Chapters 1-3
Chapter 1
Quote:The new culture of learning actually comprises two elements. The first is a massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything. The second is a bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries. The reason we have failed to embrace these notions is that neither one alone makes for effective learning. It is the combination of the two, and the interplay between them, that makes the new culture of learning so powerful.
Question: What classroom example can be used to explain the information network and the bounded and structured environment working together?Connection: One thing that this quote and chapter reminded me of was Tony Wagner’s statement that in this era of informational surplus there is no need to memorize everything anymore. An individual has access to a surplus information. It is not what you know anymore it is what you do with it that matters.
Epiphany:This quote combines what we have been learning this semester. Information as we have traditionally delivered it to students cannot exist on its own. We have been force feeding our students information without making that information relevant to them or allowing them to do, literally, do something with it.
Chapter 2
Quote:One of the basic principles of this kind of cultivation (speaking of a culture that a scientist would grow in a petri dish under controlled conditions) is that you don’t interfere with the process, because it is the process itself that is interesting. In fact, the entire point of the experiment is to allow the culture to reproduce in an uninhibited, completely organic way, within the constraints of medium and environment - and then see what happens.
Question: How do you know when you are allowing the culture to develop and when you are wasting your students’ time as well as your own?
Connection:I have experimented on my students using this concept of allowing thier thinking to brew and learning to take place. It truly is powerful. But it also takes a while to train your students and come to a point where you feel that you accomplished what you set out to accomplish. Sometimes your plans do not turn out and that is okay also. As long as learning took place.
Epiphany:I have alway struggled, as a teacher, with giving not my students too many rules, guidelines, or my own examples. I have learned throughout the years that students will try to copy any examples that they are given. They have been taught that the teacher knows you were listening and paying attention because you do a good job on the independent task. So they try to copy any examples that the teacher provides in order to prove that they are good students. Now, I plan to offer less examples of what I desire as an end result. I would like to set up boundaries for the environment and a medium for them to use and watch the magic happen.
Chapter 3
Quote: Today, however, children and adults alike must continue to deal with an ever-changing, expanding world, A child playing with a new toy and an adult logging onto the Internet, for example, both wonder, “What do I do now? how do I handle this new situation, process this new information, and make sense of this new world?”
Question:Why and how has education steered so far away from this notion of learning through play?
Connection:We were coming to a point where play was completely frowned upon. Teachers are only “allowed” to teach skills and facts. Art and play have no room in the classroom. Before working at my current school I worked at a reading first school. It was year four program improvement. All we were “allowed” to teach was reading until lunch, math for 1.5 hours, and ELD time. No science, no art, and no creativity was allowed. I was having my students draw and label in order to help them learn the vocabulary of the story. The reading coach came in and scolded me. She said, “Be careful how much art you are letting them do. These kids need to be reading and writing. They are very low.” I knew very quickly that this was not the assignment for me. I would love to infuse every lesson with play and imagination as much as possible.
Epiphany:Human nature is to play with something which is new until it is not new anymore. Knowing this now I plan to change the play element of each concept or lesson when my students thing they have something mastered. This will refresh the concept and make it new and exciting again and thus giving them the opportunity to learn it even better (Tacit knowledge?)
Chapter 1
Quote:The new culture of learning actually comprises two elements. The first is a massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything. The second is a bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries. The reason we have failed to embrace these notions is that neither one alone makes for effective learning. It is the combination of the two, and the interplay between them, that makes the new culture of learning so powerful.
Question: What classroom example can be used to explain the information network and the bounded and structured environment working together?Connection: One thing that this quote and chapter reminded me of was Tony Wagner’s statement that in this era of informational surplus there is no need to memorize everything anymore. An individual has access to a surplus information. It is not what you know anymore it is what you do with it that matters.
Epiphany:This quote combines what we have been learning this semester. Information as we have traditionally delivered it to students cannot exist on its own. We have been force feeding our students information without making that information relevant to them or allowing them to do, literally, do something with it.
Chapter 2
Quote:One of the basic principles of this kind of cultivation (speaking of a culture that a scientist would grow in a petri dish under controlled conditions) is that you don’t interfere with the process, because it is the process itself that is interesting. In fact, the entire point of the experiment is to allow the culture to reproduce in an uninhibited, completely organic way, within the constraints of medium and environment - and then see what happens.
Question: How do you know when you are allowing the culture to develop and when you are wasting your students’ time as well as your own?
Connection:I have experimented on my students using this concept of allowing thier thinking to brew and learning to take place. It truly is powerful. But it also takes a while to train your students and come to a point where you feel that you accomplished what you set out to accomplish. Sometimes your plans do not turn out and that is okay also. As long as learning took place.
Epiphany:I have alway struggled, as a teacher, with giving not my students too many rules, guidelines, or my own examples. I have learned throughout the years that students will try to copy any examples that they are given. They have been taught that the teacher knows you were listening and paying attention because you do a good job on the independent task. So they try to copy any examples that the teacher provides in order to prove that they are good students. Now, I plan to offer less examples of what I desire as an end result. I would like to set up boundaries for the environment and a medium for them to use and watch the magic happen.
Chapter 3
Quote: Today, however, children and adults alike must continue to deal with an ever-changing, expanding world, A child playing with a new toy and an adult logging onto the Internet, for example, both wonder, “What do I do now? how do I handle this new situation, process this new information, and make sense of this new world?”
Question:Why and how has education steered so far away from this notion of learning through play?
Connection:We were coming to a point where play was completely frowned upon. Teachers are only “allowed” to teach skills and facts. Art and play have no room in the classroom. Before working at my current school I worked at a reading first school. It was year four program improvement. All we were “allowed” to teach was reading until lunch, math for 1.5 hours, and ELD time. No science, no art, and no creativity was allowed. I was having my students draw and label in order to help them learn the vocabulary of the story. The reading coach came in and scolded me. She said, “Be careful how much art you are letting them do. These kids need to be reading and writing. They are very low.” I knew very quickly that this was not the assignment for me. I would love to infuse every lesson with play and imagination as much as possible.
Epiphany:Human nature is to play with something which is new until it is not new anymore. Knowing this now I plan to change the play element of each concept or lesson when my students thing they have something mastered. This will refresh the concept and make it new and exciting again and thus giving them the opportunity to learn it even better (Tacit knowledge?)