Constructivism is beneficial as a tool to better use the resources our students will grow up knowing and using all of their lives. They live in a digital age, allowing them access to a wealth of information. Constructivism is not asking you to tell your students “just google it” because that opens the floodgates to an array of problems. Constructivism in this day and age allows the teacher to facilitate an opportunity to teach students how and when to filter through information to form their own ideas and realities, engaging them in the subject matter (Denton, 2012).
Media can be a phenomenal tool to help our students learn and reach out. John Green describes this perfectly in his reference to paper towns on cartography maps to indicate a signature of the map maker. Paper towns are put on maps so that map makers do not steal other map makers work. Paper towns are not real towns at all, and a smaller company thought they had Rand McNally when a paper town in New York appeared on Rand McNally’s map. What really happened was people explored and created a town after visiting the location on the map. People chose to make their own reality and took a paper town and made it a real town. Students do this while learning all of the time. They may not retain the information we set in front of them with the curriculum, but their own experiences and background influence what they want to learn and why, encouraging the students to seek information on their own. We need to embrace that style of learning instead of poo pooing social media as a record of shallow grievances posted by an uneducated population. When people seek information on the internet, it is often to learn for a particular purpose, motivated by their own experiences.

Additionally, contrary to popular belief, constructivism is not putting the control entirely in the hands of the students. Constructivism is providing students with the resources and tools to effectively make a difference and solve real world problems. The issue often becomes the problems simulate real world, without actually being real world. In India, some schools have taken the approach of “I Can” or the growth mindset. If we believe in our students and trust that they will seek the information, then we give them the power to make a real difference in the world, instead of a simulated situation.