Creative Teaching and Self-directed Learning

Hamilton's writing, "The Standards of Cultural Digital Pedagogy" touches on many ideas that some may not have thought about or considered before. One concept I have thought about and disagree with, as Hamilton does, is that teachers are bankers making knowledge deposits and learners are empty bank vaults passively receiving deposits. Although this is a creative metaphor I do not agree. We are confined by these limiting roles if we think about education like this. We should change our view of teachers being the only people with something to teach. Children want to learn and if they feel in control of this learning and feel as though they have some say in it they will be more willing. This point is backed up by the video “The Independent Project” where learners started their own ‘school’ where they were free to choose to learn anything that interested them. They found that they did well in their chosen topic and their marks in their other subjects actually improved too. Today children go to school feeling as though they are confined to one system that they have no say in – by allowing them to have control (self-directed learning) they will want to be more involved.

Technology is an effective way to make self-directed/distance learning take place. Hamilton brought up aspects of technology that I had not thought of before. As written by Adam Banks there are different aspects to the idea of access. When we think of technology as a learning tool we think it is not possible if we don’t have access to devices, but Banks also explains “functional access (the ability to use), experiential access (the ability to use in personal context), and also critical access (the ability to choose to use).” I think this is important in self-directed/distance learning because possibly not everyone would like to use technology or are able to. Therefore, everyone should have the choice of how they wish to learn and use for this learning. This is also seen in “The Independent Project” where the students wanted to do something different and they chose it for themselves. Systems for education should be put in place with learners having the freedom to choose how they want to learn and allowing a creative learning environment. This also allows for learners to engage with any available learning material and any other learners around they world. This links with what Bernardo Trejos writes about the language gap between his Taiwanese students and Western lecturers as being fertile ground where teaching and learning can grow. Learners can learn so much about and from different people around the world through technology. Education is a “process to be engaged in”, learning does not have to only take place in ‘core subjects’ as shown in “The Independent Project”.

Technology-mediated self-directed/distance learning gives learners the opportunity to enjoy learning in a creative, student-centered way.