“The Teachable Moment”
I recently came across an article on Sarah’s blog by Idit Harel titled Sandcastles Go Digital.Interestingly this article suggests that the constructivist theory is based on the concept that students are at their learning peak when they are being engaged in the active roles of the constructor and the designer, she relates this theory to children making sandcastles on the beach, via the software of Mama Media. It is her central idea that children are more likely to learn when they are highly engaged in an acitivity, thus reinforcing the importance of what she notes as the ‘teachable moment’.
However, there are limitations to this idea, as technology can be used to encapture the idea of constructivist learning. Children can explore, express, and share their learning experiences with a global audience, within the learning atmosphere of the world wide web. The internet is an engaging tool students love to explore, it is interactive and most importantly ‘open-ended’.
Give it a go, visit the digital beach Harel mentions Shell Party. Harel notes that Shell Party is all about surfing the “islands of knowledge on the web”. Shell Party is all about discovering the unexpected — something we cannot do with television – Harel.
Image from: FlickrCC
