Can it be fun to learn about Peer Gynt?

My blog is called “Learning is Fun” and in a previous blog post I jot down some thoughts about this. My conclusion, if I had any, was that you are in a learning process almost all the time, maybe except when you’re asleep. You don’t only learn things at school, but also among friends, from your parents, on Internet or from books. But often, the best way to learn new stuff is to do what you’re going to learn, not just read about it. Are you going to be a plumber, well then you have to do some plumbing, not only read about tubes and hoses in a plumber book. If you want to become a drummer you have to practice on the drum set, you can’t learn it only from reading.  But theory is also important, a plumber have to know what kind of tubes he has to use in different situations, if he uses wrong dimensions, water leaks and expensive damages might be the result.

In school it’s easier to work with practical activities in some subjects than others. Music, arts and crafts and PE are subjects where we mostly do things instead of read about them. But it is more challenging to find good practical activities in English, Norwegian, religion and social studies. I really want tips about how we can make these lessons more fun and interesting while you are learning at least as much as you do today.

Here is a video from a lesson in Norwegian (I can’t guarantee you that our school has economy to hire all these people….sorry..)

Netiquette

After today’s brainstorm in class about netiquette, lists of guidelines or rules popped up. Here is a summary.

• Don’t “touch” things you don’t know what is – use safe websites.
• Be critical to information you find on the Internet - use trusted sources.
• Don’t give personal information to strangers.
• Don’t bully online….or anywhere else.
• Be positive when you give comments to other people, or when you write about someone else.
• Use “free to copy” (Creative Commons license) pictures, texts or music, or ask the owners first, when you want to post something on your website or blog.
• Don’t be a hacker or create viruses to hurt other people
• Think twice about what you’re going to post on Internet. Don’t post stuff you might regret.
• If you’re going to meet someone you have only met on Internet, you should bring someone with you.
• Be careful with clicking on ads, they might be viruses or you might even be hacked.

A lot of good advices, don’t you think?

What if learning isn't fun?

My blog is called “Learning is fun”, but what if I’m wrong. Maybe learning can’t be fun. I think everyone agree with me when I say that you have to learn to read, write and calculate to live a normal life in our society. It also might be necessary to have some particular education to get a job. But is it fun to learn or is it just some boring stuff you just have to go through?

Well, first I have to figure out what learning is. Is it only at school you learn stuff, or do you also learn different things in your spare time when you surf on Internet, when you visit new places in your holiday, when you play the guitar or talk to your old grandfather? I think that everything you experience might turn into new knowledge, and suddenly you have learned something new without thinking about it. Isn’t that cool… learning without thinking about that you have to learned something?

I think that when you have new experiences, like repairing your bike that just broke down, talking English or even Spanish to the guy in the ice cream bar at the beach in Spain, you don’t think about learning. If you are very in to Volvo or BMW, and suddenly find an article on Internet about a brand new model that will be on the market soon, you have learned something new. If you like playing the guitar and manage to compose your own song, you have learned something new. I think that most of you agree with me when I say that these are not boring ways to learn, they even might be fun.

But what about school? Is everything you learn at school boring? If so, how can we turn the school into a more fun and interesting learning arena? I want comments!