Week 5 ~ Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

                Dr. Orey states that social learning is when “students actively engage in constructing artifacts and conversing with others” (Orey, 2011).  The use of technology is aiding students to be not only social in proximity but can also be social in a global sense.  Technology is also integrated in this theory by connecting the learner to information and providing many ways of presenting and sharing both in a local and global sense.  When students are doing this in a group, collaborative learning is taking place when students are having constructive conversations and working together to create a product. 

            My students love to tackle a web quest.  “A well designed web quest task is practical, engaging, and elicits student thinking” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).  When I taught third grade, South Carolina history, students were asked to research, explore and present a region of our state.  They had choices of ways to present their project and informational web links were provided.  Each group member had a job and they had to report their finding to the rest of the group.  I remember seeing and hearing student helping each other, having conversations about the content and asking for advice on how their part of the presentation was turning out. 

            Today I showed the class voicethread.com.  They are really eager to use it.  We are in the process of writing, illustrating, and publishing books for a neighborhood that feeds into our school that is majority Hispanic families.  The books that our fourth grade students are creating are a product of a collaborative group of three students.  The subjects of these books will be content related on a simplified level and purposeful in teaching English.  The topics of the books will range from community helpers, plants and animals, weather, historical symbols, and many more.  After showing the class voice thread, they had the idea to upload the pages, read the pages and include instructional information.  They said our ESOL and younger grades can learn from these books too if the teacher wants to use them and share with their classes.  All of a sudden, my students want to be writers and illustrators!  You know you have them hooked then you hear classroom content being discussed at the lunch table or at recess! 

 

References

Laureate Education, Inc. Orey (2011). Program eight: Social Learning Theories [Video webcast]. Social learning theories. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

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

            § Chapter 7,”Cooperative Learning”.                                                                          

 

 

 

 

My voicethread URL:  https://voicethread.com/share/3779206/ 

Next week our school will administer a practice writing test to pre-assess our third-fifth grade students before they take the South Carolina state test (PASS) in writing in March.  We have been learning and practicing the different writing genres.  This presentation is a summary of our notes for them to view as a study guide. 

 

 

 

 

Week 4 ~ Constructivism in practice

I liked the way Dr. Orey deciphered the difference between constructivism and constructionism.  The “v” word refers to the experiences a learner has “unique to the individual’s mind” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). The “n” word is based on “first hand experiences” or “a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  The use of technology to provide these experiences is a good tool if the technology fits with the objectives and desired outcomes.  With everything that is available in schools now, the types of projects that students can create is overwhelming.  Dr. Orey suggests using PowerPoint.  It is a great starting point and most schools no matter how light they are in the technology department, I think would at least have access to Microsoft products.  If students know that their work is going to be viewed or shared to others besides me, I have noticed a difference in their motivation, their efforts, and in their pride. 

In this week’s reading about generating and testing hypothesis, I learned that it can be applied to more than science or math content.  Since I teach English / Language Arts and Social Studies, I didn’t see how the chapter could apply to my lessons.  Out of the six tasks, (systems analysis, problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making) several of them can be used to promote higher thinking in my content (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). My concept map from last week on the three branches of government was created after the students analyzed the parts by identifying the elements and purposes in a systems analysis approach.  Many web quests are based on a problem solving tasks where students collaborate to task on a role, solve a problem and present their findings in some type of presentation.  Historical investigation can initiate a great conversation when applied to history’s unanswered or unexplained situations or by changing a variable.  For example, last year I assigned a writing assignment that meshed the elements of narrative writing and incorporated events from American history.   The question they were asked is how the American Revolution could have changed if the technology we have today was present back then.  I had writings of Paul Revere riding a Harley, Ben Franklin using laser printers, Thomas Jefferson using a computer to write the Declaration of Independence, and colonists using Facebook to communicate and look up information for better farming.  In either task, decision making is evident when the student has to figure out how to proceed, organize and determine an answer or present their findings. 

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011).Cognitive Learning Theories. Baltimore, MD.

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

§  Chapter 11,”Generating and Testing Hypotheses”.

 

Week 3 ~ Cognitive Learning in Practice

               Knowing how students learn is one aspect of teaching but understanding how information is processed is another.  Dr. Orey in our media resource stated that “integrating multiple senses in presentations improves learning” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  As a teacher, our desired outcome is to have the student process the information we present into their long term memory.  It has to go through a process to get there and another process to recall it. 

            One way to present an engaging learning experience is to conduct a virtual field trip.  So many students lack the experience needed to understand certain concepts.  With budget cuts and lack of resources for families to provide experiences, virtual field trips is an effective way a teacher can bring the experience to the student right in the classroom.  Not only can you bring the student to any place mentioned in your content but you can take them beyond the typical place that it could be impossible to ever visit.  Some examples are to the moon, under the ocean, in a volcano or to other place you can imagine!  The field trip features in our media resource (Laureate Education, Inc. Orey, 2011) not only took the students to the theater where Lincoln was shot but also verified the information presented in their text to the real thing.  Questions asked by the teacher made them think on a higher level by making them come to conclusions based on what they learned and what they see on the trip.  The experience came alive to them when they could make connections to the events and the people involved in the historical event. 

            A unit of study that I am going to implement a virtual trip will be the three branches of government.  If students can make visual connections to the three buildings in Washington, D.C. then I believe the information will make the transformation into long term memory.  Dr. Orey explained Paivio’s Duel Coding Hypothesis (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) as information being stored as pictures and as text.  With students taking notes, perhaps outlining the information using a concept map, students can connect the information with actual pictures and video.  Using as many senses as possible to connect information to meaning will help students not only store the information but also be able to remember it and apply it to new knowledge and build concepts and make new connections.   

 

 

References

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program five: Cognitive learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollge.com/ec/default.learn?coureid=5700267&cpurl=laureate.ecollege.com&survey=1&47=2594577&clientnodeid=984650&coursenau=0&bhcp=1 .

Laureate Education, Inc. Orey (2011). Program six: Spotlight on technology: Virtual field trips [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Week 2 Application~ Behaviorism in Practice

           There is a need and a place in classrooms for behavioral theories and strategies.  “Behaviorist techniques have long been employed in education to promote behavior that is desirable and discourage that which is not” (Standridge, 2002).  More so now, than ever, this is true.  Kids today are not coming prepared for school in many ways.  How they should behave away from home with other adults who are in authority, other than the parents, is not being taught.  It is now up to the teacher and other adults in the school to provide behavior instruction model it themselves and reinforce it when it is demonstrated.  The general idea behind behavioral strategies is to reinforce the desired behaviors and decrease the undesirable behaviors.  This reinforcement can take place both in a positive and a negative way.  In either case, the desirable behavior increases.  Positive reinforcement can be obtained by adding something the student will find appealing so that the behavior will be repeated.  Students really do want to please the teacher.  In my classroom I demonstrate this by giving praise, smiling, being complimentary, and rewarding when a student does something admirable.  Negative reinforcement is when something is taken away from the student they do not find desirable like homework, recess laps, and assigned seating for example.  The behavior that was demonstrated to earn those incentives will be seen again!   

            At our school, we have school-wide expectations as well as classroom expectations.  The one trait that they have in common is effort.  We have three levels of effort that we report using bimonthly progress reports that go home to parents.  Level 0 is no effort at all.  Level 1 shows minimal effort to accomplish requirements and level 2 is when a student consistently goes beyond the minimal requirement and surpasses what is expected.   The book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, introduced me to an idea of using spreadsheet software so students can measure their own efforts in different classroom categories.  Students have different beliefs as to why they are successful or why others are more successful than they.  By using this spreadsheet, students “can change their beliefs and make connections between effort and achievement” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).  This activity will make a concrete connection so that id students can see it for themselves, and then the effort will increase.  I have a quote displayed in my room that says “Failing is not an option and there are no excuses.”  The lack of effort is an option that usually coincides with an excuse.  I tell my students from the first day of school that this is unacceptable in my classroom.  Just telling them is not enough sometimes.  I think the spreadsheet idea is a tool I will implement right away!

 

 

References

Palter, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malinowski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom

Instruction that Works. Denver: McREL.

Standridge, M.. (2002). Behaviorism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on

learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/