The idea to place computers in villages like these was absolutely amazing! It was so neat to see all of the things that the children were able to learn by themselves with the help of only the computers. In the video The child-driven education, you can see the children's eyes light up as they use the computers. This definitely proved that children can learn how to do anything they want to do given the right opportunities. Computers are so helpful in our education these days, so why not introduce them to other parts of the world so that they can receive the same benefits that we see here. I feel that anyone who is motivated to learn something will learn it simply because they have the desire to do so. Even if these people happen to be children, they will still be able to teach themselves whatever they want to know.
I feel that the best way to motivate someone to learn is to tell them about the benefits of learning. Learning brings us so many rewards that anyone should be able to find joy in learning something new. I am motivated to learn simply because I realize that in doing so I am bettering myself. For example, I learn in college everyday so that I will be able to eventually become a teacher. By becoming a teacher, I will be able to show others the great rewards that come with learning new things. In my opinion, a teacher always has a role in learning because even people who teach themselves will still at times need a guide to look to. If you are trying to teach yourself to do something and you get confused or mess up, then you can look to a teacher to help you. This is always a better option than just giving up and moving on because you can't figure something out.
My emotions after seeing this video were happy because I loved seeing the kids get such a joy from learning new things with the help of computers. They seemed to be both pleased with what they were learning and proud that they were able to teach themselves how to us the computers. I teach myself on a daily basis, but not without the general guidance of a teacher or mentor. I feel that EDM 310 gives me the opportunity to be able to teach myself new things, but we as students are still given general guidance and rules to follow when teaching ourselves. The power of knowledge is so great and it feels even better to become knowledgeable about something on your own terms. The best motivators to self teach are the rewards that come from doing so.
Hi AnMarie, I really enjoyed this video too. The fact that all of the students were motivated without any outside influences amazes me. I hope all of my students have the same self-motivation (even though I'm preparing for the worst). It made me think about the fact that some students just aren't motivated on their own, so I looked up a few articles on how to motivate them to learn. The two best pieces of advice were to try and find a way to relate the subject to the student personally and once this is accomplished you can then practice positive reinforcement. I may complain about EDM310 homework every weekend, but without this class, I wouldn't have the motivation to research the best ways to motivate our students. I never thought that blogs or youtube would help me learn how to better myself as a teacher. I'm glad we have the opportunity to take this class, because as far as I can tell, you have learned a lot more because of these assignments than you would have without them, and I know I have. Hopefully we can take these lessons we have learned, apply them to our classrooms in the future, and get the results Sugata Mitra got.
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