LearningForward

Kent Chesnut's technology in education blog.

Hi, I’m Kent Chesnut.  Welcome to my blog.

I am constantly amazed at the thought, time, and effort I see kids exert in a wide variety of activities.  Learning to skateboard - and persisting at it enthusiastically even when it hurts!  Mastering the latest electronic game - lots of trial and error, internet research, collaborating with friends. 

How can we get this kind of engagement (and, not to mention, fun) into the schools?  I’m convinced that putting in a bunch of computers - and then doing school as it has always been done - is not the answer.  I believe the answer is a combination of several things:

• Project based learning (see http://www.edutopia.org)
• Allowing kids to take part in the decision making process  to determine what they are learning, how they are learning it, and how they are demonstrating their learning.  (see http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/cfc.htm)
• Constructivism / Constructionism - Constructivism is the theory that teachers don’t transmit knowledge to students, but that students construct knowledge when they actively engage in activities that allow them to investigate, theorize, test theories, and negotiate meaning by discussing what they have learned with others.  Constructionism says that constructivist learning is enhanced when the student creates some sort of artifact of his learning (See http://www.stager.org/articles.html)
• Using technology to create a community of learners - the communication possibilities available with Web 2.0 tools allow students to build virtual communities of learners around a common passion, to have a worldwide audience for the artifacts they create, and to communicate with this community to learn from each other.  (See the blogs on my blogroll, or I highly recommend listening to Bob Sprankle’s podcast of Will Richardson’s adress at ACTEM07 http://www.bobsprankle.com/bitbybit/podcast/bitbybit101307.mp3)

I propose to use this blog as a space to reflect on these ideas and discuss how they can be implemented using technology in the classroom.  I hope you enjoy reading along.

 Kent Chesnut