Tell Me About It!

Looking back to my personal theory of learning paper, I believe the major change I have made as a result of the learning I have experienced in this course is that I believe I have a more constructivist outlook now than before.  I mainly operated as a cognitivist but after looking at the wonderful nonlinguistic resources we have available to us through the web, I think I see the importance and relevance of incorporating more of those activities in my classroom.

VoiceThread and Inspiration will be two technology tools that I will incorporate with my lessons this next school year.  I believe both are excellent examples of the nonlinguistic representation the constructivist camp outlines as being important to developing learning in students.  With these two products, I believe I can continue to tap into the creativity of the students while challenging them to make comparisons and similarities and differences among the topics we cover in class.

Integrating more online sources and virtual experiences to supplement the written directions and activities that are currently presented in the modules within my classroom will be one goal I have for long-term changes to my teaching repertoire.  I also plan to incorporate more full-class activities to supplement the activities done in pairs in the lab.  The way my class is set up, 85 minutes of module work is just too much for one setting.  I want to break that time up and incorporate a variety of activities into the class, which I believe will help the students stay focused and allow their energy level to stay constant.

In social constructivism, the idea is that our reality is constructed by the activities we engage in, that our knowledge is socially and culturally created and that learning is a social process (Orey, 2001).  These tenants of social learning theory correspond perfectly with those of cooperative learning.  In this type learning, students are led to interact with one another in ways that enhance learning (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). 

I especially enjoyed reading about the web resources available for use in the classroom that correspond well with cooperative learning. While we always think of working in groups as a part of the cooperative model, with these resources you are able to work as a part of a whole community, oftentimes on projects that have a real-world application.  This is a great tie-in with the NETS standards of creating learning situations for our students where they are actively engaged and contributing to authentic real-world problems. 

Continuing in this same genre, webquests and web page creation are also great opportunities for collaboration and cooperation among student communities.  While webquests take students on a preset, predetermined course through a topic, allowing students to create their own websites for publication truly sets up a scenario where students can show you what they have learned, oftentimes with very creative, engaging formats that are unexpected.

Overall, the creation of the Read/Write web in the past few years has exploded the ways we can use technology in the classroom.  Students are publishing as never before on topics of interest to them to more than just a classroom audience.  This new genre is rich in opportunities for classroom use.  The challenge is going to be to pick just one from the huge variety that is available!

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.  Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

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

In constructionism, the student is believed to learn best when building an artifact or another item they can share with others.  We seek to keep ourselves in balance by equilibrating our new knowledge by utilizing this process (Laureate Education, Inc.  2009).  When students are allowed to use technology to build this new knowledge, the process can be more streamlined and meaningful as well as enjoyable to the student. 

 Utilizing spreadsheets and data probes that are available in most schools today allow the student to spend more time focusing on the interpretation of the information instead of the actual building of the data (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).  The students are able to gather vast amounts of data, thereby constructing their knowledge while accomplishing the task.  They can then manipulate that data to construct their own understanding of the problem at hand. 

 In a similar manner, students can use multimedia presentation programs such as PowerPoint and SMART notebook, to create digital artifacts that allow them to share their newfound knowledge with others in an easily understood format.  The students decide for themselves how the information is to be presented, what is emphasized and this allows them to make it their own.  Video and audio clips as well as photographs from primary sources are easily downloaded from the Internet and make these presentations rich and meaningful forms of evaluation.

 The online resources that are available that allow students to gather and manipulate data, form opinions and then test those opinions are an unbelievable source of information that is only now beginning to be tapped in the classroom.  Students can become scientists, explorers, mathematicians, or just about anything else they can imagine as they explore online learning sources and try to save their community, operate on a virtual arm or explore deep space.  These sites engage the students in authentic learning scenarios that challenge their schema and allow them to assimilate this new knowledge into their experiences.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology.        
          Baltimore:  Author.

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