Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Most people learn new information from a social learning stand point. It comes through word of mouth or a conversation. One way or another, someone can always learn something new while socially interacting with other individuals. It works with so many adults and it is also true for students in the classroom. They absorb certain amounts of information and are given the opportunity to share their experiences through social interaction. It is very successful, especially since they can relate to each other and really do a fantastic job explaining it in ways they can understand. I have found it so interesting that this is what we have been concentrating on this week because it is something I have been fond of ever since I stepped foot in the classroom. It is always being highlighted in schools and really praised by administrators and theorists.

Once you add the availability of classroom technology into the mix and you have a picture perfect learning environment. There is a lot of social interaction and critical thinking going on with highly motivating tools and resources for all the students to use. Students can visit class websites to get up-to-date information on what is going on in class. Parents can check websites and blogs and always be informed. I remember when I was in 5th grade, we all had pen pals from another country. We would write and get responses probably once a month or so. Now, you can go online and video chat with someone halfway around the world. There are so many endless possibilities of where you can take this information. This past year, my class recorded videos of interviews with different teachers and principals for a debate project we were doing in writing class. We created an account on a website called Vimeo and were able to upload all of our videos on the internet.

Power Points and word processing has been around for a while, but all of these new programs such as iDVD, iMovie, Photo Shop, and Final Cut Pro (just to name a view) have really opened it up for the digital classroom experience.

Constructivism in Practice

In this week's learning resources, Dr. Orey discussed how constructivism is simply when students are actively engaged in the learning being presented to them and being able to create an artifact to demonstrate what they have learned.

With technology, students see their world and interests from outside the school walls and being transformed into the classroom. It becomes fun and exciting to them when iPod touches and lap tops and Smart Boards become part of learning. Technology is a great motivational tool that sparks interests and turns learning into something that is fun, not something that has to be done. In the end, it all comes down to critical thinking and active student engagement. With technology, both are evident.

Every year, my class is part of an opera program funded by the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. They love learning about the opera and seeing it live, but this year I really wanted to take it up a notch. One of the assignments that the students have is to come up with a series of questions about the opera and interview a partner, and every year this is written in a notebook and lost forever at the end of the school year. This past year, I had them record interviews using iPod touches that we have in class and uploading them onto podcasts. We were able to create our own little news conference station and it was a huge success. Parents and administration views the site over and over. I have been doing this program for three years and have never seen my students so motivated than I have this year, because technology held a big role. It helped motivate them to be critical thinkers and gave them a better understanding of the information. In turn, they created a wonderful, meaningful, final artifact.

Cognitivism in Practice

This week's learning resources basically described for us how to help students recall, use, and organize the information that they learned about a specific topic. This is bridged with being able to take successful notes based on relative information.

Different cues, questions, and organizers are used in relationship with a teaching point. What is the teacher trying to focus on? What does he or she want their students to learn? This is where David Ausubel's (1960) technique of advanced organizers come into play. It helps organize this new and useful information for the students. With so many 21st century skills being taught in the classroom, graphic organizers and aids can be created by students using their own laptops or computer stations. There is now even much more "higher-level" questioning involved which motivates active learning and student engagement. Procedures such as the use of these digital graphic organizers and making inferences and judgments put more focus on working the brain to be thinkers rather than try to just soak up as much information is possible.

A huge part of being able to process all of this information is the ability to take notes. Note taking becomes much easier with the help of graphic organizers. It also helps if the students have learned how to take meaningful, relative notes. There is a lot of information that is presented, but nothing is saying that all of it is relative. A skill such as summarizing helps students eliminate the irrelevant information. They can use aids such as high lighters if they are using paper. In my class, I high light with them using a document camera so that we can read and underline together what is relevant. If students do not have this skill, then they can become very frustrated and lose focus (Dr. Orey, 2007).

Understanding and organization helps anyone focus on what is important and what is not; not just children. If I can teach my students how to organize themselves based on the teaching point for the lesson, then that can help set them up to concentrate on what is relevant. It will allow them not to become overwhelmed and will create an environment where active thinking and engagement take place.

Behaviorism in Practice

Positive Reinforcement will always win students over. I know the term "win over" does not sound very professional, but it was straight and to the point. Children need to hear the positives. What have they been doing well? If they are on the right track. Keep up the good work. These sort of ideas allow the students to feel that they are on the right track to accomplishing the goal that they set or that the teacher set for them.

In this weeks learning resources, the emphasis on positive reinforcement outweighed the negative punishment. When I look back at my teaching, I feel that the resources were set up this way on purpose. It is what it should be like in the classroom; positive reinforcement and positive feedback. Constructive criticism is also positive because it allows the student to understand how to make it even better than it already was.

A lot of my students come from broken homes or families that are not as supportive of education as a teacher would hope for. I know there are more times than not when my students are hearing negative comments at home or their education is overlooked. They do not want to hear those things from me in the classroom. That is why i must always be positive, and it has worked. They are more apt to explore and challenge themselves with the class work. Sometimes, it even becomes a reward to do homework in the classroom. With all of the technology at their fingertips, it becomes an exploration versus a chore.

With all the strategies presented this week, I liked how technology is tangible to them. It is something that they can understand and relate to. Nothing over the top or hard to grasp. I try to make it like that in my classroom. I always go over how to use the equipment so that it is not just mine, but it is ours. We are all responsible for the technology. It is a real world application that they can use in their future eduction.

Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Hello everyone. This will be my blog page for our course Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology.