Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

I am really enjoying learning about social learning theories because a good amount of the time in my classroom, I have my students collaborate during activities or to complete a task. Even in second grade, students are able to collaborate with each other to gain more meaning on a topic or a different approach to completing a task. I also feel in second grade it is very important for students to be practicing problem solving skills and cooperative and social learning is a great way to incorporate those skills.

With social learning, I feel high expecations must be set in order for students to get the most out of the activity. They must know how to interact with each other, take turn, and value all group member's ideas. Cooperative learning and social learning allow students to view each other as teachers and gain valuable knowledge from each other. I feel it also makes them less dependent on the teacher for giving them information and are more willing to use a more knowledgeable other.

The technology resources presented this week, I found to be very valuable to the classroom as well as social learning. The social learning theory's goal is to have students engaged in their learning while collaborating with others. Through the use of programs such as Google Docs and Voice Thread, students are achieving these goals. I feel Google Docs would work really well with older students, including upper elementary. I feel it is a bit complicated for lower elementary, but not impossible. Also, students needing an e-mail address, or Google account, to access this makes me uneasy. Our district just gave all students K-12 an e-mail address. I am unsure how I feel about this, but at least if it is through the district, it can be closely monitored. If it is through Google, there may be less filtering and more privacy to their account than through a school district.

I can definately see Voice Thread working in my Kindergarten classroom next year! I am actually very excited about this! After the example of the boy discussing his monster, a world of possibilities came into my mind for my five year olds! First, I do think it takes away a lot of pressure of them having to write about a picture. I definately think they need to write but it would be a great beginning for KidWriting. I think students would be more willing to talk into a microphone than write as much as they would be saying. Students are really required to only write one to two sentences. However, when they would be speaking, they would really be telling a story as we noticed in the example shown in this week's video.

I am very excited to complete a Vocie Thread this week and see how the program works. I am hoping it is as easy to use as it looked on the video program because I think my Kindergarteners will be able to handle using it with little guidance.

Constructivism in Practice

This week Dr. Orey discussed the constructivism theory. In short, the constructivism theory is when students are engaged in their learning and are creating an artifact to demonstrate their learning.

I feel there are many different ways to incorporate constructivism within classrooms today, with and without technology. I do know that some teachers are still hesitant to use technology based projects with students due to lack of teacher knowledge or training on the program, lack of time, and lack of technological resources. Most artifacts can be done with or without technology. However, technology can sometimes increase student motivation as well as creativity. For example, if students took a virtual field trip to an animal shelter, they may create a brochure to demonstrate their knowledge of a community helper that works there, a veterinarian. Students can surely create this on paper using different media but they can also create it on a template created in PowerPoint. Through the use of PowerPoint, students will more easily be able to search for real pictures that can connect their learning and aid with their memory. With paper, this may be a bit more difficult, but not impossible. Students can also demonstrate their creativity by choosing color schemes, placement of information and pictures, as well as fonts.

I feel with technology, students need to really know the information before they are able to apply it to an artifact. They cannot pretend to understand it and complete the artifact well. By using technology and creating artifacts students will need to use the primary mechanisms for learning through accommodation, assimilation, and equilibration. Teachers have a responsibility to provide examples, pictures, and experiences to aide in a student’s learning and through the mechanisms for learning. This will create a better understanding of new information, which will result in a quality artifact.

Cognitivism in Practice

I feel it is important that educators know the key aspects of cognitivism in order to apply them to the learning of their students. First, educators must know that seven, plus or minus two, new pieces of information can be stored in short term memory. Educators should try to provide an episodic experience when possible so students can have en experience to connect new information to. Educators should elaborate information and also remember to use images effectively. The images used should be relevant to the topic or information learned.

With these important aspects of the cognitivism learning theory in mind, I can see how the use of ques, questions, and advanced organizers as well as summarizing and note taking would embed technology into the theory. First, through the use of ques and questions, teachers are helping students make connections to the information they are learning. Teachers may ask a question or use a que that will assist with a student's information retrieval. Dr. Orey noted in the video resource that if a student cannot remember an answer for a test, it is not that they forget the answer, instead they have forgotten how or where to retrieve it. Also, through the use of questioning teachers are able to incorporate higher level thinking that may allow students to apply the information. Through the use of advanced organizers, students are able to map out information just as their brain does, making the connections needed to retrieve the information. Within the advanced organizers, students and teachers can effectively use images that may aide in making a connection to the new information. Within an organizer, the teacher can also limit the amount of new information given by remembering that short term memory holds seven plus or minus two new pieces of information. Through the use of technology the teacher might preset a concept map that only has room for seven new pieces of learning. Also, with technology, students can enter relevant images by searching the internet that will allow them to connect their new learning to an image or experience.

Cognitivism connects with summarizing and note taking as well. I know these affect me as a learner in a big way. Summarizing is very helpful for me to remember important information. If I have a lengthy article to read, I find myself often getting lost in the minute details rather than the big picture. I feel then I miss the major points of the article and what it truly important. By highlighting the main points and writing notes in the margin, I am able to pick out points that I need to remember in order to understand the main focus of my learning. By incorporating technology into this, I feel students would be more willing to take accurate notes, as long as they are taught how. This may not be true for students who are not experienced with technology and their typing skills. I know that if I was a slow typist, I would not want to put my notes on a computer. However, with many of the programs available, notes are more easily accessible and can be shared through numerous commuinication programs such as blogs and wikis.

Behaviorism in Practice

I feel behaviorism still exists in many different ways in many different classrooms. This week's resources allowed me to see different ways than it is used within my own classroom as well. First, I strongly believe that students who put forth effort, will succeed. Although all students will not succeed at the same rate, they will progress from where they began. This also might include accomodations, but I feel success correlates with effort. Within this instructional strategy of reinforcing effort, I do feel that a rubric or model needs to be set so students know the expectations. I do not feel it is fair to tell students they are not trying if they have never had set clear expectations on what that looks like. I like the examples of having students record their effort based on a rubric along with their score that week using a spreadsheet. I feel this is unrealistic for me next year being that I will be teaching Kindergarten. Instead, I feel I can modify this by providing clear expectations for their work as well as examples and non examples. I thought about modeling how to throw a ball by using effort and without using effort to show the clear difference between the two. Then, I would take the situation into the classroom and maybe model it in the block station with building a tower. The reinforcing effort strategy correlates with behaviorism because it is reinforcing positive behaviors of showing effort while showing direct consequences (the grades) of non effort. By providing feedback, teachers are able to redirect the negative behavior and attempt to change it to a positive, reinforced behavior.

Homework and practice has always been discussed at the beginning of each school year. Our principal has clear expectations that any homework is minimal and serves an educational purpose. In second grade I sent homework minimally for skills that needed extra practice. These would be skills that I would also drill and practice within the classroom in a variety of ways. I feel this strategy of homework and practice correlate with behaviorism because students are gaining feedback from these drill and practices. This will help guide their learning and allow the teacher to modify the goal when needed.

The websites that were provided showed me that I probably use behaviorism in my classroom more than I have thought. The websites were exactly what I have my students visit so they can practice needed skills during centers. This is a time when they can independently focus on the task and have fun while practicing in game form.

I look forward to continuing learning more about different behavior theories to see what I really use the most of within my classroom and will it be effective in Kindergarten as opposed to second grade which I have taught for four years.