Additional Assignment #2

How Kids Teach Themselves



First of all, this was an amazing video. I adore how both the time period to learn and the lack of adult assistance motivated these kids to accomplish the goals set--and with such accuracy! All of the children showed that they can teach themselves, either individually, or with peers.

There ARE conditions in which students--any student--would be motivated to learn. As stated in the video, and in several comments on the video, a student must have an interest for the subject. This poses an obvious issue because ALL students will never be interested in EVERYTHING they need to learn. Therefore, it would be the job of a teacher (or anyone else) to motivate.

It's hard to say how to motivate any particular student. However, the video suggests an interesting way to do so. By using "The Grandmother Method" (which entails someone standing behind the student and admiring their work),students are encouraged to show what they know, and possibly learn more, when prompted.

Personally, I am motivated to learn through encouragement as well. If someone believes in my abilities AND if I'm certain that I will need information later on in life, then I am motivated. On certain odd occasions, I am also motivated if I get to learn something that few to none of my peers know (I like having an advantage).

In the process of teaching oneself, computers and internet access are key. In fact, I have a perfect example of this. Today, my roommate and I were discussing a piece I saw on the History Channel. She became intrigued so much by it. I was a little foggy on some of the details, so she instantly looked up sites discussing the issue. I did the same and we compared our results. Without our present access to computers and the internet, we would have had to rely on my foggy details.

Questions and problems that arise can be important when teaching oneself. They are motivators as well. If a person really wanted to know the answer to an initial question, or had a desire to solve an initial problem, they would conquer anything that came in their path, while simultaneously gaining more knowledge.

Can anyone who is not motivated to learn, learn? Hmmmm... I was always a believer that those who were unmotivated to learn would remain ignorant for the rest of their life. But then I would have to use myself as an example. Math never motivated me. I never saw anything remotely attractive about math. I hated it, it hated me. We had that understanding. But somehow, I was able to retain some information from it, so it's not like I learned absolutely nothing. So in this case, I would say someone unmotivated COULD learn, but they wouldn't learn much.

A teacher does not necessarily sit on the back burner in the case of self-educating. A teacher could be there for a person as a guide. The teacher can show a student what reliable sources are and how to go about gathering other information.

There is one aspect of the video that I would like to discuss. In the beginning, there was a statement about good teachers and bad places: good teachers refuse to go to these bad places in the world, where obviously they are needed the most. I happen to think that this is very selfish on the teacher's part. The teacher could very well push their efforts into turning a bad area into a more desirable one, and yet they choose not to.

All in all, this was a great video. It was yet another eye opener for me in the world of technology.