Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

The learning strategies discussed both in the media and text this week, directly correlate with the social learning theory. All the activities discussed incorporated the need for students to work together to be successful with a project. The activities would also provide students with the opportunity to communicate, display trust among peers, demonstrate leadership, apply decision making and problem solving skills. If students are working together to create a multimedia material such as a video they will need to be able to collaborate to piece together each students ideas to create a finished product. In having students depend on one another to be successful there will be more thought put into the cooperation among the group members.

Constructionist

The strategies described in this weeks resources are directly related to the constructionist theory. All of the instructional strategies are alligned with the idea of children creating something. Through the use of projects and investigations students are provided with oppurtunities to explore what they are learing in a way that makes sense to them and builds background knowledge along with ideas that are not always connected from teacher to student. The projects that students engage in also allow for children to make connections with different information. The resources that did not directly have something that students could create did have a library of useable resources that could be used by students in learning about thier topic.

Cognative Theory

The activities in this weeks reading directly connect with the Cognitive Theory by incorporating the process of making connections. The Cognitive Theory is all about elaboration, forming connections to produce long term memories. In both Chapters 4 and 6 the activities discussed incorporate creating visual connections through the use of tables, and note taking. Ms. Douglas from Chapter 4 had created a cueing and questioning activity in Kidspiration exposing students to visual and auditory instruction engaging their sensory processors and creating connections for students on the topic of bridges. With these activites creating clear connections to other ideas or "Nodes" in graphic organizers ther is a definite corrolation between the activities in teh reading resources and the Cognitive Theory.

Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., Malenoski, K., Pitler, H.(2007) Using Technology with Classroom Instructions that Works.

Behavorist Theory

I believe that the Behaviorist Theory is evident in most of the instructional strategies discussed this week in the resources. The homework and effort activities correlate working hard the desired behavior with success, the reward. The activity also associates now working hard the undesired behavior with failing, punishment. The reward and punishment are all part of the behaviorist theory. Also the use of media such as games provides immediate feedback for the child in the activity that they are engaged in with by providing correct responses desired behavior with chants, reward or redirecting them back to review the incorrect response, punishment. All of these activities display a form of behaviorist theory some are more noticeable than other but all display the basic belief that the immediate response to a students work correct or incorrect makes a difference in their learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program four. Behaviorist Learning Theory [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore: Author.

New Start

This is the blog that I have used previously and hopefully I can continue to use it through this course.

Reflection

This course has helped me develop my professional use of technology by forcing me to explore new uses for technology. I was also provided with many opportunities to use different technology that I probably would not have used as easily on my own time with out this course. I have learned how important it is to use these different forms of technology to help better prepare students for the work force that they will find themselves in after school. This course also explained that students today need to be taught using different technology driven strategies to best serve their way of learning as a "Digital Native". By using technology different ways in the classroom students will have more direct involvement in creating their own learning experiences. The shift in the classroom from the teacher being the focus to the students directing their own learning through technology will be beneficial for students because they will own their work and what they are learning. By October 2011 I hope to have a classroom that uses a blog on a regular basis. I would want to use this classroom blog as a place to post final writing assignments were peers can read or listen to a story and comment back on the positive parts of the story. This classroom blog could also be used in Reading to discuss classroom books or independently read books. Students could share parts of the story, use summarizing skills, or focus on the main idea. Finally the blog could be used for math, science and social studies for discussion on assignments that are to be completed at home. In order to accomplish this goal first students need to practice with the computer and accessing the Internet. After students are comfortable with the Internet it will be important to teach them what is acceptable when commenting on a blog and make sure that students have a clear understanding of what is exceptable and what will not be tolerated when they are posting a comment. They are also going to have be taught how to respond to the question while staying on topic and not going off topic. Finally students will need to be shown how to use the blog site that the class has. My next goal for my classroom is that I will continue to teach skills that students will use in the 21st century workforce. The classroom will be working on group activities, communication and problem-solving. I will continue to educate myself on teaching strategies that will better help my students in the future and then implement the strategies in the classroom with students.

Podcast

">