Meaningful learning is not
memorizing and regurgitating information.
It is being able to take information and use it to problem solve and
think innovatively. Engaging learners to facilitate understanding and
real-life application is important because many students are great at
memorizing a lot of small facts for a test, but they may not actually
understand what they are memorizing. Many people can simply
regurgitate words and definitions without really understanding what
they are saying. This kind of learning is not meaningful or helpful
when in a real-world situation. Students need to have experience
applying what they learn to real-life scenarios. That being said, technology
can be helpful to facilitate this kind of meaningful learning. Like
the reading says, technology can be used to "actively engage" the
learner and create authentic tasks. When the technology is allowing
the student to use what they have learned and apply it to real-life
situations, they are more inclined to remember what they have learned
long-term and actually understand it conceptually and not just through
rote memorization of facts. This is an important part of the learning
process. Learning is not meaningful until applied to an authentic task.
Brantley,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with your stance on meaningful learning. Unfortunately many of my teachers in high school taught with the intentions to just teach what standards I would need to regurgitate for tests down the road. I feel that I have forgotten a lot of the information I could have really learned if that had been properly taught.
I definitely agree with your theory of learning! I feel that many teachers do not appreciate the process of learning over the process of memorization and regurgitating information. Also, I liked how you mentioned authentic tasks, as I agree that they create a more significant learning experience than just memorizing facts for a standardized test.
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