Reflection - Personal Learning Theory

My personal theory of learning has not changed significantly as a result of my involvement in this course. However, by taking this course I have been able to analyze the different learning theories and gain a better understanding of how I can change my teaching to create a more student centered and engaging environment. Although I understand the things I need to do in order to provide this optimal learning experiences, the next step for me is to actually implement the effective learning strategies.

One immediate adjustment I would like to make in my classes is for my students to begin using Google Docs and Applications. This technology tool is a comprehensive tool for communication and collaboration among students, which is of primary importance in the social constructionist learning theory. There are numerous things we can do using Google Docs including collaborative presentations, website building, and gathering data through online polls. The possibilities are really endless.

Another technology tool I would like to begin using is Voice Threads. I plan on using this tool as a communication and presentation tool for students to be able to illustrate their knowledge and perspective on a topic and then to comment on other student’s ideas. This tool also supports the social constructionist learning theory.

Two long term goals I would like to pursue for changing the way in which I integrate technology into my classes would be to decrease the restrictions regarding using interactive technologies, and getting more teachers in my school to utilize technology tools. I continue to be frustrated at the technology restrictions on middle school students. Our internet filter blocks most or all of the social networking sites, as well as many other collaborative sites. If we are to progress in truly utilizing technology for collaboration, we need to lift these restrictions. I will continue to be an advocate for opening more tools to students and then teaching them to use them responsibly and safely.

As a technology coach, my second goal is to increase the number of teachers who are using some of these technology tools with their classes. I have found that one of the most effective ways to get more teachers using technology is to assist those teachers who are willing to try new things so that they have a successful experience. Once they are hooked, you have them share what they are doing so other teachers can see the great things that the first teacher is doing in their classes. This has happened to me already this year with a teacher who is using Voice Threads, and now I have two others that also want to use it. The excitement of using technology tools with students becomes contagious when teachers and students have successful experiences.

Cooperative Learning Tools

Link to Voicethread:

http://voicethread.com/share/782654/

Several technology tools help to implement cooperative learning strategies and support the social constructionist learning theories. When using cooperative learning projects it is very important that each students understand their roles and responsibilities to the project and the group. I really liked the rubrics and advanced organizers for the movie project and how the roles for each of the students in the groups were listed and defined. I am currently teaching a multimedia class and will be using some of these tools listed to help organize some of my projects.

Webquests are another technology tool that can be used to support cooperative learning. Most webquests are designed to have teams of students work together to research a topic or to solve a problem. The roles and responsibilities are clearly defined so that each student understands what they need to contribute to the group. The successful creation of an end product depends on each member of the group doing their part, and this closely resembles real world situations in which a team of workers must complete a project.

Another technology tool that supports cooperative learning is Google Apps for Education. This tool allows students and teachers to work on the same document simultaneously, and it also allows them to share documents and other data with any other users. Of course, it also has email, calendaring, and website creation functions so that students can communicate about their work and coordinate what they are doing. Google Apps really is a complete technology tool for students to use to collaborate on their projects.

Constructivism in Practice

There are many technology tools that can be used to support the constructionist learning strategies. These tools allow the students to learn by getting a firsthand experience of the knowledge so they can assimilate or accommodate the new knowledge into their understanding of the world. In this week’s resources there were several tools and ideas that would be very useful when using constructionist strategies.

The one example listed that I believe exemplifies using technology in a constructionist way is the example of the science class that set out to determine if the rain in their city was overly acidic. They began by making predictions of what they thought the PH of various water sources would be. Then they used technology tools to measure the PH at different locations and then to record and chart their data. They also used the internet to get information about acid rain and other resources to determine the acidity of rain in other places around the nation. This type of project based, real world data gathering is exactly what constructionist theory is all about.

Another tool listed in the resources was the use of Gizmos from Explore Learning. Gizmos are online simulations that provide an excellent opportunity for students to perform experiments in a virtual environment online. Last year I had my classes use the reaction time simulation to do a real world experiment to find out several questions. First, do people respond to visual or auditory stimuli faster, and second, do males or females respond faster to the stimuli? After making predictions, the students each ran the simulation that first shows something on the screen and as soon as the students see it they click the mouse button to measure their reaction time. They do that 10 times to get an average response time, and then they did the same thing with sound. The students then used a spreadsheet to record the data from each student in the class, and then they graphed the data. We were able to determine that in general, students reacted faster to the visual stimuli than the auditory, and that males were generally faster than females with their reaction times. It was really a fun project to work on and I think students really get a better understanding when they experience this type of thing.

I am a complete supporter of project based and inquiry based learning. The genuine, authentic learning that takes place when students are actually discovering things on their own is something to strive for as a teacher.

Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognitive learning theory is based on how we process and retain information. According to information in this week’s resources, technology should be used as an extension of our brain rather than as a tutor. We should be using technology in education as a tool to allow students to venture to a deeper meaning with their learning.

One example of this was when the 7^th grade teacher used a spreadsheet program to teach her students about population growth. The students created a spreadsheet and then, using formulas, calculated the percentage of growth in each of the 50 states. The reason that this qualifies as a cognitive learning tool is that the students can use a technology tool to perform the tedious task of calculating the percentages for them, thereby freeing up their thought processes to determine why the population in some areas is increasing or decreasing. The technology allows them to ask and answer deeper questions without having to focus just on the math calculations.

I really enjoyed the virtual field trip in which the students visited Ford’s theater and discussed the details of Lincoln’s assassination. In this case, students are using technology to actually see something that they could not otherwise experience. By viewing the actual theater where Lincoln was killed not only engages students, it also allows them to connect in their minds the real images of the chair Lincoln was sitting in with other facts surrounding the assassination. Students can see the dagger that booth had and the spurs that he wore that got caught on the flag when he jumped from the stage. The visual images are powerful ways of connecting the circumstances and events of the assassination with other facts about Lincoln. The more ways that a student can make these connections, the more likely they will be able to recall the information when they need it.

In both of these examples technology is being used as an extension or tool of the student. The spreadsheet allows the students to think more deeply about the causes of population increase or decrease, rather than dwelling on the math calculations. The virtual field trip provides students the opportunity to experience something they could not otherwise do. Both are good examples of using technology to support cognitive learning theory.

Behaviorists and Technology Tools

Behaviorists and Technology:

The instructional strategies in this weeks resources support the behaviorist learning theory in several ways. First, students used a spreadsheet to make a correlation of effort to performance in class. The resulting data and graphs created showed that the more effort a student gives, the better they perform on assessments. The feedback they receive is negative when they don't put in significant effort, and it is positive when they do.

Homework and practice is a way for students to practice and reinforce what they have learned in school. In some ways, homework is repeating what has been done already to reinforce the knowledge or skill that has been learned. Dr. Wolfe stated that rote rehearsal is the best method for learning procedural things, and this is often what is expected when teachers assign homework. The example of the battle graph powerpoint game that students could use to practice coordinates illustrates how technology tools can be used as homework to support extended practice of a concept learned in school.

We use BrainPop (one of the resources mentioned in the chapter on homework and practice) and I must say it is a great resource. There are hundreds of flash videos on a variety of subjects - and there are quizzes that go along with the videos. This provides the behaviorist element by giving positive feedback if they answer correctly and negative feedback if they do not. It is also a great way to make the students accountable for content. The videos explain many concepts in a very straight forward and easy to understand way.

Reflection

I have been taking a masters course called Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society. This course has given me some new perspectives on how students of today learn, and on some of the Web 2.0 tools that I can use to engage the students.



One benefit of this class was that I was given the time and opportunity to utilize blogs, wikis, and podcasts and learn to use them to complete simple projects. This allowed me the chance to become more familiar with the tools so that I can understand how I can best utilize them with my classes. I also had the chance to set up an aggregator so I can get RSS feeds from other classmates and other sites of interest.



As a result of taking this class, I have a better understanding of how students learn. Since most students have been surrounding by digital media and information devices throughout their entire lives, they are comfortable learning in a more hyperlinked sort of way. Many teachers, including myself, like to think of learning as a linear process - where you start at the beginning and progress step by step. But, today's students can often process information better if it is presented in a more linked and multimedia format.



I have always been more of a student centered type of teacher. I do some direct instruction, but a majority of the time in my classes has students working on project based assignments that utilize technology skills they have learned. One of the things I would like to improve on is developing more collaboration among students in their projects. I would also like to change the projects so they are based on inquiry questions that the students generate.



Two long term goals I have for transforming my classroom environment:

1. Utilize effective team building activities in my classroom so that students can learn how to effectively collaborate with one another. I want to develop some projects that require collaboration among students and I realize that the students don't know how to collaborate without some specific activities designed to enlighten them. I will work with our Student Achievement Coach on finding and teaching some collaboration and team building activities.

2. I would like to gradually integrate blogs, wikis, and podcasts into my projects. This may require some institutional changes since I know some of these tools are currently blocked by our internet filter. I will be persistent in trying to change the mindset of policy makers who deny access to these important tools and I hope that in the end I will prevail.



I think it is important to realize that although technology tools can be very beneficial to teaching students, it is perhaps more important that we teach students to be good consumers and creators of information. Because anyone can publish information it is critical that students know that they need to scrutinize information before accepting it as fact, or that they recognize bias when they see it. Also, students need to be able to take existing information and create new knowledge. I'm excited that a new school year is beginning and I can begin using some of these new technology tools.

Podcast - students using technology at home and school

Here is a podcast of a discussion concerning how students use technology at home and at school. Click on the link below to hear the podcast:

http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/1403/episodes/6898

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/) is a coalition of community, business, and education groups with a mission of implementing 21st century skills into today's school classrooms. I applaud their mission because I think it is necessary to get broad support to push this kind of agenda. After looking at their site, there really isn't anything that I disagree with.

One of the first things I noticed is that Colorado (the state in which I live) is not yet a member of the partnership. This is disappointing, though not surprising to me, since I believe that Colorado's education department is behind the times regarding technology and education. I am convinced that legislators must take the lead in changing education because they set the policies that govern what the rest of the educators do.

The partnership of educators, businesses, and policymakers seems like a good group to improve the education in the classrooms. However, I think it is the policymakers who are the furthest away from knowing what students need and making the necessary changes to make it happen. Unfortunately, they are the ones who actual control what is taught (standards) and what is assessed (state assessments). The policymakers need to get up to speed with what educators and businesses already know.

I will be curious to see what the self assessment tool that the P21 initiative is developing looks like and if they will provide it to educators to determine what we need to work on. I'll also be curious to see what type of assessment it is, since technology skills can best be tested using project or peformance based assessments.

Using blogs in education

I have been thinking of ways that I could use blogs either in my own classes, or with other classes by helping teachers utilize some of the benefits of blogs.

One idea I had was to integrate one program we are using that is designed to improve student writing with a blog that would allow them to publish their finished work. I really like the idea that a blog can provide an authentic audience for student writing, and that they will likely be more motivated to write better if they know that a potential large audience will see their work. Not only that, but we could encourage other students to comment on the original posts and either asks questions of the students, or provide some constructive feedback. The idea would be that once students have revised their writing into a final draft, they would publish their work on the blog for their classmates, parents, and others in the community to see and read. This would also be a great school to home connection. I teach in a middle school so the students who would be publishing their work to the blog would be in grades 6-8. Teachers could use the blog in any content area, and this would be a great way to publish student work.

A second idea I had for using blogs would be to pair up students and pose an interesting question to them that they would need to discuss and then provide a response to. This would follow the "think, pair, share" process where students first think about the question, then partner up with someone to discuss their ideas, and then they would finally post their response to the blog. The question posed to the students would need to be something that would be interesting and engaging for them, as well as a higher level question requiring critical thinking skills and not just the reporting back of facts.

I can anticipate several challenges to using blogs with a large number of students. First of all, since I teach in a middle school, I need to be careful about setting up accounts for students who could then post personal information and risk becoming a victim of an internet predator. I could use Google reader to keep tabs on student blogs, but I think that could be overwhelming if the number of students gets too large. I do think that the rewards outweigh the risks, so I intend on trying one or both of the above ideas.

I looked for any data out there that would support using blogs to improve student writing. I came up empty, except for many blogs and sites that claim it does. Has anyone know of or done a study on this, and if so, what were the results?

Communication with colleagues

This blog will be used to communicate with my classmates on different ways to utilize technology in the classroom. I will be discussing the various aspects of blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 tools with others, and commenting on their ideas.