New week at Walden, new topic.
This time we looked at Connectivism and Social Learning Theories. To me, this has been the simplest, most intuitive set of theories yet. In our video, Dr. Michael Orey spoke of social constructivism where learners are engaged with other students in the process of constructing something, but they are also engaged in the process of conversing about the construction taking place. Dr. Orey said, "Its those conversations that the students engage in that really help concretize and help them understand something." In other words, coversations and bouncing ideas back and forth between people is the way we learn best.
Dr Orey also spoke of Social Constructivism where the learner has a zone of proximal development, which is the level of work that provides just enough challenge that a more knowledgeable other can provide the necessary support for the learner to be successful. The learner is dependent on the more knowledgeable other, and that is what makes this a social learning theory.
The strategies and tools that we examined this week tie in very nicely with social learning theories and with each other. For instance, the strategy of cooperative learning in our text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, is just about as social as you can get. In this chapter we studied the best ways to have "students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning" (Pitler, et al, 2007, p. 139). According to the social learning theorists, "By combining teamwork and individual accountability, students work toward acquiring both knowledge and social skills" Learners are responsible for their own learning as well as the learning of their group members. "This process results in a deeper understanding of the material and more potential to retain the material." (Orey, 2001).
Most of the tools that we looked at this week are based on cooperative learning principals. We read about a teacher who uses a movie-making project to teach about mathmaticians. The students are learning about the mathmaticians from each other. We also learned about web resources that allow students to interact with experts in different fields. How's that for a more knowledgeable other? Keypals allow us to expand our cooerative learning groups to include other learners or more knowledgeable others from anywhere. Webquests allow teams to work on problems presented virtually.
Website creation is one social learning tool that I have personally used in my classroom. In this activity, I had my students use a wiki to create our webpage, and it provided the opportunity for multiple classes to work on the same project at different times and to be able to communicate with each other regarding the project. I hope that my students got a better understanding of the material as they debated what should and should not be included on the wiki.
I really enjoyed exploring the social networking tools listed in our resources this week (Any excuse to get on Facebook is a good one!), but I worry about the classroom use of some of them. Facebook is wonderful, but I am an adult and I have enough wisdom to avi=oid many of its dangers. I don't think that putting my elementary students on there is a wise decision. I loved what I saw of SecondLife, but I would need more time than I possible have right now to explore it and evaluate its safety. Honestly, I would expect it to be blocked by my district's block-happy technology big wig. I wonder how long it will take other developers to create a similar platform that might be safer for educational useage with minors. I bet it will happen very soon. Can you imagine having students studying history to create the town, city, or settlement as it appeared at the time an event took place. Can you say "So long, diaramas!" For the digital natives we teach, this will be wonderful! It sure beats a poster or a shoe box.
The webquests I looked at seemed an aweful lot like virtual field trips with a problem to solve for groups. Is this a fair assessment? I don't know. Anyway, webquests certainly do involve having students work together on virtual problems, so learning will occur as they create a solution.
I am looking forward to exploring using Google Docs this coming year so that my students can comment and collaborate on projects and work on projects at home or on any school computer just by loggin on. Edublog will also allow the sudents to comment on other students' ideas.
As our book says, "To be prepared for the fast-paced, virtual workplace that they will inherit, today's students need to be able to learn and produce cooperatively." I love this quote. I hope that I can do my part to prepare them for this challenge.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
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.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Constructivism/Constructionism in Practice
The Walden assignment for this week is to look at the correlation between the instructional strategies we have explored and constructivist/constructionist learning theories. To be honest, I had some trouble distinguishing between constructivism and constructionism, so I had to watch our video a second time. In it Dr. Orey describes constructivism as "a theory of knowledge stating that that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning.' He describes constructionism as "a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others." He also describes Symour Papert's idea of the principal mechanisms for learning: assimilation, accomodation, equilibration, and schema. Schema are our concepts of things, and equilibration is when the input we receive fits nice and neatly in our current concepts. When something doesn't fit, we experience disequilibration. We regain equilibration by either cexpanding our old concept to allow the new information or by creating a whole new concept to fit the new information.
In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors suggest several activities that demonstrate this process. They all have the students learn by constructing some sort of artifact. In one, they suggest a spreadsheet activity that has the children predict which types of investments will earn the most given certain circumstances. The students then plug formulas into a spreadsheet, graph their results, and present their findings. In this process the students start with one schema about the best way to earn money through savings. When they test this theory, many find that their assumption is wrong (disequilibration) and have to change their idea about the best way to invest (assimilation). The same process happens with the data collection tools for the rain pH project and in the the history game.
I really like the idea of the By Kids for Kids website because it really makes students think as they create their artifacts. I can see how students would face disequilibration when their ideas don't quite work out or even when they are deciding on an invention that might solve a problem that they have. In the process of testing their inventions, they would have to open their minds by expanding schema (assimilation) as they find new materials to accomplish the same goals (what if we made this out of aluminum instead of paper) and as they realize that they might actually have to try something completely different (accomodation).
Two other websites caught my eye. They were Darwin Pond and Astro-Venture. I can see my students getting very excited as they manipulate the environments and situations these sites provide. It makes me think of their Webkins that they are always dying to check on. Obviously, students using these programs would be constructing artifacts, and even better, they would be having fun doing it.
In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors suggest several activities that demonstrate this process. They all have the students learn by constructing some sort of artifact. In one, they suggest a spreadsheet activity that has the children predict which types of investments will earn the most given certain circumstances. The students then plug formulas into a spreadsheet, graph their results, and present their findings. In this process the students start with one schema about the best way to earn money through savings. When they test this theory, many find that their assumption is wrong (disequilibration) and have to change their idea about the best way to invest (assimilation). The same process happens with the data collection tools for the rain pH project and in the the history game.
I really like the idea of the By Kids for Kids website because it really makes students think as they create their artifacts. I can see how students would face disequilibration when their ideas don't quite work out or even when they are deciding on an invention that might solve a problem that they have. In the process of testing their inventions, they would have to open their minds by expanding schema (assimilation) as they find new materials to accomplish the same goals (what if we made this out of aluminum instead of paper) and as they realize that they might actually have to try something completely different (accomodation).
Two other websites caught my eye. They were Darwin Pond and Astro-Venture. I can see my students getting very excited as they manipulate the environments and situations these sites provide. It makes me think of their Webkins that they are always dying to check on. Obviously, students using these programs would be constructing artifacts, and even better, they would be having fun doing it.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Cognitive Learning Theory
Well, the task for my Walden cohorts and me this week is to take a look at the cognitive learning theory and evaluate how the strategies we read about this week correlate. We read two chapters of the book Using Technology with Instruction that Works, "Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers" and "Summarizing and Note Taking." We also looked at concept mapping and virtual field trips. I am going to tackle these in reverse order.
Virtual field trips have a strong correlation to the principles of the cognitive learning theory. In this theory, information processing goes through three stages. First of all, we receive the information through our senses. If the information is attended, it goes into our short term memory. If the information is processed deeply enough, it goes into our long-term memory. Information that makes it into our long-term memory can be procedural memory, declarative memory, or episodic memory. Of these, episodic memory is the strongest. According to Dr. Michael Orey, this the memory of the events in our lives. Virtual field trips provide the opportunity to artificially create these events and subsequently create episodic memory. For instance, my fourth grade students last year were studying France, so I took them on a virtual field trip to Paris. Obviously, I couldn't fly 90 students to Paris, but thanks to technology we were able to visit the Louvre, a little cafe, the Metro, etc. My students saw images of Paris to accompany the text they read and in some cases had the sounds of Paris as well. All of this played into Paivio's dual coding hypothesis that images are more easily remembered than text. We compared what we saw in Paris to life in our town in SC and with other palces the students had visited. This was to create connections with the students. I hope my students will well remember our trip to Paris.
Concept mapping is another strategy that we learned about. I have always heard this referred to simply as graphic organizers. With these tools, we can help students organize information, but they can also create visuals to take advantage of Paivio's dual coding, just as we did with virtual field trips. Concept mapping also allows the students to create a visual depiction of the links and pathways that a learner makes in their mind relating to a subject. These pathways are crucial for information to become stored in long-term memory.
Summarizing and note taking also correlate to the principles of the cognitive learning theory. As I stated earlier, only information that receives enough of our attention actually makes it to our long-term memory. By having our students take notes and summarize the information, we are having them to think about it and evaluate what is important in it. Obviously, the students are attending to the information in this process. I really liked the combination note idea presented in our text because it included nonlinguistic elements that, once again, allow the student to use dual coding. Also, if we allow the students to use graphics that are meaningful to them in their note taking, we are encouraging them to elaborate on the topic, thus increasing the connections they will make and their chances for retrieval.
Honestly, I don't know what else to say about cues, questions, and advance organizers, so forgive me as I repeat myself. These items help the students to make connections with the information by helping them to organize and make sense of it. Students cannot connect with what they do not understand. Videos, as the text suggests, will go far in aiding understanding. It is one thing to read about an event, but to see it is another. Once again, we are back to the dual coding hypothesis. Storing the visual is so much more powerful than just storing the words.
These strategies really do have powerful implications in the classroom. I think that many of them are used by teachers on a regular basis without their understanding of why they are so effective. I hope as my understanding of the cognitive learning theory increases, so will my implementation of its principles in my classroom.
Virtual field trips have a strong correlation to the principles of the cognitive learning theory. In this theory, information processing goes through three stages. First of all, we receive the information through our senses. If the information is attended, it goes into our short term memory. If the information is processed deeply enough, it goes into our long-term memory. Information that makes it into our long-term memory can be procedural memory, declarative memory, or episodic memory. Of these, episodic memory is the strongest. According to Dr. Michael Orey, this the memory of the events in our lives. Virtual field trips provide the opportunity to artificially create these events and subsequently create episodic memory. For instance, my fourth grade students last year were studying France, so I took them on a virtual field trip to Paris. Obviously, I couldn't fly 90 students to Paris, but thanks to technology we were able to visit the Louvre, a little cafe, the Metro, etc. My students saw images of Paris to accompany the text they read and in some cases had the sounds of Paris as well. All of this played into Paivio's dual coding hypothesis that images are more easily remembered than text. We compared what we saw in Paris to life in our town in SC and with other palces the students had visited. This was to create connections with the students. I hope my students will well remember our trip to Paris.
Concept mapping is another strategy that we learned about. I have always heard this referred to simply as graphic organizers. With these tools, we can help students organize information, but they can also create visuals to take advantage of Paivio's dual coding, just as we did with virtual field trips. Concept mapping also allows the students to create a visual depiction of the links and pathways that a learner makes in their mind relating to a subject. These pathways are crucial for information to become stored in long-term memory.
Summarizing and note taking also correlate to the principles of the cognitive learning theory. As I stated earlier, only information that receives enough of our attention actually makes it to our long-term memory. By having our students take notes and summarize the information, we are having them to think about it and evaluate what is important in it. Obviously, the students are attending to the information in this process. I really liked the combination note idea presented in our text because it included nonlinguistic elements that, once again, allow the student to use dual coding. Also, if we allow the students to use graphics that are meaningful to them in their note taking, we are encouraging them to elaborate on the topic, thus increasing the connections they will make and their chances for retrieval.
Honestly, I don't know what else to say about cues, questions, and advance organizers, so forgive me as I repeat myself. These items help the students to make connections with the information by helping them to organize and make sense of it. Students cannot connect with what they do not understand. Videos, as the text suggests, will go far in aiding understanding. It is one thing to read about an event, but to see it is another. Once again, we are back to the dual coding hypothesis. Storing the visual is so much more powerful than just storing the words.
These strategies really do have powerful implications in the classroom. I think that many of them are used by teachers on a regular basis without their understanding of why they are so effective. I hope as my understanding of the cognitive learning theory increases, so will my implementation of its principles in my classroom.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Behaviorism in the Classroom
In my latest course at Walden University, my cohorts and I have been asked to post our thought on how certain instructional strategies correlate to the principals of the behaviorist learning theory. In particular, we were to look at reinforcing effort and at homework and practice.
Our reading came from Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works by Howard Pitler, et al. I have to admit that I had a bit of trouble seeing the behaviorism in first chapter that we were to read on reinforcing effort. I understand why reinforcing effort is important and that students need to be explicitly taught about the importance of effort, but fitting that with behaviorism was tough. However, as I continued to think about this I began to see the behaviorism involved.
This chapter recommends having students use software such as spreadsheets to track their effort in a subject and the resulting grades. The idea is that as the students see the effect that their effort has on their grades, they will be motivated to put forth more effort. In this case, poor grades could be seen as punishment for the undesired behavior of poor effort, whereas good grades could be positive reinforcement for the desired behavior of good effort. If all behavior is learned habits (http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism) then this process is teaching the students the habit of studying.
The chapter on homework and practice was an easier one in which to find behaviorism. This chapter recommends several websites that use an instructional strategy called operant conditioning. In this strategy, a student answers a question and is immediately given feedback, either that they were correct or that they were incorrect. If they were incorrect, then some form of remediation is applied. The response that the student was correct is the reinforcement of the desired behavior. When an incorrect answer is given, the program provides modeling by showing the student how to work the particular type of example. Then the student is given the opportunity to try again.
Behaviorism may seem to be controversial in today's educational circles, but a closer look shows that it certainly has valid uses in the classroom.
Our reading came from Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works by Howard Pitler, et al. I have to admit that I had a bit of trouble seeing the behaviorism in first chapter that we were to read on reinforcing effort. I understand why reinforcing effort is important and that students need to be explicitly taught about the importance of effort, but fitting that with behaviorism was tough. However, as I continued to think about this I began to see the behaviorism involved.
This chapter recommends having students use software such as spreadsheets to track their effort in a subject and the resulting grades. The idea is that as the students see the effect that their effort has on their grades, they will be motivated to put forth more effort. In this case, poor grades could be seen as punishment for the undesired behavior of poor effort, whereas good grades could be positive reinforcement for the desired behavior of good effort. If all behavior is learned habits (http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism) then this process is teaching the students the habit of studying.
The chapter on homework and practice was an easier one in which to find behaviorism. This chapter recommends several websites that use an instructional strategy called operant conditioning. In this strategy, a student answers a question and is immediately given feedback, either that they were correct or that they were incorrect. If they were incorrect, then some form of remediation is applied. The response that the student was correct is the reinforcement of the desired behavior. When an incorrect answer is given, the program provides modeling by showing the student how to work the particular type of example. Then the student is given the opportunity to try again.
Behaviorism may seem to be controversial in today's educational circles, but a closer look shows that it certainly has valid uses in the classroom.
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