Instruction or Learning?

This week we had a presenter come in discuss "Web Based Courses." To start the presentation, she asked many of the same questions we have researched and discussed throughout class. What do we think of technology in the classroom today? What is your technological philosophy? Now, there was one statement or question that I found to be particularly catchy and mind moving. Today, in schools, is there more of a focus on instruction of the material or the learning of the material? We further discussed how schools today are way too instruction based. Teachers have a curriculum and they have outcomes to meet and they spend a lot of their efforts creating different modes of instructions, ways to teach the students. All of this is of utmost importance to the teacher and the student however are we making the mode of instruction more important that the actual act of learning? That is where I really got to thinking, it goes beyond what types of teaching strategies we have but if the students has actually learned the material. That is what we are in schools for: to learn! It is important that we start to distinguish a difference between these 2 notions to ensure that students are first and foremost the centre of learning!