Week 11

The blog post I read was called "Are they Students or are they Learners?" by David Warlick. It broached the topic of the difference between students and learners and the value of shifting our thinking as teachers to viewing our class as learners instead of students. There was a very helpful chart that put the two side by side and drew out the differences. Two of the main ones that stuck out to me were the relationship with educators and motivation. For students, the relationship with educators is "Students are employees, expected to obediently follow instructions." On the flip side, "Learners are citizens with a vested interest in the learning society." In regards to motivation, for students it is "Obligation: Students are culturally obliged to work for the teacher & for compensation" but for learners it is  "Responsibility: Learners are motivated by an understood and realized “value” in their work, especially when it is valuable to others." I really enjoyed this article and it made me truly think about the classroom and my view of my class and the relationship I build with them. I don't really know if my comment contributed that much to the learning world, but by reading this and thinking about different ways to approach teaching, it can help me to impact the learning world within my classroom. 

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2762