The Learning Process

Page 219 of our text book mentions three levels of learning:

• Authentic learning - this is where you get on your bike, fall off, run through mom's entire supply of Band-Aids, and eventually you can ride. (Real-life experience, something that matters to the student.)
• Participatory Learning - OK, we've got the facts - now what will you do with them?  Students take what they know and reason about it.  Why do you lean in the direction you are falling when riding a bike?
• Anchored Instruction - I already have background knowledge about the bike, because I had a tricycle before.

How do we design curriculum on these basic levels?  You could teach your pupils the Pythagorean theorem and have them do a worksheet of practice problems.  They will remember the formula until the day after unit testing.  It's worth to the students is only to pass a test. OR:

We have Fred, a 6 year old college math professor, riding a bus back to his university with some girls.  They enter a tunnel.  The girls scream.  Fred didn't scream.  He read the signs that said "Tunnel ahead."  However there was one sign which gave Fred a little concern.  "Tunnel under Construction."  The tunnel looked awfully narrow.  He wondered if the bus could even fit in the tunnel.  He measured the width of the bus (12 feet) and looked on top of the bus and noticed that there was some kind of pointy object sticking up at the read of the bus.  Cheryl (the chaperone of the girls) told him not to worry.  It was just a little two foot antenna installed on the roof of the bus to pick up short-wave radio signals.

What everyone noticed was a loud high-pitched screech as the bus drove through the tiny semicircular tunnel.  The top edges of the bus and the antenna were all scratching grooves into the tunnel wall.

Fred though for a moment.  He laughed to himself as he realized "I know how wide this tunnel is."

Suddenly the Pythagorean theorem is relevant.  What student has not traveled through a tunnel in their life?  How would you tell how tall it is?  This might be something good to know.  

As far as integrating technology into these levels of learning, there is lots of room.  In the authentic stage, build a tunnel and train on the computer.  How big should we make the tunnel?  How will we know?  There are a number of sites that let students draft items using Computer aided drafting. Participation starts as the students apply what they know in order to figure it out.  And this is already anchored knowledge because they learned about radius last year.

Another topic I have noticed as a common thread is how schools can't afford computers.  Thankfully, this is becoming less and less of a barrier.  

Kano and Raspberry Pi

This particular offering of the Raspberry Pi runs $150 per unit.  They can be picked up less expensively, but this one is very kid-friendly.  

The creators of the Raspberry Pi say about their product:

"The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It is a capable little computer which can be used in electronics projects, and for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn how computers work, how to manipulate the electronic world around them, and how to program."

The benefits of this is that it allows a 1:1 computer ratio at school without a large investment.  All you need is the little board, a television, and a keyboard.  The students can build the computer themselves, thus taking ownership of their learning.  Computers become much less intimidating when you can see all their insides and when you put them together.  

The cons may be the small size and possibility of damage by a student.  They are small enough to "accidentally" travel home in a pocket or backpack.  Monitors cost more than the computer itself.  They are not highly powerful gaming computers, but are enough to browse the web and perform basic functions such as writing a report or an email, or running Google Drive.  

In ending, this is my hero teacher:

I only hope I can design lessons with as much creativity as he does.

Sources:

Schmidt, Stanley F. Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra. Reno, NV: Polka Dot Pub., 2002. Print.

"Kano: A Computer Anyone Can Make." Kano. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

"What Is a Raspberry Pi?" Raspberry Pi Home Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.

Shelly, Gary B., Glenda A. Gunter, and Randolph E. Gunter. Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology in a Connected World. 7th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.