Analogy to illustrate the learner of today.

A learner is like a sponge that absorbs knowledge when it is exposed to it. A sponge will absorb water as long as the water keeps dripping on it and when there is no water dripping on the sponge; it cannot absorb any of it. The learner’s brain works the same way as long as new knowledge is introduced; the brain will absorb it but only at a slow rate. However, once the learning stops, the brain will stop absorbing new knowledge. George Siemen explains that “all of these learning theories hold the notion that knowledge is an objective (or a state) that is attainable (if already innate) through either reasoning or experiences” (pg. 2). A learner learns more when he/she is connected to the world around them and when there is more skills introduced and processed. As educators we need to think about all the possible theories and strategies that we can introduce to our students so that they have a wider connection with the world around them. In the video Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature, Siemen explains that “we have to be expressed about our ideas and to focus less into bringing knowledge into the mind of a person and more in developing skills for our learners so that they are able to go out in fairly complex knowledge environment today and function in a distributive manner.” Moreover, learning usually comes from what is outside of us, what we experience out in our own environment.

My reaction to the video "A Vision of (college) Students Today"

This video made me realize that we do waste so much time in a boring lecture room, listening to someone going on and on about things we can probably learn easier and faster on the internet. We don't have to sit in a lecture room for hours to learn something we would probably forget as soon as we leave the classroom. This video shows us that we can do things faster using the internet than sitting in a classroom for hours and still not get much out of the course at all. College students should be using technology for all their courses and even lecture classes so that they no longer fall to sleep and keep them engaged in the course. College students need to learn with more effective tools and technology.