Final Reflection: Learning in School and Other Settings

Module 6 Reflection

How has the content of this course impacted you as a learner and as an educator?

During this course, I have become much more aware of the way students are learning in my classroom. This is the first course I have taken while simultaneously teaching elementary school full-time. After spending my weekends reading and reflecting about experts, modeling, observing, social learning, and tools, I go to school with a new perspective about what is occurring in my classroom and with my students.

I think the largest way this course has impacted me, is that it has changed my vision for what school and learning should look like for children. I have been able to step away from the day-to-day of teaching, and reimagine education for what it should be. I now strongly feel schools must provide students with learning experiences that are authentic. In order to do this, we must allow students to use the physical (tools) and social (relationships) supports that they would normally have access to in the real-world. Our current educational system isolates children from the outside world, and this is a disservice. My perspective on assessments has changed significantly too. It doesn’t make sense to take away tools and relationships from students during assessment. I want to see what students can do with the tools they have available to them! Do they know what tools to use, or how to use them to solve the problem at hand?

My favorite reading from the course was Salomon and Perkins’ Do technologies make us smarter? Intellectual amplification with, of and through technology. I like the idea that new technologies, like computers and the Internet, are just new tools, and humans have always used tools to better their abilities to work, learn, and produce. I had many “Ah hah” moments while I read this article. It helped me clarify my philosophy of technology in the classroom. Now, I just want to learn more and share what I have learned with others!