My Thoughts on Learning

I have taken many education classes and have been able to think a lot about my philosophy of learning and how people learn.  I am a big subscriber to the tabula rasa theory of learning.  Tabula rasa means blank slate and I thoroughly believe that everyone is born with a blank slate and it is up to us, our parents, our peers, and our teachers to help fill this tablet with pertinent information.  All people learn in different ways, for me I learn best by watching and listening.  Taking pages of notes has never helped me all that much, but if teachers would somehow put all their lessons into video form I think school would be easier than ever.  I also believe that most people learn best with a lot of practice, detailed lessons, and just a little bit of rote memorization, plus when people are having fun with their lessons the learning seems to come a little easier.  Hopefully when I teach I will be able to pull from all my resources and make my lessons fun and informational.  I would like to include video clips, games, and and be able to relate to what we are learning to some real world experiences.  To me practice is one of the more important processes in the learning process.  After practice another important process to me is one's ability to comprehend what they are reading.  Without reading comprehension students would be going nowhere in their academic careers.

Being a Digital Immigrant isn't so Bad

 I was born in 1982, right on the dividing line described by Prensky, for digital natives and digital immigrants.  I see myself more as a digital immigrant than a digital native, though I use many technologies and social media that are popular today I feel like I'm not using them to their fullest extent.  Hopefully classes like EDIT 2000 and others I will be taking will help me utilize all the technology and social media available for use in the classroom.  I would definitely agree that here in the digital age students spend a lot more time behind a screen and pounding on a keyboard.  Students are able to research topics and gather information faster, better, and more thoroughly than ever before.  What I don't agree with is that because of all this available technology that students today have a hard time learning something that is not on some type of screen.  After reading "Digital Nativism" I think that Prensky is, well I'm not going to say wrong, but I think he needs to do a little more research on his digital natives.  Some of his claims are outlandish, like digital natives do better with multitasking and are bored by doing one thing at a time.  After all this reading we were asked to think about the mindset list much like this list of current day 4th graders, and some things that they will not get to experience or remember.

1.  They can only read about all the years the Braves won their division.
2.  Missed out on the MySpace to Facebook migration.
3.  The letters TRL mean nothing.   
4.  Unless gas prices drop dramatically they'll never see a brand new Hummer.
5.  Dubstep will be oldies music to them.

Learning experience

Learning to Drive a Stick Shift

My mom knew that to be a complete driver my sisters and I needed to know how to drive any vehicle, including those with a manual transmission. Of course I was ready and willing to learn how to do this. I started my training at the tender age of 12. I know this was way too young to drive, but we had the time and the place. It all started in our church parking lot one Sunday after church. My mother has kept the nursery at our church for many years, and everyone was gone and the parking lot was empty. Lucky for me our church parking lot has a slight slope to it, so my learning curve was shortened a bit. I’d let the car start rolling down the hill then slowly let the clutch out. This was a great way for me to get a feel for the clutch and know when it would engage. After many slow rolling starts it was time to find a flat spot and try going from a stand still. This is where the excitement starts. It was like a scene from a movie. The car, a Toyota Celica ST, was bouncing and jerking all over the place. Of course I also stalled it out many times. After much practice and quite a few Sunday afternoons I was able to operate a stick shift like a NASCAR driver, well might not that good, but better than any of my other under aged friends. Since I learned so young and have driven my share of manual transmissions I am also quite capable of teaching others. I have taught a few people including a couple of girlfriends, believe me no easy task. I am certainly glad that my mother had the patience to teach me and allow me to practice all those Sundays because now I never have to worry about if I can or can’t drive vehicles with manual transmissions.