The article "Online Learning Propelled By Constructivism" discusses the progress of online learning as constructivists. Constructivism is a theory that says that people construct their own understanding of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.
Constructivists aim to develop intrinsically motivated and independent learners equipped with learning skills for them to construct knowledge and make meaning of them. Students are taught how to learn, and teachers provide students with data or experiences that allow them to hypothesize, predict, manipulate, pose questions, research, and invent. Thus the teacher's position is changing, and he/she is no longer the proverbial sage on the stage or content provider, but rather a guide on the side or content facilitator. The student's position has also shifted from that of a passive recipient of information to that of an active participant in the development of knowledge which is acquired either by interacting with the teacher, peers, and the content.
Constantly developing technology was in favor of this theory. Reaching the 21 century with the best of multimedia technology and the ultimate need for online learning aid in the resurgence of constructivists. And it's true as mentioned in the article This contemporary and developing technology now allows learning to be fluid with the learner in a simultaneous and continuous nature (Reid-Martinez, 2015).
I agree with this theory as the aim in developing new online pedagogy where quality is more important than quantity and focusing on the interaction and collaboration in learning, as well as enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving ability, in the addition to the social skills that the students will acquire them.
On the other hand, I think that the article lacks the issue that technology itself may not be desirable for all learners, and from this point, the students and the teachers will be overwhelmed. I see that mobiles themselves would be distracting and made the opposite function of learning. One more thing is that teachers while teaching online should have a role just more than a facilitator.
Finally, for me as a teacher, I will try my best to merge different philosophies and result with the best the suits the students' need taking into consideration the characteristics of active learning and the progress and engagement of the students.
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