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All Ages Allowing Students to explore the tech themselves?

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Claire1

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Joined
Jul 29, 2016
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15
We regularly conduct computer classes for students from all ages and we commonly come across a problem, that students complete the task at hand by reading the instructions on the book but later do not remember anything.

Due to this we have changed our methods since last 2 sessions and simply give the students the task name and ask them to search on google and get things done.

The initial session where this change was incorporated was pretty challenging but the second one went pretty well.

Have you had any experience with this method of teaching? Our students seem to recollect things much more easily now.
 
This approach is quite effective. I actually taught myself computer operations through a journey of discovery. When I came across a bottleneck, I simply called the cyber attendant to come to my assistance. Whatever I learnt deeply imprinted itself in my mind. Students taught using this approach develop strong research skills. The teacher plays a supervisory role. There should be learning sessions geared towards this aspect.
 
I consider it as a good idea to let kids use technology by themselves because they somehow can get used to what they're mostly going to work with in the future, it is also a great initiative because they can explore the technology by themselves, therefore, their analyzing capability will be developed, it's such a great thing.
 
This is a good idea. It resonates perfectly with my concept of education. Some people may view education as transferring information from the teacher to the student. Myself, I look at the role of the teacher akin to that of a farmer. Just as the farmer prepares the field before he plants, then lets the plants grow by themselves, with only a little help from him like adding water and fertilizer but never pulling the plants up to make them grow faster, in the same way, a teacher, the way I see it, should just create an environment conducive to learning and let the students proceed at their own pace, giving encouragement and guidance where necessary but never forcing the students to learn at an imposed pace.

As for learning about computer technology, from my experience, it's most effective when the students learn by hands-on experience. No amount of reading can make a person computer literate. Trial and error is the way to go.
 
Well this is something that is a great idea, but of course must be done with care. I do not think that you can just let the kids wild and assume they will use it for good reasons, but that said there are ways to do it. There are protections out there and you can monitor the activities to an extent, which should make it doable. The concept is brilliant, though, and introducing them early just means more potential in my mind.
 
i haven't but it does seem to be the future, we are living in a digital age so it's good that kids get used to doing their research through this media. The good thing is that they will always have books to fall back on.
 
Arm the students with the basics. That should be the first step. Then once they've mastered the basics, you could give them more time to explore the tech themselves. You see without some input and lots of guidance from the teacher, there's little the students can learn on their own because even using a search engine to find the precise information you want, is something that has to be learned.
 
Have you ever watched a child playing with a tablet? Very often, a child, left to explore on its own, can figure out how to make things work on a tablet. This is something which should be encouraged. Learning should not be too structured. There must be room for experimentation. The children must not be afraid to try on their own.
 
Aree Wongwanlee said:
Have you ever watched a child playing with a tablet? Very often, a child, left to explore on its own, can figure out how to make things work on a tablet. This is something which should be encouraged. Learning should not be too structured. There must be room for experimentation. The children must not be afraid to try on their own.
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Tablets are designed to be intuitive so it's a great way for kids to start playing around with tech. I certainly agree students will probably remember better the things they found out by themselves over the things that were taught to them.
 
I remember reading an anecdote about a man visiting a farmer. The farmer reared a lot of chickens. He kept his chickens in a barn. When it was feeding time he would let the chickens out into an enclosed field. However, before he released the chickens he did something rather odd. First, he strewed corn all over the enclosed field. Then he strewed sawdust over the corn. The visitor had to ask why. The farmer replied,

"The chickens like to scratch for their food. That's why I hid the corn under the sawdust. When the chicken scratched the sawdust to get the corn, they get some exercise which is good for them. Then when they find the corn, they get excited. They feel happy that they have found the corn. That's good for them, too. Happy chickens grow faster."

How does this apply to letting children discover things for themselves?

First, children are naturally curious. We must not stifle or discourage this curiosity. Rather, we should nurture and guide this natural impulse of the children. So let them explore by themselves, with some minimal guidance from us. The children are exercising their mental faculties when they explore. When they discover something new by themselves, they get excited. They are happy. That's really good for them. Happy children learn faster.
 
Nice anecdote and so true. People are naturally curious and children are more so. If you just hold something up and don't let children experiment with it, they will quickly get bored and not really get any benefit from it.
 
Learning by doing is an effective way to teach a child a new skill, and I think allowing them to use tech with close supervision is a good way for them to exercise their innate curiosity and learn new skills in the process. As they work with new tools, they will make mistakes, and that's fine. They should be encouraged to make as many mistakes as they can, especially if they can't help it and especially when it comes to exploring a new tool. I personally learned how to maneuver a computer by tinkering with one by myself, and the experience has made me competitively computer literate. I do encourage parents and teachers not to let students tinker computers on their own, because some places, like the web, is home to content that may be dangerous for young, developing minds.
 
Aree Wongwanlee said:
I remember reading an anecdote about a man visiting a farmer. The farmer reared a lot of chickens. He kept his chickens in a barn. When it was feeding time he would let the chickens out into an enclosed field. However, before he released the chickens he did something rather odd. First, he strewed corn all over the enclosed field. Then he strewed sawdust over the corn. The visitor had to ask why. The farmer replied,

"The chickens like to scratch for their food. That's why I hid the corn under the sawdust. When the chicken scratched the sawdust to get the corn, they get some exercise which is good for them. Then when they find the corn, they get excited. They feel happy that they have found the corn. That's good for them, too. Happy chickens grow faster."

How does this apply to letting children discover things for themselves?

First, children are naturally curious. We must not stifle or discourage this curiosity. Rather, we should nurture and guide this natural impulse of the children. So let them explore by themselves, with some minimal guidance from us. The children are exercising their mental faculties when they explore. When they discover something new by themselves, they get excited. They are happy. That's really good for them. Happy children learn faster.
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Thanks for the history
 
Stones said:
Thanks for the history
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No, that's not really history. I didn't make that up either. If you are interested, you can find it in Dr. Napoleon Hill's book called 'The Laws of Success'. It's the big brother of his popular book 'Think and Grow Rich'.
 
You can look at it like hands on experience. I remember being in school reading content, and later not remembering what I read because I just had no interest. But if you give them reason to actually interact with their work it's more memorable, and it will help them to learn, and remember when it comes time to take test and things like that. My opinion.
 
Guy said:
You can look at it like hands on experience. I remember being in school reading content, and later not remembering what I read because I just had no interest. But if you give them reason to actually interact with their work it's more memorable, and it will help them to learn, and remember when it comes time to take test and things like that. My opinion.
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Exactly, the same thing happens to me nowadays, sometimes I read something and I just forget about all I read because it was none of my interest, that's why teachers have to figure out a way to find out kids' interests and therefore, get them to learn things faster.
 
Guy said:
You can look at it like hands on experience. I remember being in school reading content, and later not remembering what I read because I just had no interest. But if you give them reason to actually interact with their work it's more memorable, and it will help them to learn, and remember when it comes time to take test and things like that. My opinion.
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That reminds me of history and biology when I was at school. I did like the subjects, it's just that all we did was read text and not do anything else. In the case of biology it was even worse. The teacher would sit in the front of the class and recite from a book, and all we did was write down what she dictated.
 
I think you are leaving a very important discussion out, you have to tell them that you can't take everything that's on the internet at face value and that critical thinking is more necessary than ever now that we have this information overload. Google may have the answers but sometimes this answers are not optimal, and, depending on the subject, may be biased or plain wrong. There are, indeed, multiple ways to arrive to the same conclusion, but the journey itself, the vetting of the sources and all that is just as important.

I also hope that you put some kind of content filter in place when your allow your students to freely search the internet using Google or any other search engine.
 
I myself actually learned how to use a computer through years of using it without outside help. I'm used to figuring out how a gadget works by just fiddling around with it. In my opinion, the approach is effective and useful than just spoonfeeding the information to the students.
 
As long as the students are interested, they will eventually learn yet it will going to take more time than have a teacher guiding them step by step and warning them about the consequences it takes in doing such actions. Skilled training which includes industrial technologies like electrician and carpentry must not apply this idea because it is too dangerous for the students.
 
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