My philosophies of teaching, learning, and technology

These (philosophies) are very much a work in progress.

I see teaching as a mode of instructing, guiding, and assisting a student in attaining, retaining, and applying new knowledge, ideas, and skills. I think a key idea here is that the teacher is in a position to help or enhance a student’s learning in a way they (the student) could not as effectively (learn) on their own.

I expressed this somewhat in the previous paragraph but I believe essentially that learning is to attain new knowledge, ideas, and/or skills. The level or effectiveness of learning can vary greatly, and I think that is best measured in the way that the knowledge can be retained and applied.

Technology (in regards to education) is a tool or more appropriately a vast array of tools that can be used to enhance both the teaching and learning. Examples of technology used for education are many, varying from (as stated in the lecture) a chalkboard, an iPod, and a computer. Like most tools, it can be used in a beneficial and productive way, or the inverse and become a distraction or hinderance. The goal for the purposes of my studies and our field is to achieve the former and improve upon it. It is in this regard that I have much excitement at the onset of this program and look forward to using technology to design instruction that is creative, engaging, and beneficial to a wide array of different learners with different learning styles and needs.