“Institutional Education needs to do more than just adopt a few new tools.“ ~ Dan Brown (http://twitter.com/DBUniverse)
A few meetings went by, and I was getting the hang of speaking in front of the class. It was terrifying at first, but my fear was soon replaced by the thrill that my students are actually learning something. It was an awesome experience to watch the freshmen’s eyes light up as they discover the concepts and algorithms to solve the problems. Granted, the language should have been easier so that more than just the logically-inclined students can pass the laboratory exams, but aside from that- all of us are learning.
The midterm period passes without a hitch, but soon I find myself questioning (again) the methods that I use to teach the concepts at lecture. I noticed that more than half of my students are very unmotivated to learn. They’d rather focus on some of their minor subjects- Art App, Communication, and later, Physical Ed. I wondered why..?
Interaction.
The students craved interaction. They needed to interact and experience the facts (in our case, concepts & algorithms) in order to learn them effectively. They want to understand the concepts, not memorize what they mean. Just telling them to memorize what iterations mean is plain stupid- because that information is free, online. This is what they liked about the minor subjects: you don’t have to memorize anything, you just have to do it.
The video above by Dan Brown (not the author, mind you) nailed it: Education is not about facts- Its about empowering students to change the world for the better.
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