Part 4: Personal Reflection

One of the highlights of meaningful learning, in my opinion, was the fact that the students are engaged through the idea of learning by doing. “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; help him learn how to fish, and he eats for life” really underscores what meaningful learning is all about, implying that special attention must be to what is taught but also how to apply it. Group learning also plays a crucial part in the meaningful learning process. Learning in a group promotes the social aspect of understanding by allowing the learning process to happen through discussion, debate, and collaboration. Meaningful learning is designed to help offer different perspectives in varying situations, scenarios, and problems. When effectively used, meaningful learning forces the students to make their own decisions, think for themselves, and defend their own ideas.

  A question I have about technology integration is how will schools with limited funds be able to afford the equipment and will it negatively impact them if they are unable to keep up with the newest technology? If more affluent schools are able to by the modern, up-to-date technology, they ultimately will have access to more information and surpass the education less privileged schools receive. One piece of technology that I would implement to create meaningful learning would be something along the lines of Poll Everywhere. It is an online polling system that the students are able to text in answers or enter it on a website. The results are anonymously displayed on a board and offer students to see different viewpoints on a subject.

Part 1: Reading Reflection

The main concept I got from the reading Meaningful Learning with Technology was that the most effective way to use technology in a classroom setting is to learn with technology instead of strictly from technology. Technology seems like a portal full of information, but this article clearly shows that it should not just be to distribute information but rather used as a tool to show what you know. Pulling out our smartphones and googling something we don’t know the answer to is something that our society has gotten very accustomed to, so one idea that really surprised me what the statement that technology is not more effective than a teacher.

            Technology should be used as a tool that supports your knowledge by providing information representing your beliefs, ideas, and understandings, however it also offers new perspectives on worldviews and concepts that differ from personal opinions. A form of technology that allows for easy communication between people is social media. It allows for collaboration and the ability to share new knowledge between communities. Technology is very useful in the classroom and is a tool for teachers to articulate and show what they know. In my physics class, my professor uses PowerPoint to highlight important facts and better explain them. Certain types of technology also offer hands on activities for students. In my biology lab we use a spectrophotometer to measure different characteristics of solutions, and it allows the students to figure this out on their own after instruction from the professor.