Reflctions from readings (June 9 2009)

Chapter 2. Designing opportunities for learning
As technology develops, educational strategies for designing learning experiences for students should be changed. By inventing the printing press in the fifteen century, print era started. Inventing the internet in the twenty century is also the turning point from analog to digital. So, teachers should have new approaches to learning in this new ear. Unfortunately, some teachers still behave as transmitters who just teach their students without deep consideration about how they should teach. But, constructivist concepts of learning are totally different from traditional views of learning. Each learner should build their own understandings of the world where they live. Teachers should be facilitators to help the learners to be constructivists, considering these several questions: What do today’s students need? In other words, what do teachers have to teach in the Internet era? Which activities and tools encourage students to actively participate in learning through construction? What system of assessment might teachers design for their students’ learning?

Chapter 3. The FACTS of design.
Chapter 3 consists of careful explanations and answers about questions related to FACTS that stands for Foundations, Activities, Contents, Tools, and Systems of assessment. Those are all about how teachers help learners to be constructivists who can have ability to solve their problem by themselves. So, activities should be based on a problem-centered curriculum that helps find the solution to a real world problem of interest. Teachers are able to use a variety of tools such as multimedia programs to create the activities. Since young generations are very familiar with using technology in their life, using the computer and Internet in the class might be more effective than only using textbook. Therefore, teachers should choose encouraging tools to help learners’ intellectual challenges.