Meaningful learning

Meaningful learning ( reading + other students)


After going through Bethany's blog and reading the article What is meaningful leaning? (Jonassen, 2008) I wanted to share my view on meaningful learning using e-leanring resources. 

Using e-resources in our classrooms has to have a meaning. Jonassen (2008) states that perhaps one of the most unfortunate phenomenon in our current generation is that students often complete their K-6 education only knowing how to take tests. However, for the students to learn meaningfully they should be willfully engaged in a meaningful task. Those tasks require intentional, active, constructive, cooperative and authentic learning processes. I will explain each processes.

Learning should be about things enclosed in a natural context. Students should interact with their environment and manipulate the objects found in that environment. In fact, true learning will come from these active manipulations. Meaningful learning requires learners who are active.

Moreover, a simple activity, to achieve a specific outcome, is necessary but not sufficient for meaningful learning. Jonassen (2008) explains that it is essential for learners to articulate what they have accomplished and to reflect on their activity's observations. For meaningful learning to occur, students should be puzzled and curious about what they see. 

Learning should be intentional  as when learners are trying to achieve a cognitive goal, they think and learn more because they are fulfilling an intention. E-learning technologies need to engage students in achieving those goals. For instance, when students use computers for constructing and executing a way to research a problem they want to solve, they learn meaningfully. 

As teachers have so much to cover, they often focus on general theories or principles that may be used to explain specific phenomenas. However, in doing so, educators remove those ideas from their natural contexts and skip contextual clues that make them meaningful. Mathematics and Physics are a prime example. Students may learn a formula to resolve a problem but will not understand how this applies to they every day life. In my own experience, my science teacher use to teach us teach us this subject in a meaningful way. We went outside, played football to explain gravity and pick flowers outside to explain reproduction. 

Learning should also be cooperative as humans naturally work together. When students work in groups, communication and conversation occur which should be encouraged as it is the most natural way of meaning making. Technology-based activities should be performed collaboratively in groups, so teachers can assess the performance of the groups as well as the individuals.

After reading this article, I wondered if I could find an e-leanring resource that complied with all of the different processes of meaningful learning. I didn't. However, I found Smartkids - I referred to it in my earlier post - that satisfies a few of those points. This e-resource follows the idea that learning is a natural and adaptive human process. Students experience that when they are actively engaged in the activity, results come from their manipulations.  By writing their thoughts in a virtual sketchbook students articulate what they have accomplished and reflect on their observations. Smartkids is embedded in a real-life context as students learn about current art and artists through out the activities.

I will now have a clear reference to select my e-leanring resources to promote meaningful learning...

references:

I) Image:

http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/flickrCC/index.php?terms=learning&edit=yes&page=1

II) Article:

Jonassen, D. et al (2008). What is meaningful learning? In D. Jonassen et al.(Eds).Meaningful learning with technology. 3rd Edtn. pp1-12. Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, N.J.