Learning--The Old and the New

AHHH! The dreaded research paper :). Although I no longer feel this way, I do remember doing my first "real" research paper my freshman year of highschool. It was scary, hard, and frustrating. I can honestly say that this project at times has conjured up the same feelings as my first reserach paper. The use of future electronic learning screens in the classroom is somewhat inevitable. If teachers choose to be stubborn, and absolutley refuse to use the learning screen they are going to lose their students. Will the students do the research papers, yes. However, unfortunately I think that any information they may have learned while doing the paper will be lost.

It is just reality that students and society in general are wired, and plugged into the world around them. Students need an opportunity to learn in the way that their brains are accustomed to opperating. If we are honest with ourselves, the learning screen is more appropriate for student learning than the reserach paper.

As a future educator, I feel that both the reserach paper and the learning screen have their place in the world of education. The research paper teaches students how to support their ideas with the already developed ideas of others. The learning screen in the other hand, is more about original creativity, especially when it comes to the possibility of the design of the learning screen. There are so many options: a blog, a website, an interactive power-point, etc. With the reserach paper, all information, from every students, is aesthetically presented in the same way on white paper framed by one inch margins.

There is something to be credited to the reserach paper. It teaches students that they must back up their ideas in a credible way. However, it does somewhat limit students, because in order to find research, it is absolutley impossible for their idea to be totally original. The learning screen does not place this pressure on the creation of student ideas, because they are not forced to find support from other people who have had the same idea. The learning screens encourages students to strive for something completely new!