The Reasons for the Tangled Webs We Weave
As I reflect on my web, I have had the opportunity to see how my own learning is very self-driven. I rely very much on the outside world to learn and grow, both personally and professionally. As I embark on my journey of becoming an instructional designer, as well as my daily responsibilities of developing lessons for students in my music classroom, I search for new ideas in a variety of places. I rely on my personal network, for many of my close friends are also music educators. My professional network also has an impact on my development of lessons. I regularly attend music conferences and meetings with other music educators in order to exchange ideas and explore new technologies and opportunities arising in the field. These opportunities motivate me professionally, a common trait among adult learners, and challenge me to acknowledge changes in perspectives among the students I serve (Lieb, 1991; Lewis, n.d.). The biggest change I have seen in my short, twelve-year career, is the increase in the use of technology in the classroom. This increase has forced me to seek out new outlets to teach, such as the use of iPads for composition, and lessons that involve my SmartBoard for all grade levels. I have also found YouTube to be a valuable asset. Years ago, we could possibly rent a movie that was relevant to a classroom topic to expand on a lesson, but today we have the access to innumerable resources with a few simple strokes of the keyboard. This past year, in light of the ten-year anniversary of 9-11, an event which my students have only heard about, I was able to teach a lesson of how music often reflects upon moments in history by using YouTube. A half-hour class flew by in seconds as students were engaged in a lesson that brought the past to life by use of a virtual time machine, without leaving the four walls that define our classroom space.
But what is classroom space? When we were pedagogical learners, we had the safety of learning in an environment that was centered around our inexperience and allowed for us to fail and learn from our mistakes as we gained skills for future application (Jackson, 1998). However, as we grow and mature, we understand that the act of learning does not occur in a vacuum (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008). Adult learning, unlike the learning that occurs during childhood, is centered around topics that relate to their personal lives or professions, rather than the content and the development of skills (Conlan, Grabowski, & Smith, 2003). These pedagogical classrooms were defined by the four walls, with a few windows, in my opinion, are learning vacuums. Today’s classrooms, both physically and online, have the potential to break these vacuum seals as we use our resources to reach out, connect, explore, and learn for the sake of learning while satisfying the inquiring mind (Lieb, 1991) .
References:
Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K. (2003). Adult learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Adult_Learning
Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Connectivism
Jackson, W. H., (1998). Adult vs Child Learning. [On-line]. Available: http://internet.cybermesa.com/~bjackson/Papers/Bloom.htm
Lieb, S. (1991). Principals of adult learning. Retrieved from http://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/adults-2.htm
Lewis, B. (n.d.) The value of self-reflection-any time of year, it’s important to self-reflect. Retrieved from http://k6educators.about.com/od/professionaldevelopment/a/self_reflection.htm
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