Additional Assignment #2

I believe that if learners are motivated they can definitely teach themselves anything they put their heart to. As Sugata Mitra shows us in this video children can teach themselves. They were very interested in what they saw in the computer and they learned how to work it. The computer and internet were both very new to these village people in India; they learned so fast how to work the computer. When we got a new toy as children, didn’t we try and learn how to work it and didn’t stop until we could do it just perfectly? This computer is just like us having that new toy on Christmas morning. They were determined and anxious to get this new toy working. Motivation plays a huge role in a desire to learn, if a child has no motivation, then he or she will not be willing to learn new material. If we do not have problems or questions then how would we get to the source of the problem. It was all trial and error in this experiment Mitra did. In order to motivate someone you have to first catch their interest! I do not think anyone who is not motivated to learn will learn. They might remember something for a few days but it will not stick. I believe that we do teach our self daily! We teach ourselves daily because we are around different and new stuff every day, but only if we are interested will it probably stick with us. A teacher is there as a guide to help us along our intellectual journey. This video was amazing; children are brilliant! Children are not given all the credit they should be, they can figure out most anything you put in front of them. I was amazed at how much the children learned month after month that Mr. Mitra came back to see them. I think that we as aspiring teachers should take into consideration that our children can be very prominent self learners and that we need to use computers and technology in our classrooms.