Reflection

Reflection
As I reflected on my personal beliefs about learning and learning theories, I find that the initial thoughts I had in the first week of my fifth course at Walden are still what I believe. I have deepened some of the thoughts; however, my basic beliefs are the same. I think most of the learning theories I have studied are not in conflict with each other, but are simply different parts of the “elephant.”
Until this year, I have taught students primarily through visual representations, because that is how I tend to learn best. Because of this course, I started using many different mediums. I am using the computer, the internet, manipulatives, recordings, collaboration, wikis, VoiceThreads, and the like.
As I researched learning theories, I found that no matter how they are categorized, they all involve an active learner (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). Retrieval depends on how well information is encoded. Encoding is most effective when it is connected to something that is already known (Lawrence, 2009). Students learn by experiencing lessons through different mediums which address the senses and by practicing them over and over again. If students do not practice what they have learned, I have found that they do not continue to retain the information for easy retrieval (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). I believe that the best learning takes place when students begin with something they already know or have experienced. Using a previous knowledge and building on that to introduce new concepts seems to make the easiest transition to permanent memory (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c). I also believe that the more immersed a student is in the learning experience;,the better the memory of that concept will be (Orey, 2001).
In today’s world of computers and technology, educators should be scrambling to keep up. However, I am afraid that technology is leaving many educators behind. It is our job as educators to prepare students for life. We must teach them about the changing world around them. They must learn how to use technology. We as teachers must use technology more and more to help students learn and retain knowledge.
I have already made so many adjustments in the way I teach. As we were learning in this course, I was making those changes in my instructional strategies. It was so exciting to teach students new technologies and new ways to learn math concepts. We created wikis, blogs and VoiceThreads. We experienced virtual field trips. I have adjusted my teaching from a lecture, worksheet based instruction to a more active, creative, student centered classroom. I am asking deeper questions, causing students to think on a more challenging level. I am also using strategies more effectively. There are still more things I want to try with my students.
Creating a virtual field trip and a website for teachers and students to learn concepts are two things I still want to implement in my classroom. These things would enhance student learning, and benefit others as well. I have thought about the possibility of making a virtual field trip by filming at a construction site. I would like to get students involved by taking a field trip to a construction site. We could interview the construction workers about how they use math daily, and we could film that as well as hear and see them giving us examples of it.
I have already asked my school principal to consider letting me teach a technology course to middle school students next year. I want them to create things for others to use. I want them to learn how to search the internet and create things on the web. I would like to see my pupils become fluent at creating wikis, VoiceThreads and the like to share with others. I have learned so much form this course. I did not know wikis and VoiceThreads even existed. Now I have many tools as well as knowledge to use and search for new tools to pass on to students, teachers and parents.
It is difficult to think of two long term goals for my instruction because my job is changing, and I will not teach a math class next year. My primary responsibility is to teach at risk students, and I have a specific way my school wants that done. I have, however, asked to teach a technology class to middle schools students. If I get to do that, I will use email and chat to give assignments. I will also make sure they are creating things that can be used by teachers and students. I want that class to create websites for teachers who do not have them. I would like to see us help teachers get as much of their lessons online as possible. It would be so helpful to parents if they could go online to see what their children were learning, and maybe refresh their own memory so they can help their child learn.
I also want to create a place where games and websites are easy to locate for teachers and students. It takes so long to go through websites and games and find the ones that are really usable in the classroom. If someone else could find what you need, that might be really helpful. We could even survey and accept email suggestions to find what teachers want.
In my dreams, I would inspire other teachers to use technology and drive our district toward paperless classrooms. I would like to see us not worry about snow days anymore and have online class on those days. This course has started so many things spinning in my head. I have pitched ideas to administrators, and I am excited to see where this will take us.






References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Program one. Understanding the brain
[Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Program three. Instructional theory vs.
learning theory [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology.
Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Program two. Brain research and
learning [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore,
MD: Author.
Lawrence, K. (2009). How memory retrieval works. Retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/
content/how-memory-retrieval-works-a128330
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved
from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Social Learning

This week I learned about cooperative learning and technology. Much of what I read was very logical. However, I am wondering about groups in the area of grading. The group grade does fit in with the social learning theory (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). There are several strategies mentioned this week. One strategy demands that everyone in the group pass the test before the 5 bonus points can be awarded to anyone. Another is the jigsaw strategy in which groups of 5 students are all responsible for teaching the others the material to be learned (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a).

However, I think my students would be very upset if they were graded as a group and not individually. I have several learning disabled students and I am afraid that it would create animosity. I have worked so hard this year to make sure everyone is accepted and supported. I have made us all on the same team, and I am afraid a group activity like that would destroy what I have worked so hard to build. I do not want to put learning disabled students in a position where their challenges are obvious. I do a lot of group activities with my students, but I have them keep track of their contributions and I grade them individually at their level. This causes everyone to pull their weight and be supportive and helpful instead of angry at each other.

I agree that groups should stay very small and have different learning styles and academic levels in them (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). I was thinking that some of the processes could involve all the core teachers. For example the mathematician movie idea (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) could involve math and science and studying where these mathematicians crossed over between math and science. Language arts might include writing about these men and including those papers in the power point or as a voice thread. History could be included in the aspect of what else was going on in the world at the time this mathematician was alive. This kind of cross curricular project could involve an entire middle school.

I also liked the detailed rubric and thought that could be useful. I liked the individual paper grading and the group roles descriptions (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This promotes group work and social learning with also giving each student a clear idea of what is expected of him.

Several of the things mentioned would support social learning theories. I especially liked the Jason project (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This could be interesting for a science class. I can think of some group projects that might come out of that.

The idea of a class website created by the students also intrigued me as well as the calendar programs, bookmark managers, global classroom sites, as well as games such as building homes of our own (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Social software has been developed in the Web 2.0 movement (Hargis & Wilcox, 2008). These ideas support social learning in the idea of learning being a series of networks and ways of navigating networks (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). Calendars can help everyone know what is going on with everyone else. Bookmark managers can help students and teachers as they share favorite sites. Global classrooms promote group work on a global level. Games that have students working together also support social learning.

With all the new technology and tools on the market today, teachers may have a difficult time staying on top of it all. It may be difficult to be fluent in all the tools that we need to teach students. I think it would be a good idea for teachers to have some professional development in the area of technology. I know even in my coursework for this program, I feel like I am racing through it and not getting some of the tools as well as I would like. I think the new tools are going to keep being developed at an explosive rate. This will continue to give us new avenues to explore for social learning.

References

Hargis, J., & Wilcox, S. (2008, October). Ubiquitous, free, and efficient online collaboration tools for teaching and learning. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education (TOJDE), 9(4), 9–17. Retrieved using the Education Research Complete database.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program eight. Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Program nine. Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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

Voice Threads

My voice thread is at http://voicethread.com/share/1697856/ however, I also embeded it just below this post. I think you can add comments there as well. If someone would try that, it would be helpful for me to know. I also embedded a review lesson I am using with my math class below that. I can see them both and add comments. However, sometimes I can do things on my side that cannot be done if you are not logged on as me. So, if you cannot comment here, please comment to the link above.
Thank you,
Missy

Adding and Subtracting Integers Made Easy

Constructionist/Constructivist Theories Applied

This week I studied several things that correlated with the principles of constructivist/ constructionist learning theories. Generating and testing hypotheses is a wonderful way for students to learn (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Students must be able to thoroughly explain their hypothesis and the findings they discovered through some varied tasks. It is very important that students have a clear idea of what they are to do so that they can use such things as systems analysis, problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry and decision making (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). All of these mediums allow students to discover things on their own with the teacher acting as facilitator. This supports constructivist/constructionist learning theories.

The spreadsheet section that I studied this week (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) gave me the idea of programming excel to figure the slope intercept form. I made the excel sheet and emailed it as an attachment to my students. Then, I taught them how to figure slope using the formula. I allowed them to practice what I had taught them and then check their answers on the spread sheet. I told them to experiment with different numbers in different places and construct graphs to match.

There was a lot of excitement and testing of the spread sheet. They thought I had given them a secret. Collaboration is a major part of the constructivist/constructionist learning theories (“Standridge, Melissa,” 2007). There was discussion and activity all focused on what we were learning. This supports the constructivist/constructionist learning theories that state that people learn best when they can build something to share with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2007). It also confirms the base of the constructivist theory stated in the website Innovative Learning (http://www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/constructivism/ index.htm) that people make their own meaning by their experience.

I told the students that they could program excel to do many things. They were so excited to find excel as such a great tool. This supports the constructionist learning theory in the way that students were constructing their own numbers to put into the spread sheet. It will also be linked to future activities as I teach students to explore excel and see what they can program it to do for them. This free discovery and constructing graphs lines up with the constructivist/constructionist learning theories.

When we learned about different types of graphs a few weeks ago, we also used excel to program different graphs. We compared it to some of the graph makers on the internet. All the students agreed that they liked the excel graphs best. This got them interested in excel. I am following that up and linking it by showing them something else excel can do.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program seven. Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom

instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Standridge, Melissa. ( 2007), What is Behaviorism; Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology; Retrieved January 10, 2011 from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/ epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism

Cognitive Learning Theory

This week I read about several things including virtual field trips and concept maps. These tools can be used to help students learn and remember (Novak, J. & Cañas, A., 2008). Virtual field trips are interactive and use several senses at once. They connect visual images to concepts, which helps in retrieving things committed to memory (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). Using a virtual field trip with a concept map increases learning even more. Concept maps allow students to use several senses and they also facilitate the making of connections to learn material. I think using a concept map before a field trip can help prepare students for the trip, and also help them think about what they are to be learning ahead of time. Then, using it as a follow up activity will allow students to use the concepts to firm up the things they learned. Because these things involve such things as images, constructing the concept maps with others,(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b), and making connections to things they already know, they support the cognitive learning theory. I think using these tools will help me teach students in a way that will help them easily remember material (Smith, M., 1999). I also think it will increase their understanding, therefore committing it to a more permanent memory.

In addition, using some other learning tools may also help students remember and understand material. Using a rubric allows students to understand ahead of time what is expected of them. Starting a lesson with an essential question allows students to focus on the most important thing they need to learn. Viewing an essential question in a power point presentation with images that relate to it may help student with remembering. Also, ending a lesson with a summarizing activity will also help students with retention (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. 2007).

Using the AutoSummarize tool in Word may be very helpful to students. Also, taking notes during lessons will help students remember and will make summarizing easier. In addition, taking notes in a variety of formats seems to be more helpful. For example, using outlining, webbing, graphs and pictographs in note taking seems to facilitate learning. Teaching students how to take notes and how to identify essential information is of utmost importance. Then, for the summarizing activity, teachers should ask students questions that focus on the essential elements of the lesson in order to help students head in the right direction. There are six types of summary that are helpful to students: narrative, top-restriction-illustration, definition, argumentation, problem/solution, and conversation (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. 2007).

I think I can improve my students note taking and summarizing. This is essential for my students. Next year, the high school math teacher will require them to take extensive notes. I need to teach this skill so they will be proficient before next year, not to mention the help it may provide for the present.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Program five. Cognitive Learning Theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Program six. Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Novak, J. D., & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008. Retrieved from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Web site http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers /TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf

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

Smith, M. K. (1999). The cognitive orientation to learning. In The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive.htm