In Paul A. Kirschner and Jeroen J. G. van Merrienboer’s article, “Do learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education”, discussion of three urban legends in education; digital natives, specific learning styles, and self-educators are analyzed in order to determine a learner’s ability to learn new information through these popular styles and persuade readers that these popular educational styles are urban legends. The three urban legends discussed are digital natives, specific learning styles, and self-educators. These three legends have embraced the education system, have been persuasive, and have been difficult to eliminate even though they have no scientific evidence backing their theories.
The first legend discussed in the article
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This urban legend sounds like a great idea but the problems with this idea are that not every individual understands what type of learning style they use, that the learning style is best for their education, and that most people don’t fit just one style of learning. Although there have been tests for people to discover their learning style those tests cluster learners in groups and do not account for students who have multiple learning styles. In the tests you would be placed in the area you scored highest even if there were multiple areas of learning styles present. The tests are not very reliable to group students in so they are inefficient to place learners in these categories of learning styles. Another problem with this educational strategy is knowing “how to tailor instruction to particular learning styles,” (174). It is difficult to tailor to each learners style and usually teaching must be done in a way to teach the majority because it is “more fruitful to focus on the fundamental things that learners have in common than on the myriad of styles on which they are different from each other,” (175). The issue with this hypothesis is that what learners say they prefer good for them is not always the best. As an example, the article compares learners choosing their learning style compared to choosing …show more content…
I want my students to have the full benefits of me as a teacher and I believe learning about different educational theories will help me be a better teacher. In particular from this article I will take away that teachers are needed to help rear students to the right information and help them focus on what information is reliable. I also will take in consideration my own techniques as a student. I am guilty of multitasking during assignments and even “googlification”. I think the internet has benefited my generation in many ways but has also done a disservice on real research. I hope as a future teacher to really teach my students to research and find valid, reliable, and understanding information of the internet. A teacher in this new generation must adapt to the technology available to students and realize they will be using these resources. I hope to find a balance in my classroom between technology, self-educating, and learning
Sims, R. & Sims, S. (1995). The importance of learning styles: understanding the implications for learning, course design, and education. London: Greenwood Press.
It is no more pertinent than today to acknowledge that students live in a technology driven world where information and communication technologies are integrated into everyday situations (QSA, 2007). Prensky, 2001 suggests that it is now clear that as a result of the abundant technological environment and students’ substantial level of interaction with it, that today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. With this in mind, it is crucial that as a future educator, I bring to the classroom new and innovative ways of teaching and learning in order to motivate and interest these ‘digital natives’ (Halat, 2008).
Many people have heard the tale of the dotty grandmother who tried to dry off her damp poodle by placing it in the microwave oven. The dog exploded, sad to say the least , and Grandma has never been quite the same since. The story is not true; it is an urban legend, circulating by word of mouth since the 1970s (Brunvand, 108). Urban legends are popular stories alleged to be true and transmitted from person to person by oral or written communication. Legends tend to arise spontaneously and are rarely traceable to a single point of origin. They spread primarily from individual to individual through various communication, and only in atypical cases through mass media or other institutional means. Every culture has its folktales, including modern America. However, instead of involving gods and goddesses or princes and princesses, modern society's legends involve "some guy my sister's best friend knows" or "someone who woke up in a motel room." They happened, supposedly, to real people, usually recently, in a particular place. They touch the most sensitive nerves of human minds with ironic twists, gross-out shocks, and moral lessons learned the hard way. However, the most remarkable thing about these stories is that so many people believe them and pass them on. Why does an audience take the storyteller's word at face value, instead of recognizing it as an urban legend? The most obvious reasons as to why this happens are how the story is told to an individual, the relationship between the teller and the listener, and in the case of horror legends, the fear invoked through the moral of the story.
The articles "Are These Stories True? (Nope)", by Adee Braun and Kristin Lewis, and "The Story that Got Away", retold by Debby Waldman, are both about fake news. One thing about fake news, is sometimes how believable article are. For instance, some stories hold many things that regular articles have and are written a lot like real stories. This is stated in the first article, it writes that fake stories can "Come with photos and believable quotes" (Braun and Lewis, 10). If the article sounds real and it holds many similar text features, most people would not think about if it is a joke. Also, the bold letters at the top of a news story or a website that looks and appears real can be tricky to identify. For example, Later in the beginning article, it focuses that fake news
Urban legends have always intrigued me. I am unsure if it is the scare factor that intrigues me, the way in which some of them are told, or some of the lessons that are supposed to be taken from them but one thing I know for sure is that I do not stand alone in this belief. In fact urban legends are told all over the world, even in countries that many have never heard of before. Many people of all backgrounds find them to be mystifying and sometimes even alarming. It seems as if urban legends have the ability to draw any person in ranging from a young child to the typical adult male. Whether or not you believe these incredible tales is almost irrelevant in many cases because for many different cultures and societies the primary purpose of urban legends are for entertainment and shock effects. This in many cases taken to the extreme with some of the different versions created to intensely horrify listeners.
“A learning style is a way of learning and refers to the way that you learn new information” (2). Most people have one preferred learning style and perform to a lesser standard when learning in a different style than what they’re used to. Nowadays, children are told to take a quiz in school to determine what their preferred learning style is, but after a few years, not many of these children remember what their preferred learning style is, or even if they do, they don’t apply it to their learning.
The statement given by UK Department of Education reinforces the fact that in the digital world today, technology has become an important component of our society by convincingly improving in major areas such as medicine, entertainment and finance. The large use of this technology has also had a considerable impact on education, and will certainly have an effect on the type of teacher I will become. This is because teachers have become more reliant on digital technology that will continue to increase throughout the future.
It is a constant truth that technology is growing rapidly and it is opening up many opportunities for students as well as teachers. Through the use of the internet information that would take scholars months to acquire out and interpret can be found in less than a minute though a Google search and not only is the information their, but in many cases the information that you wanted is shown in bolded so it can even be found quicker.
Do you ever think about how much technology has changed the way we work, learn, play, and even think? Technology is a major beneficiary to society; especially in the classroom where we get the opportunity to learn and grow. In recent years, schools have begun implementing tablets and other devices in the classroom to better student’s education. The use of technology in the classroom provides more of a personalized learning experience and gives students a widespread availability to engage in learning. Technology is necessary in today’s modern globe, it is basically “the pen and paper of our time and the lens through which we experience much of our world” (Warlick, 2013). Technology is not just considered the “internet”, it is so much greater than that. Overall, it enhances the quality of education and engages students deeper than ever before. With all the significant gains, why would people argue that technology hinders students more than it helps? Critics may try to repute the use of technology in the classroom but I believe what really matters “is the way we use it, the context that we use it in, and the learners who we use it for” (Chong, 2012).
The Internet, commonly referred to as the “information superhighway,” is a tool that has been introduced to classrooms around the world because of its popularity, which has been gaining steadily in the past years. The Internet is a network of computers in which users can share files and complete many other tasks. Many people and groups have voiced concerns of whether the Internet’s benefits in classroom and educational use outweigh the negative effects. From recent studies and personal experiences, I have come to the decision that the benefits certainly outweigh the negative effects. I believe that the students who use information technology such as the Internet regularly in their schoolwork are benefiting greatly rather than losing out.
Most of the time the Internet makes learning fun, unlike the plain fashion of the "almighty" textbook. Computers and other technology can also heighten the learning process by actively engaging students in the task of exploring data. Some students may be tempted to simply download information from the Internet that does not have anything to do with a particular subject that they were asked to research. This shows that the Internet may have a greater impact to education than to learn that information from a typical textbook. Since computers and the Internet have expanded the way with which
The Impact of the Internet on Education A dusty, one-bedroom schoolhouse on the edge of a village. An overworked teacher trying to manage a room full of boisterous children. Students sharing schoolbooks that are in perpetual short supply, crammed in rows of battered desks. Children worn out after long treks to school, stomachs rumbling with hunger.
ICT's vital role cannot be ignored in increasing attainment to education as well as preparing better quality education (Gutterman et al, 2009). Education has not been untouched by the pervasive impact of information and communication technology. No doubt that ICT has influenced the quantity and quality of teaching, learning, and research. ICT, in concrete terms can improve teaching and learning via its engaging and interactive content; and it can prepare real opportunities for individualized teaching. ICT has the potential to speed up, enhance, and deepen skills. It motivates and engages students in learning. It also helps to connect school experiences to practices and to develop economic viability for future
In today’s technological advancements, people have various options to educating themselves online. “All education is self-education [...] We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn.” (Chernoff). Much of the learning process is self education, and one can only learn what one desires to learn. The people who receive a real education are the one’s who take initiative to self educate themselves. This has been made substantially easier due to the Internet. Nowadays, there are so many online courses available, which allow students to work at
Is technology helping or hurting people learn? Technology is increasing every day, and is soon going to be a big part of everyday life. The change of teaching students on online class is way different to what they are used to, and will take awhile to get used to. There are disadvantages, advantages, opportunities, and challenges in the technology in education. The role that teachers play now will change in the future when the major demand for the use of technology hits. There is a big change in the way that students are learning with this new online learning. Technology is changing the learning of students in a big way. Some ways are positive, and some are negative but either way there is a big impact on the way students learn. Sometimes it just depends on the student’s way of learning. Those kind of students should have the choice of what they would rather use a book, or a computer. Students need to be able to decide the type of learning that they want to do to help them learn. Students need to know which way it is that they learn the best. Each person has to find out which way they learn the best to better themselves. Find out the best way that they learn so that it can benefit them in life.