Blog #1 Active Learning

Murray: You don't learn a process by talking about it, but by doing it.

Civitano: You can remember back to your younger years and recall the memory of learning how to ride a bike. It is probably a similar story to many people. Your parents talked about the idea of a bike. You knew what it was because everyday during last summer you got to watch your cool neighbor ride his bright purple bike up an down the block. He made it look so easy, that you knew you were able to do it. As your parents approached the day of finally going to the store and purchasing a bike they would talk about it every night.
They would speak about where you need to put your hands, where the breaks are located, how to position your body, why you need to wear safety gear. All of their talks just build up more anticipation within you, and you used to say to yourself and your parents I got this! I see my neighbor do it and it looks so easy! I will get on that bike and glide across the pavements of my block. The day finally came where you positioned your body on that bike seat, with all your safety gear on, you put your feet on the peddles and in a matter of seconds the bike tilted to the right and you feel to the gray concrete floor with the bike lying on top of you. You could not understand why this happened? Why is this harder then it looks? Why is this harder then how your parents talked about it? Eventually you got back on the bike and practiced. You knew that the only way you were going to ride a bike was practice. You learned to ride a bike by doing it.
This to me this is the foundation of everything else you learned in life. To use English as an example the only way a person can fully understand how to write (or the mechanics of writing) is to practice. There is no way you can learn how to write by someone telling you how to write. It needs to be practiced, and fully comprehended to understand. A teacher can tell his or her young students the sounds of the alphabet, but if the students do not apply those sounds of the alphabet to try and read something they will sadly never be able to read. This statement by Murray can apply to anything, any subject, and anything you have or ever will learn in life. I certainly believe someone learns by doing something, not by someone telling you how it is.

Gee: If learning is to be active, it must involve experiencing the world in new ways.

Civitano: As I want to keep the same theme in my blog I choose this quote because I believe it directly relates to the quote by Murray. I am a strong believer in learning from tactile ways. I do believe that when learning you need to be actively engaged to be able to fully comprehend what you are obtaining. You need to be able to apply what you have learned to fully move on and learn on a higher level. Learning in new ways can bring out many sparks within a person. To me active learning takes place beyond the lecture. It goes further from a teacher telling you how it is, or what to do. It is the actual process of learning through doing it.