After reading chapter two, I feel very excited about changes that technology can make in the classroom. With the help of technology, students can learn with visual aid, access and assess information by themselves, engage and collaborate though groupwork, get feedback in time, and express creativity in an electronic way. I'm so excited to find that students can do sooo many things at the same time just in one environment. Teachers are not the center of the classroom any more; instead, they become mangagers or organizers of individual and group learning experiences.Students need no longer be passive recipients of curriculum; they can be active researchers, annalyzers, and presenters of ideas and informations. They became the classroom center.
To motivate learning, teachers consistantly strive to gain the "outter" and "inner" attention of students. Most of time,however, educators focus on the outer attention (for example, requiring students to remain quietly in their seats throughout class or copy notes and assignments fro, the board ) while neglecting the inner attention (helping students to think deeply about the topics under discussion.) But inner attention is where learning happens. So my dream is someday I can help Chinese students to fulfill "discovery learning", "learning by doing", "inquiry-based learning", and "hands-on learning".
I found your mention of outer and inner learning was very interesting. As you write, too much time and energy is spent focusing on achieving outer learning from students, all the while, neglecting their inner learning; the deep contemplation questions pertaining to the learning task at hand. We must design curriculum and pedagogy that pays attention to students' inner learning, as this is where learning happens. It is empowering to think of myself as a designer in this sense, because I feel as though I am able to make decisions that will create this kind of "discovery learning" in my own classroom. I will break through the walls of outer learning and into the center of inner learning, where the magic happens.
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