Introduction

Over these passed two weeks as you may have been aware I have been posting on subjects related to my '21st Century Learning' module at University. These contain information describing different theories, contexts, methods and approaches to learning, in education. This is also reflective, so I have inserted my own opinion in parts of these posts too. They are the next 4 posts in line after this Introduction (Up to my Spotify evaluation), so check them out and let me know what you think.


Thanks, Tristan

P.s. You may need to select [older posts] at the bottom of the page to see my last post.

Learning In Other Contexts

What is teaching?

By definition: “Give lessons in, lecture in, give instruction in… to impart knowledge or skill to… to advocate or preach” (TheFreeDictionary, 2013) (Accessed on 22/04/2013) All these three different definitions all have one thing in common; they are all the process of somebody sharing their knowledge to somebody else.

What is learning?

By definition: “The cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge; ‘the child's acquisition of language’ ” (TheFreeDictionary, 2013) (Accessed on 22/04/2013)

Many people think that being taught and learning is the same thing, whereas they are in fact very different. Children can be taught and find that when they leave the classroom they are no better than when they entered. They therefore haven’t technically learnt anything. It’s only once a child is interested and chooses to participate that they learn. Different contexts and environments can affect this, and can make boring subjects, interesting.

Encouraging learning through different environments and contexts

General schooling shouldn’t just conform to the standard, stereotypical approach and view of what schooling is. For instance, Children sat in a stuffy classroom, at a desk, in an organised lesson, in front of a teacher, being drilled with information. School should be thought of as an exciting experience that varies from day to day, exists within a ‘mishmash’ of indoor and outdoor experiences and activities. This has been introduced through approaches like Montessori and Forest schools, where children have freedom and experiences of different contexts. These approaches that boast different contexts have proven to gain some great results.

School trips are another great experience for children in school. Children are given the opportunity to visit a new environment, that is normally enjoyable, but learn a great deal at the same time. This again is taking the stereotypical view of education away and inputting new contexts that should help to increase and enhance children’s learning.

Techniquest science museum in Cardiff Bay is a pure example of a great learning context that boasts an amazing interactive experience, where you can go and have so much fun whilst learning a great deal, sometimes without realising. This context makes learning easy, effortless and fun. Both Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are of the belief this is important for children’s need to discover the world and build on their mental schema.

 

I believe schooling shouldn’t just be constricted to the classroom but should be explored in many different contexts. Although it can be useful to have a structured, formal, inside approach to some areas of education, it shouldn’t be the only context in which children learn. As children don’t like being taught, but they love to learn, and different learning contexts is the process that brings teaching and learning together.

Reference List:

• TheFreeDictionary (2013), (Accessed on 11/04/2013), (Accessed on website: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Montessori+method)

Play

What is play?

Play is a positive, enjoyable, individual or shared experience for a person. It is healthy and an essential part of life. In education it is usually an experience freely chosen and led by the person(s) engaging in it; strongly influenced by imagination, personal experiences and individual personality and temperament.

Play In Early Education

"From an early age, play is important to a child's development and learning. It isn't just physical. It can involve cognitive, imaginative, creative, emotional and social aspects. It is the main way most children express their impulse to explore, experiment and understand. Children of all ages play." Dobson F (2004, page 8).

5 days a week children sit in a classroom, listen to a teacher talk to them about what they apparently need to know. Children have to learn according to a national curriculum, (what education believes children need to/should know at a certain age). Whereas most of the time they leave that classroom at the end of the day thinking… “what have I learnt today?” If structured classroom teaching was so successful, wouldn’t the answer to the question parents ask their children after school, “How was school?” be a more elaborate response as opposed to, “Yeah it was okay”. I believe children need to be motivated within their school setting, be able to explore and discover education in a way they can enjoy. A way they find easiest but at the same time will challenge their development. That suits their individual learning styles, and enables them to discover who they are and how they learn best for themselves. So children will leave their place of learning with a good, new, inspired feeling which they’ll want to share and will encourage them to look forward to the next day. This can all be achieved through Play; A supported but not directed positive way of learning.

Theoretical Views Supporting Play

There are many different theoretical views within education on play. Theorists such as Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, [See Previous Post on the Montessori method for information on Maria Montessori, play and freedom of choice.], Tina Bruce, etc. support this approach to learning within early childhood education.

Tina Bruce, portrays play as an important process of children’s understanding of own potential and discovery of individual ability, She states:
 

“We can say that free-flow play seems to be concerned with the ability and opportunity to wallow in ideas, experiences, feelings and relationships. It is also about the way children come to use the competencies they have developed. It is the way children integrate all their learning.” Bruce T (1991, page 42).

Reference List:

• Bruce T (1991), (Page 42), Time to Play in Early Childhood, London: Hodder Stoughton

• Dobson F (2004), (page 8), Getting Serious About Play, London: Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Outdoor Learning

‘Forest Schools’ is an innovative approach to schooling targeted for children ages 2 – 9 years; Nursery age to primary school year 4. It shows a different view to how children should be taught in the first few and most important early years of their childhood. Schools that follow this approach are normally set (as the name suggests) near, next to or even better inside a good size woodland or outdoor activity area. They encourage, support and enable children to explore and discover the outside world for themselves. This is something that is so unappreciated in primary schooling of today; especially in foundation phase/stage classes. There seems to be so many health and safety rules to say what children should and shouldn’t, or are/apparently aren’t capable of doing. This can sometimes greatly hinder a child’s development and the process of children discovering who they are, also quite simply a child’s happiness.

 

 

‘Forest Schools’ was first originated in Sweden in 1950, and arrived in the UK in 1990. This makes forest schools still quite a recent development in education. In this short time it has shown to bring some great results within children’s development. Encouraging children to Learn and build upon skills they are born with that are important and useful for everyday life situations. This approach is similar to Montessori’s method in the sense that children have so much freedom and choice in what they can do and learn. For example, there are a number of useful points on Page 33 of the book ‘Forest Schools for all’ by (Knight S, 2011). They back up this point and state how forest schools can aid in, “The development of greater independence and pupils’ confidence in guiding their own learning”.

“A study done in Sweden over a 13 month period found that children located in urban environments were much less happy than those attending forest school kindergarten in a countryside environment. … The study observed children in the city becoming irritable when they were interrupted, their stress levels rose significantly and their ability to concentrate fell. When they could not pay attention there was a clear tendency to be selfish and inconsiderate and show aggression. The forest school children seemed much more respectful to each other.” Forest Schools (2013) (Accessed on 17/04/13).

This quote was from the official Forest Schools website, and although it is a very long quote, it shows how effective ‘Forest Schools’ can be, and how it can change a child’s life for the better; not just mentally but physically too. For example, the simple point of children being exposed to the outdoor air. Which with the hold that video games have on children today, can do a lot of good. So if the current generation were to grow up, simply with a childhood consisting of many strong positive experiences in the outdoor environment, it could change the hold of video games and, (it sounds extreme but), potentially lower the shockingly high percentage of childhood obesity of today.

 

 

Reference List:

• Forest Schools (2013), (Accessed on 17/04/13), (Accessed on Website: http://www.forestschools.com/a-history)

• Knight S (2011), (Page 33), Forest School for all, London: Sage.

Maria Montessori

Who was Maria Montessori?

Maria Montessori was an Italian born in 1870. She studied medicine and became the first female medical practitioner in Italy.  Maria worked mainly with children that were “different” or apparently unable to learn, and weren’t included within the standard education system. She created a different way for them to get educated through movement. This gained some great results, from this she was asked to run a childcare project which was a children’s house where she cared for children and used this same method of movement. This is where her passion for children’s development, and her well known ‘Montessori Approach’ was born. (Montessori in Education, 2013) (Accessed on 11/04/13)

What is the Montessori approach?

By Definition:

“A method of educating young children that stresses development of a child's own initiative and natural abilities, especially through practical play … In which children are provided with generous facilities … and allowed to develop at their own pace”. (TheFreeDictionary, 2013) (Accessed on 11/04/2013)

The Montessori approach is a method where importance of the child being able to express themselves in their own individualistic way through play and at their own pace. Where the freedom to choose and discover for themselves is paramount to their development. The role of the practitioner is very different than standard nursery settings. In Montessori Nursery settings the practitioner main role is not to direct, but to observe, and support if needed. This develops children’s independence and confidence that proves to be increasingly vital as they grow up.

Maria Montessori believed that there are 3 stages of development; Birth to six, six to twelve and twelve to eighteen, each being six year periods, and 3 of the most important stages in a child’s development. She believed that the first stage (Birth to six) is most important as it lays the base to a child’s future socially, emotionally and physically, where the child will take in so many new experiences and grow rapidly. The second stage (six to twelve) is where the child will form strong social skills and relationships. They should be eager to learn and acquire new knowledge; the child will be extremely inquisitive. The last stage (twelve to eighteen), the child will go through puberty, a big change to the body. This will again be teamed up with a need to be a part of a social group, and need to discover his or her true identity. (Isaac B, 2012).

The Montessori approach maximises the chance for children to be creative within education. Creativity is a vital aspect in learning which can be ignored and not appreciated within the general education system of today. The main factor of Montessori is that it’s a method that enables children to learn the way they find easiest and prefer; as children love to learn but don’t like being taught.

Reference list:

• Isaac B (2012), Understanding the Montessori Approach, London: Routledge

• Montessori In Education (2013), (Accessed on 11/04/13), (Accessed on website: http://www.montessorieducationuk.org/?q=who-was-maria-montessori/who-was-maria-montessori)

• TheFreeDictionary (2013), (Accessed on 11/04/2013), (Accessed on website: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Montessori+method)

Evaluation of Spotify

Spotify is an Audio streaming programme that supports playback of almost every known artist, album and song in existence. Anyone can download this programme, listen away and take advantage of it's features. Some of these features enable people to make playlists of their favourite songs; which then makes them easily accessible, Discovery of new music artists and extension of known music artists, 'Spotify Social'; a complete social connection with friends on Facebook, and many more.

Although this sounds great and like a free version of iTunes, the free version does come with limitations. It only allows 10 hours of streaming a month and songs can only be played a maximum of 5 times each. Even with these limitations it is still a worth while programme to download.

There is an option to upgrade to Spotify Unlimited for £5.00 which is the same as free but unlimited playback of music. There is also Spotify Premium for £10, which gives you unlimited playback, High quality audio, and access to music anywhere on your mobile phone. These features are worth the money, and they even do a 50% discount on Premium for NUS card holders.

Free music, Free enjoyment... What more could you want? Download it today and Educate yourself with Music.

Use of Technology in Teaching

Over the past 20 years technology advances have been great, quick and for education, seemingly essential to the learning process. When I was back in year 6 in primary school, my year was one of the first; within the school's history, to have a lap-safe within the classroom.This made written work a lot easier, neater, and quicker to complete. Now it seems like this is an ordinary thing, even as early as year 3. It was just 2 weeks ago that I was given an iPad 2 to record a video for part of my module. 

Technology like Computers/laptops and SMART boards have made some aspects of teaching much easier for teachers, but subjects like Science, P.E and Handwriting etc still remain handwritten and hands-on subjects within schooling. And these hands-on subjects like P.E, seem to be the more enjoyable subjects of a school day.

I believe that technology has improved education in amazing ways. It is such a useful resource for teachers and makes their jobs easier. Although this is the case, do we rely too much upon technology within schooling? and how much do children actually take in and receive when being taught through technology? This could mean that as technology advances even further we could potentially be making a negative impact upon education and the learning of this schooling generation.

I found an Article written by 'Jennifer LeClaire' for a website called 'TechNewsWorld' called "How much is too much?" This article states many pros and cons and the effects technology can have on children. Click here for the Article 

So What is the future of education? Are we going to be illustrating from our minds to a screen or working with holograms? Is this good for education or should we be moving backwards, and encouraging more hands-on, handwritten tasks? We'll have to wait and see.

Twitter and Facebook

Twitter is a very Popular Web 2.0 Application used by people and celebrities all over the world. In one of my earlier posts, I spoke about the Pros and Cons of Facebook. I think Twitter is better than Facebook. This is purely because it seems to offer exactly what Facebook has to offer except in a more slim lined, simplified, mature version. Also with the connection between twitter and Instagram (where you submit statuses through picture sharing), you have all the visual features that you have on facebook that you miss by just having Twitter.

Although Twitter seems to have a lot more to its name, Facebook is a lot easier to use and is a lot easier and more suitable for a younger audience to use as well as older, as opposed to Twitter. Facebook seems to have a larger self obsession aspect to it and people can find they start to live on facebook as opposed to real life, and become depressed if they haven't submitted a good status or other silly things like this. This doesn't seem to happen anywhere near as much in Twitter.

Both Twitter and Facebook have educational aspects to them and are quite similar to blogs, as you can Add/Follow people or organisations or applications that post news, play educational games on Facebook and follow People that post useful facts and other general knowledge.

Blogging at University

Over the last 4 months I have been blogging as part of my Visual Communications: Culture and Creativity module at Swansea Metropolitan University. When I first began blogging I didn't see how this could be a useful resource and seemed to me like a waste of time. As time has passed and I have submitted posts on this blog, it has become personal to me, and I have begun to see the useful side of this resource. It has been nice to have an assignment in the form of a blog as I haven't really noticed the build up of words and content in the same way as a written assignment. I believe this creates a much easier feel and working on it has been much more enjoyable than writing a standard 2500 word assignment.

I sincerely recommend creating your own blog; whether for educational reasons or not, as it is an easy way to keep your thoughts together and submit posts on subjects close to your mind. It can also be used to follow other blogs. For example, Your friend is going on a trip around Asia and if he posts on his blog during the trip. If you follow him, you can be with him through this trip. Hearing about everything he's doing. Or for instance, the Lifehacker blog; that I currently follow. This blog contains useful information for everyday life.

Simon!

Voki

Simon is my ‘Voki’ Character creation. Acting as a pure example of this web 2.0 application, he is going to speak for me about it's Usefulness and easy accessibility.

Just click on the Play button to hear what He has to say about His website, how to use it, and how well it can be used within an Educational context.

What Simon didn’t tell you is it is absolutely free! It is also upgradable to ‘Voki’ Classroom which adds many other useful features for use by teachers in the classroom.

To make your own 'Voki' Character and start making use of these features go to http://www.voki.com and click on create.

Pros and Cons of Facebook...

Pros:

•  Instant contact with your friends (Especially now with Facebook apps on mobile phones).
•  Discover new opportunities through joining/liking groups and pages.
•  Find long lost friends or family who you haven't seen in a long time.
• Create Events and Invite friends and others to come a long. Also get invited to events and parties etc.
• Make new friends
• Arrange outings with friends.
•  Create your own personal Profile and space (with picture).
• Upload photos of your everyday life and share with your friends.
•  Promote companies, products or Music Artists. Even Promote yourself as a music artist and become known.
• Post Status's about everyday things, or updates which people can follow.
• Keep up to date with birthdays.
• Keep up to date with General News, Sports News and weather, etc.
• Easy resource to waste time on.

Cons:

• Easy to become self-absorbed within Facebook; so much so it can become your life!
• A big distraction from coursework and other types of work; as it is so easy to access.
•  Can get in trouble with companies, managers, parents, etc, If you post anything inappropriate.
• Fake groups/posts that can invite unwanted virus's and other bugs into your computer (If clicked on).
• There are lots of people that aren't who they say they are. (So it is important to be careful).

As you can see there are a lot more pros and cons to Facebook (That I can think of anyway). It is a very useful resource in many ways, although you do need to ensure you use it safely and in the correct way. If you're not signed up already... What are you waiting for?

Ted Talks

Do schools kill creativity??

I am going to be writing a reflection on Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on whether or not schools kill creativity. He talks upon the importance of an education system that nurtures kids’ creativity as opposed to killing it. Sir Ken Robinson starts off his talk by stating 3 themes.

These themes were: One, The extraordinary evidence of human creativity, Two, how education has put us in a place where we have no idea of the future and what could happen, and Three, that Children have an extraordinary capacity for innovation.

The second theme was about how education can change so quickly and because of this it is hard to teach children today. This is because we don’t know what the world is going to be like in 5 years let alone by 2065 which is when he states children starting school today will finish. Ken has raised a good point here, as by 2065, 2060, or even 2055, the education system could be completely different and the teaching they would have had up to then would be useless.

In the third theme Ken brings up how Children have an extraordinary capacity for innovation, He then goes on to talk about how many different creative gifts and abilities children have and how school can ruin them. In schooling the top subjects are always Maths, English and Science. What schools don’t realise is that children are super creative and these abilities are extremely precious, and should be valued and developed to the full. Naturally these subjects are at the top because they believe they are most important for work, and they believe they what is needed to be intelligent.

This is wrong.

The world has been taught that people are only intelligent if they are smart in the 3 main subjects. What the world doesn’t realise is that children that are creative are also extremely intelligent; it is just a very individual, unique type of intelligence. If this intelligence is nurtured it can lead to amazing prospects within the world of work. For example Sir Ken tells a story about a woman that was hopeless in school, and had many problems in academic ability. A doctor put the radio on and told her Mum to watch her daughter; she then started to move and dance. The doctor told her mother to take her to a dancing school, which in the end she flourished in, she became world famous and to this day is now a multi-millionaire. If this woman’s creative talent hadn’t been nurtured and noticed, she could’ve been put on medication and told to tone down, concentrate and improve in school; which would’ve meant this incredible talent and intelligence would’ve been lost. This shows how important it is to value children’s creativity, that creative subjects can be just as useful as academic subjects and can lead into just the same line of work.

Before watching this video I believed that schools were a great source of knowledge and would naturally build upon children’s creativity. After watching this video my view has been changed and I now know how much schooling can ruin a child’s creativity if not looked after and appreciated in a different context.

'Lifehacker' Blog Review

I Currently follow an Educational blog called 'Lifehacker'. This is an easy to use blog that posts useful tips for people on everyday life, every day problems and current issues. Varying from 'Resolution of a certain issue in work' to 'How to keep your drawers organised'. It is clear, simple and aesthetically pleasing with pictures, colours and bold headings.

I Think this is such a useful resource and stood out to me originally when I saw one of his posts on how to gain more energy from day to day each day. I found this to be very useful, as it is very current for me as I am always trying to get as much out of my day. Especially when being at uni, it can be so easy to mess up your sleeping pattern. This ultimately means missing your whole morning; Which is proven to be the most productive part of the day. So this looked to be so useful to gain some tips and ideas on how to boost your max energy and efficiency in a day.

'Lifehacker' Posts approximately 12 posts every day (sometimes more, sometimes less) so you're guaranteed to find something useful. If you cant or want something specific there is a search bar featured which enables you to find a certain story on a certain subject. Why don't you give it a try for yourself? You can also go to www.lifehacker.com.