“WHO OWN LEARNING” BY ALAN NOVEMBER

“WHO OWN LEARNING” BY ALAN NOVEMBER

Introduction

This book offers a guideline for students to follow in the current digital age to ensure effective learning is achieved. The book is presented from teacher’s point of view and discusses how technology can be implemented effectively to assist students to gain most out of their learning process. The book offers real-life solutions which are considered to be effective, sufficient, and relevant, tested plus proven which are accounted by the author who is a retired teacher who was teaching in Boston during his active employment period.

In the first video, the author discusses his teaching experiences serving various posts such as technology professional. The major issue in the book is interested in technology application and culture of learning. It discusses examples where teachers give students various models of learning in cases where students are motivated. There is emerging tools which are used to enable students to own their learning. Search engines provide students with tools to extract information from Google. Most students obtain their answers from the search engines which puzzles the education fraternity whether they are being given assignments that were designed before the internet was developed or after its influence in the education sector.

It is important for teachers to redesign their assignments so that students do not directly access answers from the internet. It discusses an example of a test examination about “Iranian hostage crisis”, where student directly copy’s the assignment title and Google it to obtain answers. Most of the students do not understand that Google does not understand English. The students should consider designing their assignments revolving the missing information on the internet. One of the important skills in owning learning is concerned about global empathy. Students directly type the assignment heading and Google’s it without considering the fact that Iranians have a different heading for the topic. These types of searches will always misinform scholars so it is important for them to adopt balanced search models which include getting into the assignment topic web sources and extracting the right information.

This is different from cases where students just Google topics without narrowing their searches to get the correct information. In the case of “causes of Iranian conflict”, the student should first access the Google, single out the Iranian sources and look for the right heading of the content required before proceeding to construct their answers. Critical thinking is required to assist the student to identify that their source is correct. This example expresses concern about students being overconfident about their internet use to assist them through the learning process. Student’s needs teachers to assist them to handle their learning process to get the right information. It is important for the students to be assisted by their teachers to understand the designs of their assignments and get tips on how to extract the right answers using technology. Teachers should assist students to design their searches and the nature of the assignment. In mathematics, students should not be given direct questions, but there should be twisted for impact on learning. In “who owns the learning” the students should be taught skills of understanding to ask the right questions. The teachers should enable the students to connect globally, own their learning and effectively contribute towards their process of learning.

In the second video, the author Alan November discusses accessing knowledge on the internet by students but highlights the value of teachers in the learning process. In Khan Academy learning model, it assists teachers and parents to govern their children’s learning. The Khan Academy model kid’s learning process is not restricted and kids cannot be taught in a controlled format. In a controlled setting, students are taught equally same content at regulated pace in standardized context, unlike khan academy where students can be ahead of others. Alan November provides a structure that should be implemented by teachers to enhance learning without depending on the internet. Teachers act as the learning police, in the idea of sharing the first five days, teachers share about various experiences they face when imparting knowledge.

It is important for the development of trust and develops positive relationships in the learning environment. Teachers should teach students to use the internet effectively and get related information using new tools. Before technology, in the first five days tool, students spent time sharing their ideas without focusing on the learning process. Students should be taught effectively how to use Google in relation to their studies to get relevant information. As part of building trust, it is important for teachers to learn as much as they can about their students. This will enable them to understand how to conduct the teaching process that will be beneficial to the students. Students should be used how to use search engines to get the right information. It is important for teachers, to teach children critical thinking and how to use the internet effectively to get relevant information that coincides with their learning process. Google have operators that assist in obtaining the precise information from the internet.

Conclusion

According to Alan November, the K-12 system does not enable the student to learn at the same level and pace hence not the best. Technology has brought various tools that assist scholars to learn, however it is important for the teachers to enlighten the students how to use them effectively. As a teacher-learner it is important to guide students in the content they access, teach them how to use technological tools and create a balance between their analog and digital learning platforms.