As I worked on this assignment and prepared for my interview with Reagan, I kept thinking about our latest units on behaviorism and problem solving. "Plussing" is something that I do with Reagan often. I even visited one of the websites that we looked at in class to see if she would enjoy that experience with addition facts (http://www.funbrain.com). What I've come to find, through the podcast interview and through my experiences with Reagan (both online and off) is that she enjoys the engagement in ideas whether or not there is a context. In the unit that we did regarding Problem Solving, the learner was always an active participant in the learning. In my mind, I made the connection learning only occurred (according to this theory) if the learner was connected to the learning or if it had some real-life connection the learner. What I have found, however, is that whether or not we have context, whether Reagan was engaged in rote practice with me or via the internet, she was still engaged as a learning, learning the concepts, and growing. Moreover, she admitted during the interview that she has no idea why people need to "plus" outside of a few isolated (and non-compelling) reasons. My next question....Does the engagement of the learner and the real-life connection to the concept change with the age of the learner? Hmmm, another interview and podcast in the making? Thanks for reading and listening.
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