For example, Vicki intentionally uses words that she assumes are beyond her students' current vocabulary with the expectation that the students will use technology to look-up and learn the meaning of those word. It is in activities like these where she develops her students feelings of autonomy and competency to become self-directed learners.
Further she demonstrates her belief that her role as an educator is to teach students by not expecting that she is supposed to know everything. She does not expect to be the vessel from which her students will gain knowledge. She used the alternate reality project to empower students to learn that technology for themselves. Further, she empowers students teach each other what they have learned. This sense of relatedness fuels her students' motivation and fosters their increased performance, persistence and creativity in accordance with Deci & Ryans Self-Determination Theory.
She also fosters a sense of relatedness through the employment of her class wiki so all of her students can share what they have learned. She describes the power of one particular "do it yourself" wiki that the students in her school created on her blog. The most amazing end benefit is that students took it upon themselves to create a collaborative site they used to help each other with their other classes. Students demonstrated both motivation and what Vygotsky called socially constructed learning experiences.
Question for Vicki: The way in which you are able to motivate and empower your students to become autonomous, self-directed learners through the power of technology is amazing. What advice would you give to teachers who also want to foster this sense of self-discovery in their students but might be in an environment without the technology that you have?
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