Motivating Adult Learners

Motivating Adult Learners-Reflection

After working on the project Motivating Adult Learners, one can see that using computers in a classroom can be a complex task that requires some training as well as much thought and planning. The first few times you use a computer to support a topic that you teach, it will be more work, not less. It is not anything like having student sit in front of a computer and absorb knowledge from software that someone else wrote. Students and teachers must have a goal with an interesting problem or several problems to solve. The solution to the problem may require more than one kind of computer tool.

The project Motivating Adult Learners helped me to develop multiple layers of reflective collaborative communities. This project allows me to stand back from the experience and examine it in ways that generate meaningful knowledge. It allows me to co-construct my understanding through comparing alternative ideas, interpretations, and representations that will bring together group of people who recognize and appreciate both their diversity and commonalities.

Today’s students are growing up with computers as a natural part of their lives. They do not see them as something unsual but rather a normal tool for daily living. The promise of computers for students is that they are being “acted upon” less by the educational process and becoming more active shapers of their own growth and development (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999; Jonassen, 2000).

Students are becoming more sophisticated problem solvers and have new opportunities to develop thinking skills. These are the skills that are essential for the information age. My role as a leader in technology education is to provide evidence of my knowledge, practices, and values in using technology to enhance and empower student achievement.

References

Jonassen, D. Computers as mindtools for schools, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 2000.

Jonassen, D. H; Peck. K. L; & Wilson, B. G. Learning with technology: A constructivist perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 1999.