Reading Response- Chapter 8
For this week’s final chapter of Lanksear & Knobel, I spent a lot of time reflecting and comparing my own experiences with education compared to my younger brothers. It fascinates me how different our experiences are and how much education is changing. From our reading this week, I was immersed in Quest to Learn and how institutions are changing education. Being a big fan of game learning and wanting to know more about Quest to Learn, I began my research on YouTube. I found both educational videos and videos made by students. One video in particular that caught my attention was a parkour video made by students. As some of you may know, parkour is known as free running, an activity or a sport that involves someone moving rapidly from one area to another navigating through obstacles. Now what I find interesting in this video is that these students are practicing parkour and looking at these obstacles not as something in their way but as a challenge of creativity. They use these obstacles as means of accomplishing their goal. I believe this free way of thinking prepares students to make decisions on their own as they progress throughout life. Being a recent graduate from my undergraduate career, I met many students who were unsure of what they wanted to do with their lives. Most students felt that going to college was necessary in becoming successful, however could not define success. What I think is interesting throughout our readings is the promotion of free thinking, to create and invent our own paths and ideas through the utilization of tools around us. It is in my belief that as technology is progressing so must education, not in just the application of technology in the classroom but also in the change of how online pedagogy should be viewed.
