Learning Sciences

In the Ericson's article (The Making of an expert) it is said that real experts must perform superior that others. So, I've heard about the movie named as "Man on Wire" which is about a juggler walking and performing on a wire lying between the Twin Towers of New York. This is definitely a superior performance as a juggler. As you aforementioned, to develop such an expertise, Petit (the character in the movie) was practicing deliberately, he did not focus on what he does as usual, but he paid attention what he could not do and set an amazing goal and to accomplish this goal he took a risk of being sent to the prison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEU7lrtehDs

I deeply believe the power of motivation to learn and classroom technology can be used to enhance students' motivation in learning of the specific content. Still, it is open to debate effective use of technology in classrooms, especially in our country. To deal with this inefficiency of classroom technology, we need to focus on teachers' technology literacy and try to develop this literacy.

Hi Özlem Hoca, BBC news you shared with us is very advisable to our friends. (1) I agree that computers may have the possibility to be distractors for learning and they may be abused by some students. Students may prefer to use computers for activities other than for school activities. When I was an intern teacher, I wanted to show how a literature search is performed to my 20, 9th grade "Project" (noncredit course) students in 2006, I ended up running from one student to another because as I leave him/her with his/her search, s/he began to sign in facebook and their emails. (2) I also agree that plagiarism may occur in homeworks due to internet resources. (3) Another interesting opinion in this news is that "We're training the students to use technology which hasn't yet been invented." We are training the students to the future that is not defined, not yet clear.

I think integrating technology in classrooms is inevitable as computers have been being used in lots of areas in the world and it is a little bit optimistic to assume that education will escape from this "invasion". Today's students live with technology and indeed, technology can enhance the representation of a topic, communication among learners, eliminate time and space limitations in reaching information, etc. The article says that "frequent" use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results. Instead of frequent use, one should know how one can healthily get benefit from computers, when to use it, how to use it, when not to use it, etc. Those questions are still major questions in modern educational science research. Findings from such research can enhance the positive impact of technology in classrooms.

Having read this week's reading assignment, a part of which focuses on this particular result, I felt the need to comment on your share Özlem hocam. It is mentioned in Chapter 1: Introduction that "in the 1980s, cognitive scientists like Roger Schank and Seymour Papert made claims that computers would transform the schools and learning. This was a rather radical claim and it helped form a strong consensus among parents, bussiness community, politicians that getting computers into schools was a must. During 1990s, installing computers and the Internet in schools was a major trend. By 2003, 95% of all the schools in the US had their computers and were connected to the Internet. However, the impact of this huge investment was highly disappointing. Studies had shown computer use was not correlated with improved student performance. When the reserachers began to study to find the reason, they found out that the computer use in schools was not based on learning sciences; instead, they were being used as an extension of instructional classroom. By this I mean, bringing technology to the classrooms was not enough without changing the structure of instruction. Educational software has been based on instructionist theories, with the computer performing roles that are traditionally performed by the teacher. Teachers and students were not aware of how to use those computers efficiently. Students read the texts on the computers instead of reading them on books.Learning scientists continue to emphasize the powerful role that computers can play in transforming all learning. But they reject instructionalism and behaviorism. Instead, they present a new vision of computers in schools. They suggest that computer should take on a more facilitating role, helping learners have the kind of experiences that lead to deep learning."

I also believe that the power of emotions in the learning. I think that if we can situmulate the emotions in lesson, we can make lessons more intesting, enjoable and the knowledge gathered through this lesson will be long lasting. Threfore, as it is stated in the article, teachers should create situations that situmalte students' emotions.

I like very much this kind of schools, Erdem. Thank you for sharing this video with us. Unfortunately, the current generation's parents are so nurturing/protectionist on their children. As a result, children cannot take risks, or they are afraid of trying something. I think that children can learn better by touching/seeing/observing the concepts. I see lots of private kindergardens around, which are wire-clothed like a "prison" and children are trying to learn something. In such schools showed in video, students also can more easily learn the meaning of abstract things such as "freedom, love of nature, and independence".

This school seems so intresting and enyable and I think that children can learn much more thing they learn in ordinary kindergardens. But, I agree with the Yasin's comment on parents. Parents are so protectionist and they can not allow children especially in this age group shown in the video to participate in such an activity . They prefer prison like kindergarden to this forest schools. Therfore, I think that teachers first should teach parents that being too protectionist is giving greater harm to child.