Andrew Buehler

Meaningful Learning Assignment

There are several things that should be taken away after reading this chapter. First, it is
important to know the issues that surround modern-day education. A large majority of the
schools are testing students abilities based on standardizes tests, which causes many teachers to
base their curriculum on test-prep rather than enhancing students learning. In order for the
students to get the most out of school, they must learn in ways that is meaningful. Meaningful
tasks should involve intentional, active, constructive, cooperative, and authentic learning. One
important way in creating meaningful tasks is by using technology. This also presents itself as a
problem because in the past, teachers just used computers and other forms of technology to teach
their material, rather than initiating the students learning. Instead of learning from a teacher, a
student would just learn from a computer; they were learning from technology instead of
learning with technology. This concept is very important and repeated several times in the
chapter- instead of teachers just using technology as a partner, the technology needs to serve as a
partner in the learning process. In order for teachers to properly use technology in the classroom,
teachers must possess two very important types of knowledge: content knowledge and
pedagogical knowledge. Content knowledge refers to how much the teacher knows about the
subject he/she is presenting, while pedagogical knowledge refers to the teachers knowledge
about how to properly teach the students. Thanks to advancements in modern technology, both
students and teachers must possess 21st Century Skills that are ideal for both students and
teachers to succeed in the classroom. We must also recognize that there are several different
types of knowledge- declarative, structural, conceptual, procedural, situational, strategic, tacit,
sociocultural, and experimental knowledge. Each one is different in its own way, and the type of
knowledge obtained by the student depends on the manner in which the information is presented
to them. Knowledge and learning is also pivotal for teachers, too; teachers need to learn how to
properly use technology, properly understand the content, properly understand pedagogy, and
lastly know how students are supposed to learn. The combination off all these concepts is
referred to TPLACK by Koehler and Mishra. The take home point of this entire article is that
meaningful technology needs knowledge construction instead of reproduction, conversation
instead of reception, and articulation instead of repetition.
I agree entirely with this article. For far too long teachers have been teaching students the
wrong way- they are more focused on getting good standardized test scores so they dont get pay
cuts and they are using technology to recite/repeat what they are saying, instead of using it as a
catalyst for the students learning. I think the biggest argument made is that the learning isnt just
for the students, but the teachers too- they need to properly learn how to teach and how to
integrate technology when they are teaching. The only part of this chapter that I was skeptical
about was the discussion on the importance of working in group- while I do think this is
important, I believe that testing should be done individually. I think that younger students are too
immature to work in groups constructively, and often it ends up as one student doing more work
than the other. This article didnt really change my opinion that much about the necessity of
technology in the classroom- I already believe that it is pivotal for students learning. The only
issue that I had was it didnt really give examples or ways to properly integrate technology into
teaching, rather it talked about all of the donts and how important it is. Hopefully in the next
chapters of the book it will go more in depth about specific examples and way that a teacher can
successfully use technology when teaching their students, because it is something that even I am
not too sure about.