Unlearning Curve Noted!

Sorry for the delay on the quiz. I understand it has been a little over a week and I am back on track. So here we go with Will Richardson's "Unlearning Curve".

The three points I have chosen from the ten that Will presented are relative to my past experiences as a student. Every point Will has made, I have seen in classrooms. When I was in High School, the teachers would run the classroom with an "iron fist". I am sure some still do today even. I am not pointing fingers, I am merely stating that the old methods of teaching are still lingering. I have seen teachers take up the position of the "All-Knowing" mind. This basically means that no matter what, the teacher is always right.

This brings me to my first point I have chosen where Will Richardson states "We need to unlearn the premise that we know more than our kids, because in many cases, they can now be our teachers as well." This is very true. When it comes to technology, they already have their hands on computers and everything else that could pass for some futuristic gadget from the 50's. There is a wealth of knowledge on the internet and our future students are already marking their territory. Anything from ads, to wikipedia, to even just blogging can offer something that the students can take from. There are also a lot of good educational sites that are interesting and have more information than a text book could ever have. The kids these days are teaching themselves at home unconsciously.

The second point that I have chosen is, "We need to unlearn the strategy that collaborative work inside the classroom is enough and understand that cooperating with students from around the globe can teach relevant and powerful negotiation and team-building skills" (Richardson). Working as much as we can with students over the internet from other classes from different countries can broaden our perspectives. Before the internet came around, no one had this opportunity to be able to "reach out" and grasp the experience and knowledge of being able to look at different perspectives multi-culturally. This is something I have been planning to do before Will Richardson had even said anything.

The third and probably one of the most important points that Will Richardson makes is "We need to unlearn the notion that our students don’t need to see and understand how we ourselves learn." If our students do not know how we think on terms of absorbing information, they can not show us new things that will better our skills as educators. I do not mean students literally teaching, but in a sense of understanding. This is one of those statements where it explains itself and there really isn't a definition. Our students teach us and vice versa. I see teaching as being a guide rather than an authority figure who says "no matter what I am right and you are wrong." As a guide, the authority of knowledge being passed is shared to an extent.

As for the rest of the assignments, bare with me, I will have them all up with some other posts regarding other information before this coming Monday. As for the explanation for the delays, I quit smoking and started eating healthy as of this past Monday. So, I have been drained both physically and mentally. I am feeling much better now and I am back in the game!@