can facilitate learning. It is possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of learning, thus allowing the teacher to focus on more effective ways of teaching content to students. Last, it is also worth mentioning that I was able to have fun while learning and that is a great motivational feature when trying to teach.