One of the worst things a child can encounter growing up, is self-doubt. Doubting oneself leads to low self esteem, which, causes all sorts of problems in life. Nothing makes a child second guess themselves more than being told they’re wrong. This leads to why I feel constructivism is such a useful teaching method. The ability to see that there is more than one right answer to every question is a gift. Every child brings their own set of experiences with them wherever they go. To understand this and utilize it in a learning environment is constructivism. I think constructivism should be incorporated into every level of education. In primary and secondary education, we were force-fed information, and taught to regurgitate it for tests. In college we’re taught to think on a much higher level. There isn’t any reason that students wouldn’t be able to think at that higher level earlier on, as long as they were taught how. Instead of learning only the who, what, when, and where’s we could also have been learning the why’s and how’s. Putting real life experience, and previous knowledge together to work out a solution is the best way to do it.
I’m a major fan of online classes in general. This is my first computer class that I’ve taken online. I’ve found that it’s a little easier to take an online class if you already have an understanding of computers and how to trouble shoot when you have problems. For instance I just lost my harddrive on my laptop, I spent over a week trying to get my information off of it. I installed a new harddrive, with lots of success. That so far, has been my biggest problem this semester as far as tech glitches. I do sometimes find myself forgetting that I have a fifth class. I spend so much time during the week working and doing homework, that saturday roles around, and I’m usually thinking to myself… oh crap, you forgot to comment on the forum, and I have a lot of time to work on my labs during work on saturdays.
