My view on learning truly comes from the standpoint of being a lifelong learner myself. I will be 50 years old in January and I can say that my happiest times in life have been when I was learning something. I think that the thing that influences learning the most is exposure. I know many people who don't know about things and mostly it is because they have never had an opportunity to experience it. Today I was speaking to a colleague about skiing and how I really enjoyed it. She is from Alabama and the thought of a sport that involves cold is not her idea of fun. I am sure that if she goes and has the experience she would like it and get past the fact that she has to get so bundled up because after a couple of runs on the slopes she would heat up. I think that instruction should be structured to expose students to different things. In our middle school for example our Geometry teacher takes his students to New York City to study the different structures so that they can take their math knowledge outside of the classroom and out into the real world. I use Lego robots in my computer classes to engage students and give them a tool that they are very familiar with, Legos to teach them about the critical thinking that has to accompany basic programming. In our class we use the NXT box for programming with the Lego Mindstorm software.
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