Week 7 - Encouraging Learner Autonomy

Creating a learning environment in a classroom can be challenging. It is not an easy task. Of course it also depends on how flexible the group is but a big part of it depends on how the instructor trusts in the members of this community and knows where he or she is going by having a clear objective set up in his/her mind.
And we talk about "objectives" we are not only taking about academic learning but we are also talking about guiding our students to become responsible and commited with their own learning. Reading the article "What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?" by Dimitrios Thanasoulas helped me refresh some basis for education and what our role is as teachers. In our classrooms we need to open spaces and provide opportunities in which students will be able to learn how to use tools and take more charge of their own progress.
Sharing new concepts, giving them tools and teaching them how to use them so they can have access to more knowledge, listening to them and their doubts, sharing our own doubts, trusting that together we can get to a better understanding and sharing we can obtain great results gaining a higher level of education.
When we also shared activities about "one computer per classroom" it also made me think about how we can create autonomus learners by providing this tool, which may not be available at all times, but we know that creating projects, or having them come up with new findings,research, exercises done by groups or individual activities can help them have access to more information and are able to share it using a modern instrument.
Holec's quote: "The ability to take charge of one’s learning" is so true. We have to create an environment in which parents and kids stop putting all the responsibility of learning new concepts only on the teachers' shoulders. By creating a community of respect, sharing information, providing new material, creating self evaluations, working on awareness of learning styles and strategies to aquire new knowledge, trusting and opening spaces in which kids realize they are becoming better beings can definitely help them become more conscious about their learning. This indeed will help them become better members of the community where they live in and will be able to apply this concepts and values worked in class into their own spaces with their peers, neighboors, professionals and trust that we are able to grow if we are responsible of our own learning.