Confronted with the problem of instructing educators to use a constantly evolving array of new technology and integrate it into their content area, authors Matthew Koehler and Punyashloke Mishra devised a simple paradigm, “Learning by Design”. They posit the theory that educators optimally learn new technology (especially in relation to what they teach) when they are tasked with designing (or re-designing) a project with high professional relevance, given only conceptual guidance and a minimum of dry, static instruction on using software and new media as a set of tools.
Tasking an educator to re-design an existing interface (a website for example) and letting them learn on their own what they need to accomplish the task (including how to fix problems) with a firm, unyielding deadline, is a good rudimentary way to bring a non-technologically adept student (in this case a teacher) up to speed.
As a pre-service teacher who has held at least a couple of jobs with the moniker “designer” in the title, I can appreciate the functionality and efficacy of this paradigm. Koehler and Mishra are definitely on to something in that “doing” is the best way of “learning”. Given the time demands faced by an educator during the school year, I believe that “Learning by Design” (maximum hands-on involvement, minimal lecture-based instruction on software) could be a rapid way of teaching someone how to utilize new technology in a practical way so he or she can integrate their new knowledge into the life of the classroom.
2 comments:
I agree that throwing students right into "doing" a project will make everyone happy by alleviating time constraints, while at the same time applying a very effective way to teach...
jam
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