Learning How To Learn
This post is part of an ongoing series of chapters from the book CHOICE. Please view this post for an introduction and table of contents. To keep up with each new chapter published, please subscribe.
In the previous chapter we learned that students are already entering the building with a technology bias. They already have a familiarity with technology when they walk through the door. So what does that mean for the classroom?
The Why over the How
Less and less class time (none?) needs to be spend showing kids the technology. Students don’t need a how to use technology lesson, they need a why to use technology lesson. The technology in their lives needs to take a new educational and learning role. How can I use this device to do something I’ve never done before.
This device in your hand is not just for entertainment. This distinction needs to be taught as early as possible in school.
Once a student is in high school, most have figured out their learning style. They know what works best for them. If you want technology for learning to take off in your school you need to start young.
This doesn’t mean your 1:1 program has to start in PreK, but make sure the younger grades (PreK-5) have access to technology. Students can’t have limited technology use in school, then handed a laptop in high school and be expected to understand what to do with it. They will treat it like they do a personal device, because that is all they have had. The 1:1 device is just another device, not an educational device.
Students need to learn how to learn with technology in younger grades. This doesn't’ need to be taken to an extreme. I’m not recommending our K-4th graders should be on computers all day, but they should have experience using them as a educational tool. Not just for games and videos like they may do at home.
Author Comments
Providing a peak behind the curtain of the thought and writing process.
I went back and forth with two different titles for this chapter.
Learning How To Learn
Why Over How
I still might change my mind before publishing the final draft, but for now it stays.
Technology falls into habits, just like everything else in our life. If your habit when you have a screen in your hand is to watch a movie, what do you think you’ll do when your given a computer in school for the first time. It’s not an educational tool, it’s another screen to watch movies. You need to learn new habits and new possibilities with educational technology.
What was the first thing you learned how to do with technology? Was it entertainment or education?