For those of you who may not know, I am taking a class on Structured English Immersion this month and my classmates and I started having a discussion about hands-on teaching in reference to authentic learning. (That's kind of where this post comes from)
I remember a teacher I used to work with years ago who had a poster in her classroom with this quote: "What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing." --Aristotle
...and that quote just sticks in my head even 15+ years later. She really believed that students really learn something only by doing it themselves. Lessons had to be hands-on.
Even more so, I remember being a child, coming home and telling my mom what I did in school that day and her response was, "...and how can you apply what you have learned?"
In an online environment, one of the common misconceptions that we hear regularly is that online isn't hands-on. My response when I hear that is a phrase I read in an article a few years ago, "We many be high-tech, but we are also high-touch."
How do you create athentic learning atmospheres in your online classrooms? Do you believe students learn "...by doing?" If you don't have hands-on activities in your online class, is that something you would like to have access to or create?
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I think authentic learning occurs when students make real world connections with the readings. I remind students that good analysis occurs when they use evidence from the text to support their answers. I also encourage them to relate the readings to a situation they have experienced in their own lives. For most readings, students can always find a way to trace the theme of the reading to a personal situation. Sometimes, it takes a bit of prompting to get them to make that connection. Further, the independent research that students do for many assignments, gives an opportunity for hands on experiences.
ReplyDeleteI'm not necessarily "teaching" but I certainly teach the students useful skills while I help them start their courses and get comfortable with online learning. I've found that actually walking through the login process with the student helps a great deal with their understanding of course navigation and engagement in the course. I've also found that giving examples that relate to their everyday lives helps too. Explaining that logging into their course is like walking into a physical classroom but logging into their online textbook is like opening the book on their desk helps them to see the connection without confusing the two. Online learning--even just the process of learning HOW to learn online--is certainly very hands-on and interactive.
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