Bridging Theories, Instruction, and Technology

I began this course focused on a learning theory based on student interests, intelligences, and technology with real-world applications.  Yet, I had not considered how I would use student interest, intelligences, and technology effectively.  This course allowed me the opportunity to refine my theory to include behaviorist, cognitive, constructivist, and social learning theories.  For example, I learned that I must know when and how to use practice, investigations, projects, and group learning with technology.  Now my new learning theory is that an effective lesson will incorporate one of the major learning theories as well as student interests, intelligences, and technology in real-world applications.

My teaching techniques will change.  Now that I realize that technology can be used in multiple ways, I can then plan better to create a lesson that incorporates technology accordingly.  For example, if I want my students to practice the skill, I will specifically seek out websites that meet the objective.  Two tools that I am excited to integrate into my classroom are Voicethread and Virtual Field Trips.  My students can only get better at reading, writing, and speaking by using this tool.  Just as important, virtual field trips will allow my students to go across the globe and across time, something they may never be able to do. 

While I have already begun to improve my teaching practices, I have two long-term goals to make my lessons that integrate technology even better.  I will plan to use technological tools on a daily basis.  This could be my chance to use the behaviorist, cognitive, constructivist, and social learning theories. To complete this goal, I will begin by integrating a Voicethread prompt or a virtual field trip once a week.  Eventually, I will be able to comfortably add more technology.   My next goal is to use the constructivist learning theory more often.  I am guilty of wanting my students to get a real-world connection, but I rarely give them projects.  To complete this goal, I will try to set up a project each month.  By doing these things, I feel I can bridge learning theories, instruction, and technology for an effective lesson.

Social Learning for the Future

Social learning involves learning from people through such activities as discussion, collaboration, and imitation.  Examples of social learning include Social Constructivism, Connectivism, and Cooperative Learning.  Social Constructivism involves the group creating the knowledge, Connectivism is based on the acquisition of knowledge through connections with people or activities, and Cooperative learning is “having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance learning (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007).” 

If you are interested in incorporating a form of social learning, Cooperative Learning is a great strategy to start with.  This strategy is great because it encourages students to learn with other students while maintaining individual accountability.  For example, Cooperative Learning could involve either homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping.  This is an example of social learning because students must rely on the collective knowledge and skills of the group to produce the product.  Another benefit of Cooperative Learning is students are also able to model themselves after the successful behavior of other students.  Therefore, Cooperative Learning is a great place to start to establish social learning in your classroom. 

While integrating technology, a great tool to use would be Google Docs.  Google Doc is a web-based means of collaborating on documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and more.   Students are allowed to edit, view, and expand on documents, prevailing beyond the perimeters of the classroom.  Social Learning theory encourages students to collaborate for learning to take place.  With this tool, teachers may allow students to choose the group within the teacher’s discretion, the activity within the group, and the grade that they are working for within the rubric. Ultimately, Google Docs projects can prove to be beneficial to all classrooms trying to integrate Social Learning.

References

Pitler H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Technology Tool: Voicethread

Greetings Bloggers,

I am really excited to learn about this new online tool called Voicethread.  I have seen it used by other teachers before, but I am really seeing the benefits of it in my class even more clearly.  Use the link below and see what I have done.  Most importantly, please leave me some comments because I can only get better with your help.  Thanks!

voicethread.com/share/1701378/

Principles of Constructionist Learning Theories

Instructional strategies described in this week’s resources included the use of rubrics, grouping, and discussions to produce a more constructionism assignment.  "Constructionism supports the constructivist viewpoint-that the learner is an active builder of knowledge (Orey, 2001)."  The benefit of the use of constructionism is the ability to allow students to make a more personal and therefore lasting artifact of learning.  Everyone can remember that object that we made in art class, or the science project that we had to be creative with to get that good grade.  Constructionism encourages the lessons that we introduce to our students involve a project-based culmination. 

PowerPoint was mentioned often.  The benefits of such a tool when trying to deliver a constructionism approach is the ability to create, present, and research information.  There is the option to add music, pictures, and personal embellishments.  I think that I have always used this tool because it offers so much flexibility that each year I am surprised at how my students use it.

References
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved January 26, 2011, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Cognitive Technology

In an effort to continue my quest for more technologically savvy educational tools that can be used to strengthen my lessons, I also focused on the theory of cognitive learning.  Cognitive learning theory involves the way in which we learn information.  Could technology be used to help students process information?  There were two types of instructional strategies that I investigated to discover this answer:  Cues, questions, and advanced organizers and the use of summarizing and note taking.

When using cues, questions, and advanced organizers, I have been re-introduced to tools that, ". . . help them classify and make sense of the content they'll encounter (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007)."  An advanced organizer that I plan to use is the online tool Webspiration.  With this tool, I can either create a visual organizer to help gather and build background knowledge or allow my students to use it as a research model.  Essential questions can be added to keep my students focused on the overall understanding.  Cues can be used to support my students growth.  The ability to add pictures and symbols to this organizer also makes this tool very helpful for my students with low reading and writing levels.  I have no doubt that using cues, questions, and advanced organizers will improve my students' overall understanding of new topics.  Supported by technology, my students will really make gains.

Yet, I can also use summarizing and note taking to help my students improve their cognitive learning.  When summarizing information that students acquire, it would be a mistake not to plan to use the Track Changes and AutoSummarizing features found in Microsoft Word.  Even students that cannot access the internet from home can use these features at home when practicing summarizing.  And because my purpose is always to teach for understanding, I would make sure that students utilize these features for both creation and a review.  Just as impressive, the Webspiration tools, Wikis, and blogs could be used to help students review their notes.  What better way to allow students to use the information that they have just acquired than to prepare them for others to read and understand?

Ultimately, I realize I have only touched the surface with ideas to use technology to improve my students' cognitive learning.  As I continue to experiment, I think my students are growing because I am willing to try new and innovative ideas for improving learning.  My students are now part of the process when choosing how to best prepare them for tomorrow's careers. I can just imagine the new ideas they could bring to my lessons.

References

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Behaviorist Theories at Work

To use technology effectively, behaviorist learning theories must play a part in the planning of the lessons.  One example is the use of the strategy of reinforcing efforts. Immediate results are a must when trying to use this tool to highlight the benefits of trying.  As a middle school teacher, when we are trying to give my students research and writing assignments, I use a program called MY Access!  This is a word processing tool that offers writing assistance.  With this program, my students can get immediate feedback and scores as well as rewrite their assignment before submitting it to me.  I believe this has taken away the apprehension that students feel because they are not sure about their writing skills and they have the opportunity to get the immediate assistance they need.   What a great strategy.

Another example of a behaviorist learning strategy is the use of homework and practice.  Writing takes practice.  It is so hard to get my students to understand that writing is beneficial.  Again, I really enjoy working with the program MY Access!  Because it seems similar of Microsoft Word, it is easy to use and offers many of the same attractive tools.  The benefit that my students receive from this tool is the ability to work on their assignments on the internet.  This is a benefit because they can work with their parents, work with other students, or just work for a longer period of time.  The strategy of incorporating this tool into either homework extension as well as more practice makes this a valuable tool for everyone.

References
MY Access!
https://www.myaccess.com/myaccess/do/log?m1283995513672=true

Embracing Technology

The world has changed.  We are now a society that is fully engulfed in technological needs.  This era will influence the new types of careers and jobs that will be available to my students.  As educators, we must continue to remain practical in our ways of preparing our students for the world in which they will inherit.  We must incorporate today’s tools into our daily lesson.  Therefore, learning to incorporate group lessons, respond to and create a blog, create and utilize a wiki, and create a podcast has been the beginning of my technological growth. 

I know that my teaching process and my perspective of the class needs to change.  For example, I must teach with the end in mind with technology being used as the product or the process.  I must deepen my knowledge of the teaching and learning process.  Also, I now realize that teaching today involves me as the facilitator and not the lecturer.  This technique I can honestly say will continue to be a daily exercise by both myself and my students. 

I have two long-term goals that I hope will help me change my classroom into a technologically focused class.   Yet, I cannot forget that there are barriers such as limited access to technology and lack of teacher training in the use of technology.   The first goal is to get my entire class proficient with the usage of the latest technology.  This includes using the tools that we already have at home: digital cameras, video cameras, and IPods.  Yet, time is a big obstacle, so I must create a timeline to get everything accomplished.   My second goal is to become a more technologically savvy teacher.  I am fortunate to work for a school system that offers the latest educational classes in technology.  Yet, beyond my graduate classes, I must also integrate technology into my life. By using technology and continuing to learn about technology on purpose, I will definitely change my classroom environment.

In regards to a survey that I took that focused on the integration of technology into my daily lessons, I have grown.  I originally stated that I rarely designed lessons incorporating technology to support the lesson goals.  Now, each lesson that I create has a technology piece. I have already begun utilizing the tools that are readily available in my school district such as research and writing tools. Now that we have a classroom that completely incorporates technology, I feel more comfortable with the idea of incorporating new ideas to our classroom.  I think this aspect of my professional development I am most proud of.

Change is inevitable. Technology is the natural next step in our growth.  I cannot turn my back on technology.  Ultimately, if I am to remain a relevant teacher I must not only be able to use technology, but I must also be able to integrate it.