Reflection 3

I've gotten to read a lot of different ideas this last week. I read the Gong book, I read the research on Mindtools, and then I talked to some people about what they thought about learning. Specifically about knowledge and wisdom. I feel like that's one of those big things on my mind so I won't bore you with that this week. I've been thinking about how technology is supposed to aid our learning and teaching but not control us, if that makes any sense. Not to sound terrible but I started thinking of how past professors have used technology to teach, but instead of contributing to the lesson, it really made it worse. I thought of two classes I have taken. They were both about learning the AutoCAD program and essentially teaching us how to use it. The first teacher had us looking at the projector the whole time, not to mention that it was at seven in the morning. But he would tell us how we could do this, or we could do that, depending on what we wanted to do. Then he would give us the assignment and that was it. No interaction whatsoever. On the other hand, the second teacher told us what our goal was, right from the start. He then taught us the basic tools we needed and while he was doing so, we thought about what we were going to use to accomplish our goal. He then gave us access to tutorials and the like. But what made it work, was the fact that he cared how well we did. He came around and checked up on us to see how we were progressing and would help us not get behind.

So then, I realized that I really like learning about new software. I love testing and trying it out and then doing a project just because. This week I decided to teach about Virtual Machines. It went awful. And I know why. I didn't really have them use the actual software. I didn't really share the reason why I like it. I felt like I mostly discouraged them from using it. It's still the same mistake I made with the first teaching assignment. I want to study the most effective way that software can be taught without being boring and discouraging. I feel like a lot of it is self-taught just by messing around. Like today, I started testing Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac and it was just fun. I don't even like Microsoft all that much, but I just wanted to know what made it so different and what were the new things I could do with it. But how can you share that with others? How can you make it be just as exciting for your students so that they go out and try things out on their own as well? What can I do, as a future teacher to help my students open up their minds to new ideas? I guess it's something still in progress.