“Debunking those Pesky Classroom Myths”

Based on a Blog by Ben Johnson, 6/29/11

 

Five classroom myths were presented in this blog.  The three myths that I would like to highlight are the ones that I think could apply to online learning.  These were “Teachers know best”, “Students aren’t interested in learning”, and “Students hate school.”   I will cover each myth in order. Teachers can learn from their students and this can be done by having your students provide valuable feedback for a teacher to improve upon.  Surveys are sent out at the end of an online course and I think your student’s feedback should be reviewed closely to make future improvements on a course.  Students can be interested in learning if they are actively engaged.  Teachers should make every attempt to make learning enjoyable for their students.  Not all class work is meant to be fun, but an instructor should try to create assignments that give your student options to choose from.  In my opinion, an educator should make every attempt to include the student’s interests as part of an assignment.  In the information age of the internet, this should not be too hard to accomplish.  If students are engaged in classroom activities that they are interested in, then I think students will no longer hate going to school or at least for that particular class.   The internet can be used as a great resource for learning and I am amazed that my fellow online students are rarely coming up the same online references when working together on a class wiki assignment.  This amazes me, but not when I look at the technology source, the internet, the information is coming from.  I do think that online courses will help more students engage in learning and I think it is the instructor’s responsibility to try to make the learning fun as well.   

Johnson, B. (2011, June 29) Debunking those Pesky Classroom Myths (Web Blog Message), Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/debunking-classroom-myths-ben-johnson?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29&utm_content=Google+Reader