I order for meaningful learning to take place, children need to be active in their learning. In order for them to be active children need to be exploring, creating, experimenting and following their own interests and questions. Through this they will create their own connections and be able to make meaning of the information they have acquired. My experiences within school (even to this day), I find that I best gain knowledge when the information presented allowed me to explore my own interests. When I was given the opportunity to explore and experiment on my own, I found that I connected with peers more for problems solving and that I used a trial and error approach to gaining the right answers. However, these opportunities did not present themselves very often. Most of the time, the teachers would demonstrate the appropriate method of doing an art activity, or science experiment, or even how to use a computer program. I rarely had the opportunity to figure things out on my own while in school. I believe this is why when I was at home I took such a great interest in technology. I was able to work at my own pace and discover new things about regular household items through experimentation. This allowed me to turn my own interests into meaningful learning experiences and these experiences have stuck with me throughout my life. I find that I learn best when I am given the opportunity to make mistakes and then correct them, as it requires that I critically reflect on what I was doing before.
Technology is a great learning tool for children. As my past with technology has been discussed within prior blogs, I have always found it to be a great aid to my learning and development. It allowed me to construct knowledge in an interactive and more self-direct way. The programs offered within today’s technological world foster this way of learning. They allow children to develop ideas through simulated interactions that are a lot easier to modify if needed. When I had to work with trial and error, I always had to start from the beginning again if something didn’t work out, but through these programs children can just go back to the point of error and start from there again. If I had to start all over again multiple times, eventually I would get very frustrated and sometimes even give up. Being able to target the problem, fix it and then move on truly allows a child to capitalize the amount of time they have to work on something. Technology has allowed for this to happen.
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