Education is shifting from just giving information to students to an inquiry learning approach. The National Research Council (2007) states that "The meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it." We need to shift to inquiry based education, and we can do that with the use of technology.
What does inquiry mean to me? I feel that an inquiry based classroom is one that gives students just enough information to make them curious and want to know more. An inquiry based classroom allows students to make mistakes along the path to education. It's ok to fail as long as we learn from our failure. When we are curious about a topic we dig in to find the answer. We don't stop even when failure may be around the next bend. Making students curious about a topic will help them learn. I particularly enjoy teaching science with inquiry based lessons. I love giving them a bowl full of materials during our electricity unit, and then I ask them to make a light bulb light up. You should see what the students produce! They students not only give me a series circuit, but then they discover how to build a parallel circuit. I love watching them explore and learn through inquiry.
Technology allows us to engage, enhance and extend learning. Not only can technology motivate students to learn, but it can also help students develop a deeper understanding of the knowledge and the world around them. The Landwitches blog "Get Over It!" explained why some of the schools haven't caught up using technology to engage, enhance, and extend learning. A lot of teachers have technophobia. Sadly, I have been included in this group. Teachers sometimes fear technology and allowing their students to have free reign with a computer. The article by Keren-Kolb explains that there is a difference between engaging students with technology and enhancing the education. I'll admit that it's hard to concentrate on adding technology into lessons to do more than engage the students. It's hard to determine how to extend learning through technology. I need to focus on learning how to teach inquiry based technology lessons by realizing that it's ok to fail. I may just come up with an amazing lesson or project through my failure!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy
I was able to attend the Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy on September 28, 2019 at the Georgia Coastal Center in Sav...
Julie I feel like I need to work on the idea that it is okay to fail also. In the video Diana Laufenberg says, "Teachers need to be open to the idea of kids failing during the learning process." I guess we all get so caught up in the teaching and fast paced guides that are given to us, we don't really see how much students can learn from their own mistakes.
ReplyDelete