This was my final week of learning how to play Wagon Wheel on the guitar. During the first week, I explored my resources learning how to play chords specific to the song, obtaining all necessary materials, and looking for tips and advice. The second week I really jumped in to Youtube videos, help forums, and affinity spaces. This was the week where I feel I saw the biggest transition to truly understanding the chords I had to learn. Only using technology for this whole process had its challenges at times, but I persevered and learned something completely new, something I had absolutely no background knowledge in, in just 3 weeks. To wrap this project up, I created a final video that shows my progress throughout the weeks: Learning a new skill only using technology was difficult at times, but also had many positive aspects to it. By taking that physical teacher role out of the picture, you are putting the learning in the hands of the student which holds them accountable for their work. There were days where the tips of my fingers burned because the strings were cutting them and I would take the day off. Since learning this new skill was completely up to me, I felt so guilty taking just that one day away from this project. I was so worried that one day off would prevent me from reaching my goal. Imagine having that kind of determination every day from our students in the classroom!
There were definitely times when I wish I could have turned to an expert and had them help me, but YouTube was the closest thing to that. The YouTube videos I watched were fantastic for the following reasons: (1) I could pause the video whenever I wanted extra time to practice, (2) Videos had pictures embedded in them so I could visualize the chords they were playing, and (3) Some provided different angles of the camera so you could get the “real world” experience as if you were sitting in the room with them. I did come across one major challenge on YouTube which took me back to my blog post about experts versus novices. In this post I explored some chapters from How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School where I learned that often times experts take their knowledge for granted and have a difficult time putting themselves in a beginner’s shoes (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). When I first started learning the chords, I could tell it just didn’t sound right but I became extremely frustrated and felt somewhat defeated because I could not figure out why. In the original videos I watched, the experts failed to explain that I needed a capo, or a clamp that changes the tuning of the guitar. When I added that clamp on, the sound of the guitar changed completely and it was smooth sailing from there! This idea of experts versus novice learners is something that everyone should keep in the back of their minds while teaching. We can’t just assume our students know the small details, such as adding the capo to the strings. It is our responsibility to understand what type of background knowledge our students have on the topic, something that was difficult to keep up with during this project. In the world of education, we are seeing this shift into more of a digital age with buzz words such as: Inquiry based, student-centered, technology, collaboration, etc. I would love to have my students try learning something during the school year only using technology to open their own views on being a learner. By doing this, I would be encouraging my students to develop time management skills, intrinsic motivation, and research skills. Since I teach early elementary grades, I think I would have to modify this assignment by providing the technology and resources. Modifications won’t change the impact that students will take from a project like this. Even myself, as an adult, feel as if I took so much away from this experience and learned so much about myself as a learner. I received my guitar as a gift many years ago and just let it collect dust in my basement. This Network Learning Project gave me the opportunity to actually learn how to play the guitar this time and I couldn’t be happier. It was an emotional roller coaster learning just with technology, but it has brought a new hobby into my life and I plan to continue learning different songs in the future the same way. Are you interested in learning how to play the guitar? If so, I kept track of my Network Learning Project Resources. In addition to those resources, I explained what was helpful and what was not that helpful in my experiences. Sources: Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R.R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 31-50. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368.
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