Learning Experiences: One that change my life

Six years ago I moved with my husband and sons to a new area and began teaching at a new district. The technology blew me away. I learned quickly, but to be honest, I was not always sure if I was using technology in a way that would truly benefit my students. 

This was one of the reasons that I chose to get my Masters of Arts in Educational Technology. Now two years later, I am less than a week from graduating, and I will never be the same teacher again.

Learning experiences that change our life come once in a while. As I reflect on my journey in this program, I realize how profound this experience has been. There have been books, articles, programs, theories, software, experiments and research that have challenged me and forced me to think outside my box...outside my world. They have also taught me how to rely on others for support and work together to complete a project.

As much as I have learned, I am constantly reminded how much more there is to learn. Yet, I feel prepared with the tools to continue to learn and develop as an educator. Technology is just a tool and through this program, I feel both more confident in how to use and facilitate student use of technology effectively. But I know that I cannot stop with what I have learned. Technology, society, and the world are changing and as an educator, I must continue learning too. 

Lifelong learning is essential educators. Whether we learn through our peers, conferences, or formal educational programs, the value is learning.  May we all continue to learn for both ourselves and our communities. 

5 Principles of Knowledge Building

Ideas are spread from one source to another. Sharing knowledge and ideas has always be a integral part of society. Yet, the 21st century has rapidly expanded this ability with readily available knowledge and information. 

Recently, I learned about learning theorists and researchers Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter work on Knowledge Building. Though there is a wealth of knowledge about Knowledge Building the key concepts include a focus on intentional learning to create and improve knowledge in a collective process for the greater community.

In education, students often view their teachers as knowledge givers and themselves and receivers. Knowledge Building seeks to use technology to collectively investigate and improve knowledge for both education and professional organizations alike. 

Knowledge Building requires a shift in thinking from What do I need to know? to How do I contribute and create knowledge that is valuable to the community. 

In an effort to support the collective knowledge of this research, I thought I would cover five of the important foundations that Scardamalia and Bereiter describe as principles of Knowledge Building:

1. Use Real Idea, Authentic Problems. Students need to understand there are real problems and ideas out there in the world, and they can learn and investigate them  

2. Investigate Improvable Ideas.  A foundation of  Knowledge Building is that ideas can be improved on. 

3. Idea Diversity. Understanding one idea leads to another idea. Ideas are developed and improved in relationship to other ideas. 

4. Community Knowledge.The goal should be to bring valuable knowledge to others, not just the learner.

5. Knowledge Building Discourse. Knowledge is shared, refined, and improved upon in discussion online or in person. 

The 21st century has problems our students need to solve. Creating communities of Knowledge Building, may in part, work to build their capacity to do just that.