Course Reflection

I have incorporated many of the things I learned in this course into my personal theory of learning. After experiencing the course materials, I have found that it is critical for the students to be actively engaged during the learning process. While I was aware of this before, I feel more strongly about having the students construct a product that is representative of their learning. In the future, I will tend to shy away from using technology simply as a means of presentation. I will allow my students to interact with the technology. I plan to use Voice Thread technology in both an upcoming 2-step algebra unit as well as a literature unit I will be doing with my students. Just last week, my students went on a field trip to Gettysburg Pennsylvania. The students who were unable to attend for a variety or reasons were given an assignment to complete after taking a virtual field trip of Gettysburg. The assignment required students to explore the web resource and find key pieces of information. In the future, I would like to use and explore new technology in my classroom. I have not been actively keeping up to date on new educational technology. In an attempt to educate myself, I have subscribed to educational technology blogs of fellow educators and have found several website on the topic. Also, I would like to lend a helping hand to students who continue to struggle with technology. In the future, I would like to provide after school technology tutoring. The students in my school have such a wide range of technological abilities. I would like to provide assistance to students who lack skills or are not comfortable with what they know.

Voice Thread Link

Click here to go to my Voice Thread!

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Cooperative learning calls for students to work together in a group to create a product and extend their knowledge. The strategies present offer many mediums and activities that student can use collaboratively construct a culminating product. Group work is a powerful tool because it allows students to springboard and expand on other student's ideas. Individuals bring many aptitudes and skills that contribute to the common group product. Social learning allows students to showcase their creativity and exercise their collaboration skills. Tools like social networks, web quests, shared bookmarking, and web site creation eliminate the regional restrictions that traditional classrooms have. When utilizing online tools, students have the potential to interact with individuals from anywhere in the world.

Constructivism

Constructivism holds that learning happens by classifying new knowledge based on what the student already knows. When faced with new information learners will assimilate the information fit into an existing experience. If assimilation is not possible, the learner will form a new schema to hold the new information. Through thought and research, student construction an understanding/relationship for a topic. In the classroom, students working under a constructionist model will be given an issue and then create a product as result of finding a solution. The course text suggests “generating and testing hypotheses” as a model for constructivist learning. Under this idea, students are given a set of circumstances where they have to come to a justified conclusion. Throughout the process students will gather and interpret data before ultimately making a decision. Students operating under this ideal become immersed in the learning process. They are active in the learning process thus it is more meaningful to the learner.   

Cognitivism in Practice

 The cognitive learning theory focuses on how learners take in information and store and use it. Learners take information into their short term memory, make meaning of it, and then can potentially store information into the long term memory where it can be later accessed. The instructional strategies presented this week are learning experiences teachers can set up to assist and guide students to make connections with new information. Students are able to better understand new information when they can connect it with something they already know. Advanced organizers, cues, questions, summaries, and note taking present a format for the student to manipulate information into meaningful information networks. Concept maps allow students to have a visual representation of the relationship between concepts. This instructional strategy allows students to organize their thoughts in a meaningful way. Virtual field trips allow student to encounter places that they are not able to visit. It assist in providing a visual image to accompany an idea/place.

Behaviorism in Practice

The key idea behind the behaviorist theory is eliciting a desired behavior through the use of rewards and punishments. The course text defines the instructional strategy of reinforcing effort is a method of illustrating the correlation between completion/effort and score. The completion/effort piece would be considered the behavior while the score is the reward/punishment. Students sometimes feel powerless in their educational world. Using technology such as Excel graphs allows them the opportunity to visually see the correlation between work ethic and success. The text homework and practice instructional strategy is a method used to to reinforce material presented in the classroom. The resources posted this week most fall under this category. The resources presented allow students to practice learned skills with reinforcement. While sometimes drill and practice gets a bad reputation, we learned from Dr. Wolfe's presentation on brain research that connections in the brain that are used more often form stronger pathways for recall.