Final Thoughts

I finished my reading the book today and was pleased to comforted about the possibility of using self-constructed learning in my classroom. It really works if you can frame it correctly. I feel that it may be the most efficient method of teaching because the student is the only who truly understood their own deficiencies.

There are flaws with this method, but that can be said of any method of instruction. Teaching is an art form, not a formula. I am so happy to know that there is another method out there for me to try and improve upon - a method that fosters student leadership. I think I had gotten to a place where I felt as if I was hearing the same methods of instruction over and over again, so this method is refreshing and much welcomed.

I do not mind that this method will take me out of my comfort zone, or that it will require me to release control. It is actually a little comforting to have more control placed in the hands of my students so that they can begin to learn how learning works in the adult world. We choose what we will learn, why we will learn it, and how we will learn it. I am thankful for this real-world method of instruction.

I will continue to research ways to implement SDL in high school classrooms so that I can find ways to harness the potential of this style in my classroom. I know there are flaws, but I am ready to tackle them and ready to offer my students the respect they deserve in allowing them to structure their learning in the way that will benefit them most. I will still have to struggle with motivating the unmotivated, but at least they have choice this time!

Left Out

I was pleased to hear the book acknowledge that some students may naturally get left out of the self constructed process today. This had always been a thought in my mind while reading the book. The book stated some might get left out due to lack of motivation, or lack of acceptance by their peers.

 Age seems to have a lot to do with engagement too, which might explain why I am having trouble incorporating the concept into my own classroom. The younger kids seem to have a more natural/stronger drive for learning while outside factors take a bigger tole on the older students.

I still believe in this style of learning and am ambitious to find other ways to make it work with my current teaching style.

A Task - constructed

So I took another stab at trying self-constructed learning in my class. This time, I took the book's advice and tried, "simple goals, and outcomes" to enhance the experience. We are learning how to write research papers right now. MLA is quite a challenge to learn and teach for the first time and my 10th graders always struggle. This year, I decided to try the advice of my book and see how much they could glean from self-constructed learning. I gave them a simple goal: Understand these concepts:

MLA format
Citation
Source material
In-text citation / Parenthetical citation
plagiarism

Then, I asked them to demonstrate that the understood the concepts. Most students chose to work alone. The products they created ranged from paragraphs, to copied definitions, to posters, to even just a printed article.

While they in no way mastered the material, they did acquire a base knowledge of the content --> something I have never had the privilege of relying on with a sophomore class.
All in all, I believe the experience was a success because my students came to my lessons with a new understanding and they knew the right questions to ask. Usually, my students stare at me wide eyed as I try to explain giving credit to the author for the first time!

Could this be self-constructed learning?

This image makes me laugh  little because it is so posed, but maybe this is the sight that awaits a self constructed classroom.

Now to just solve the problems of limited computer access.

The real kids

I wanted to provide an image of the actual kids learning from their "hole in the wall" in India.

The thing that really stands out in my mind just by viewing this image is the amount of engagement across genders, ages, and possibly abilities. One girl even scratches her head as she examines the content. Self-directed learning has the potential to open doors we never thought we could. Imagine merging grade levels and disbanding gender specific schools. Maybe the one room school houses of the past tapped into a resource we can't in our current four walls.

I wish we could see what they were viewing on the screen!

Crystal

Just a few hours?

Today's reading explained that the creators of the Kalkaji Experiment (Beyond the Hole in the Wall project) wanted to see just how important technology was, not self-directed learning. Their discovery that kids can learn without teachers was a happy accident.

I was shocked to learn today that the children who taught themselves to use the computer actually did so in just a few hours. The researchers explained that just a few hours after the children from the slums used the internet, they were surfing the web.

The  children went on to learn the full operations of all mouse functions, hardware and software operations after six months. That is probably the length of a school year when taking breaks into consideration. My thought is that self-directed learning is very effective, but it takes longer. I wonder if my classroom could be effective in a 100% self-directed environment being that I need my students to master more than one skill. But I will say that it is impressive that the students did not learn just how to operate the device, but they developed a full mastery of it. I cannot say that my students leave my room with a full mastery of the English language.

Technology

Our School Improvement Team has decided that increasing teacher use of technology should be our 2 year improvement goal. The past 2 years of my teacher life have been spent trying to utilize superfluous technology for the sake of my evaluation. Notice, I did not say for the sake of my students. To be honest, they know more about technology than I do, and I consider myself to be pretty advanced. So really, incorporating the technology is more of a nod to their abilities and a dog and pony show for my administrators. That is why I chuckled when I read these words in my book today:

"Are LCD projectors, laptops and PowerPoint slides educational technology? They weren't created as such. Laptops were created for rich company executives, Microsoft wrote PowerPoint for corporate presentations, and LCD projectors were invented for corporate boardrooms" (BTHITW 162).

The book goes on to explain that corporate salesmen convinced the schools to adopt these devices.