Prue Salter’s Blog: Exploring the Power of Technology as a Learning Tool

My current views of Learning:

 I believe that true learning stems from curiosity. We want to find out something or know more about something.  That is why children have such an open mind to learning new things – they are curious about the world! Learning does not necessarily just mean acquiring knowledge – although it does include this – learning can be a new skill, a new attitude or opinion or a deeper understanding of someone else’s outlook. To me, deep meaningful learning has occurred when you make new neural connections that allow you to do or know or think something you did not know or could not do or think before.

The factor that I think is most important is motivation – wanting to learn something is the most powerful driver of success in learning. Other factors that come into play are your own personal experiences, attitudes and ability levels. While I believe anyone can learn anything, there are limitations probably based more on belief that anything else.

My current views of Technology-Mediated Learning:

Mediate is a funny word. To me it implies that technology is the intermediary between the
ttools and the learner, which isn’t really how I see it. I see technology-mediated learning as learning that is enhanced and enriched through the use of technological tools –  allowing you to experience something you would not have been able to without the technology or taking traditional methods of learning and making them more effective and efficient.

The best example of technology-mediated learning I have experienced so far is edublogs. By articulating my thoughts about what I was learning in a public forum it really helped me to clarify my thinking and points of view and looking back on my posts allowed me to make connections I had not previously recognized.

My current views of Teaching:

 I believe a teacher is a guide, we are there to help a learner make the most of the learning experience, we can provide assistance or direction when needed and support our students in their journey. But we need to remember it is their journey – not ours. I also believe a good teacher is one who can see things from lots of different viewpoints and explain things in many different ways. As an ex-Maths teacher I always felt that if a students didn’t understand a concept then I just hadn’t found a way to explain it yet that would make it ‘click’ for them.

With respect to technology, as the students sometimes know more than the teachers with respect to technological details, the role of the teacher is to suggest possible and interesting directions, ask stimulating and challenging questions so students reflect on their experiences and encourage the students to move beyond their comfort zone with technology.

Image Attributions:

Image: ‘La tentation est trop forte !‘
www.flickr.com/photos/11907589@N03/2545388425

Image: ‘Beautiful Tools‘
www.flickr.com/photos/49503154413@N01/100043823

Image: ‘meet me in the middle‘
www.flickr.com/photos/7321322@N06/1331168759