Week 7, Reflections

It has been a rough week because of time shortage. Luckily, I have been able to complete everything.

Learner’s autonomy has been a major topic of discussion this week. One point in common among many authors and our group is that it has to be fostered a lot more. That would be a quantum leap in education, that is, a lot less work for teachers and a lot better results for students. They would be working at their own pace and under their own learning styles, which means learning individualization, a great way to deal with students’ differences. However, students cannot be left alone. They still need our guiding. We are not there to impose things but to channel resources and put them at students’ disposal. In addition, we will never lose out monitoring role. That cannot be replaced.

 

The one-computer classroom has also been touch on in depth. You do not usually reflect on this since it is almost everybody’s current situation. However, a lot can be done with that one computer. Lots of ideas have been shared and discussed on this topic for the purpose on enhancing learning. We have to keep something in mind, one computer is not a limitation but an asset. Some peripheral pieces of hardware like a multimedia projector and a set of speakers can greatly potentiate the number of possibilities a computer offers.

Going back to learner’s autonomy, I’ve personally witnessed what happens when students’ autonomy is overestimated. I gave my Speech-one students some assignments to do on Nicenet over the week. I put not pressure on them at all just to see what happened. Guess what? They did nothing, hahaha. Let’s not forget our students are not used to that type of learning. It has to be progressively implemented, not all of a sudden. We need to break paradigms, but little by little so it does not turn into a traumatic experience for students and us.