Wherever you study affects the learning process in one way or another. It is clear that you are gonna focus more in a room, with good light and a clean desk that in a coffee shop full of people making noise. You may focus the same, but of course the speed of understanding the content varies.
Same happen with children. If they are in a good environment, fully of tablets, games, funny books, and they have toys to play with each other, they are going to get involved very well. At least better than if they are in a class, sitting in their desks and listening to the professor, being the action passive.
Also, as a future professor, we all have to remember that the school is not the only place where children learn. Every kid has a family. Every family is like a different world. Kids learn at home everything and then, they show it in class.
I'm gonna tell you two stories. The first story is about my learning process in my childhood. I have to say I feel the luckiest girl in the world regarding my family. I have six siblings and my parents are still together after 30 years of marriage. I say still because seems like everybody gets divorce and it's normal. Actually the unusual is to see a marriage during more than 3 years. Mass media have spread the myth of the "happy" marriage and divorce as a remedy to cure all ills. Basically, marriage has been placed in the category of the "disposable".But, anyways, they supported me in everything I have done. We all helped each other and if I had a trouble in school, they would help me always. I had trouble in junior year high school with math class and I had a tutor coming home every Tuesday and Thursday. I know I had a good environment because my parents taught me how to be a good student. This environment of support from my parents, created an engagement with my study and at the same time, did that my learning process was easier as well as better. I knew what to do and at the same time I was having fun!
However, I had a teammate that was failing so many classes and I asked if he needed help. I knew he was smart because a year ago of that, his GPA was almost 4. He told me their parents get divorced and since that, he was depressed and suffering anxiety. He thought he was the cause of the divorce. This demotivation and the bad situation at home caused on him to have bad grades. It could be say that his environment had a negative effect so his learning was slow and not effective in class.
So, since every kid has a different environment at home, as a future teacher I feel like I have to encourage every single student to learn. We don't know what's going on at home so many times so I have to make them feel special EVERY SINGLE DAY, WEEK, MONTH AND YEAR.
Google Apps for Education plays another important role in the learning space.
First of all, google has apps like "gmail" or "streamline your class" that help the effectiveness of a teacher's work in some many ways. For instance, with "streamline your class" you can create, share and grade assignments with ease. That helps to keep classes organized and as a consequence improve the communication with students. This, will create a better learning process since the communication between student and professor is really powerful. Also, google apps have a app called " meet face to face". In this app you can connect any time via video, voice or text. I really think this is great because if some student has a problem, you can connect with their parents and fix the problem. Students will valorize this by seeing that the professor actually care about them. Again, this will help to a better development of learning process.
As a challenge I would say to play more in class with technology. We all talk about how technology will help in class and that our students will be so much more productive. But then, we are still teaching with the same method! Let's do whatever we actually think and do it!
The University of Akron approach the design of informal learning spaces very well. As we can see on campus, every building has an area (common area, lobbies, residence hall, and classroom building) with some several computers kiosks or carrels. This makes everything easier because sometimes, we need to print something or look some information on the Internet and thanks to this, we can always find an answer to our questions. And well, of course we have the library. I am from another country and I thought that those libraries that we always see are just...in movies! You know, a huge library with the famous shelves full of books and the typical couple making out. Well I haven't see the last one yet but maybe some day... Anyways! I can say that informal learning spaces on UA campus align very well my needs and expectations as a learner. UA care a lot about students and try to make us feel confortable and helping in everything, for example, by building spaces were everyone can use technology, gather and have some fun!
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