Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

This week we were taking a look at cooperative learning, specifically how we would get our students to do so with the means of technology.  “Cooperative learning focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning”. (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007) We need to try and get our students to make connections with others while building a project.  The resources showed us some very useful ways to enhance their learning.

It first told us how to properly set up the groups for the most success.  One of the key points that I thought they made was to sparingly ability group.  This makes sense to me that when we are building our groups to put people with different strengths so that they can balance each other out.  The next thing it did was take us through a rundown of some nice web resources we can have our students use.  “Cooperative learning is not so much learning to cooperate as it is cooperating to learn”. (Wong & Wong, 1998)  We want them to be able to make connections with people that can help them better understand what they are trying to learn.  One very interesting resource they made me aware of was the JASON project.  This sparked my interest because my wife is a science teacher and this is an organization focused on engaging students in hands-on scientific discovery.  The students can get involved with real scientific discoveries that are going on right now.  They can watch live interviews with experts in the field or they can email them with specific questions.  I had to show my wife this and she was really excited to get her students involved with this.  I was also interested in the web-enabled multiplayer simulation games.  Whenever you can disguise learning in the form of a game it definitely helps reach some of those students that think they do not like learning.  It is interesting how students can interact with kids from another classroom or even another state while they learn about things like the American Revolution.  With the game Revolution “participants navigate the space of a town, interact with other players and townspeople, and have the opportunity to act in and react to various events that foreshadow the coming of the American Revolution”. (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007)  I thought the students would like to do this for a history assignment.   Being able to learn while gaming can really be beneficial to those students we have a hard time reaching.

References:

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

instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wong, H. k., & Wong, R. T. (1998) How to be an effective teacher. The first days of school.             Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.

Constructivism in Practice....More Like ConstructioNism in Practice

Constructivism in Practice

                This week we have been studying about the constructivism learning theory.  I think it is interesting that we were supposed to write about constructivism instead of constructionism.   Dr. Orey states “constructivism is a theory of knowledge stating each individual actively constructs their own meaning. That this is not necessarily important for classroom teachers”.  (Laureate 2008)  He gave an example for this by saying if someone asked us about the word chair we would all picture something different.  This happens because we all had different experiences in our past with chairs.  Constructionism on the other hand is the learning theory that says “people learn best when they build an external artifact of something they can share with others”. (Laureate 2008)  This makes more sense to me as a classroom teacher because if we can get our students actively engaged in creating the project then they will better learn the content. 

                I said all that to say, “I think a better title for this week would be constructioNism in practice” since most of the chapter on “Generating and Testing Hypothesis” is about Mrs. Omar having her class generate spreadsheets for savings and investments.  Throughout the three different class scenarios they all have to do with students building an external artifact which is the definition of constructionism.  “When students generate and test hypotheses, they are engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski 2007)  The only way I had ever formerly thought about using hypothesis was during the scientific process.  Our students just wrapped up their science fair projects in which they had to then take the data they collected and use some type of technology to incorporate it into their project.  We saw this type of data collection happening in Mrs. Schwartz middle school science class and it reminded me of this.  But after studying the resources I now realize that we do not just use it during the scientific process but we also generate and test hypothesis on daily occurrences in other aspects of our lives. 

Resources:

  Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Instructional Theory vs. Learning Theory Baltimore: Author.

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

instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Blog Post Week 3: Cognitivism in Practice

              If we are going to make any correlation between the resources we read this week and cognitive learning theory we have to first understand what the basic principles of the theory are.  The basis is that we learn new things more easily if we have prior knowledge or better yet experiences to pull from.  We also learn from making connections so the more senses we can get involved in the leaning process the better chance it will stick in our long term memory.  Now when specifically talking about the resources and how they correlate with the theory we have to take a closer look at the resources themselves.  As I read through the chapters on “Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” and “Summarizing and Note Taking” I was thinking how similar they both are.  Chapter 4 states that “there is no one correct way to take notes. In fact, different students might prefer different not-taking formats.” (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001).  One format we can use is to summarize something by actually putting it into an advanced organizer.  We are going to be helping our students do this in our application this week using the virtual field trip.  Since I teach PE I am going to have my students move through the human body and learn about some of the key systems that keep us going.  We will be using the advance graphic organizers to organize five systems of our bodies.  They will be pulling from prior experiences like perhaps a canoe trip they took with their families when we talk about the digestive system.  You “put in” the mouth and then go over a water fall down your esophagus into the stomach.  I also have a video that helps illustrate what the digestive system does that the students find hilarious and helps them make more connection.  I have really learned a lot that will hopefully help me help my students become better more efficient learners.     

References:

Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock (2001).  Classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

This video is an Awesome example of how food travels through the digestive system!!

Behaviorism in Practice

        When I opened the text this week and began reading I was not sure I was going to get anything of any real sustenance.  However, I discovered some really interesting information on how to show students the correlation between the effort they give and the grades they earn.  Technology makes it easier for students and teachers to track the effects of effort and facilitates more immediate feedback. (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007)  When I read this passage I was wondering how they were going to get students to understand effort and to be able to track it.  After seeing what Ms. Powell had her fifth grade class do, I immediately went and showed my wife who herself teaches a fifth grade single gender male class.  It was truly thought provoking how she had the students track their effort during her weeks teaching decimals.  I really liked how she even had a scoring system set up that would show the students if their effort grade correlated with their math grade.  As a PE teacher I was thinking about coaching while I was reading this passage.  I am not a coach myself but I know coaches are always preaching about giving maximum effort at practice and during games.  This would be a great exercise to do with their players during a stretch of the season.  They could easily track the level of effort the team gave to the results of the game.  We all know how coaches love statistics, this could be another one. 

          As I read the next passage on homework I came across an Algebra teacher and a High school PE teacher or worked together to graph data that was collected by the football team.  The football team tracked their weightlifting program for the duration of the season.  At the end they compiled all the data they had and took it to algebra to make a parabolic graph.  I thought this was a very clever way to make math more meaningful.  This also was a good way for them to get more work outside of the school day.  Any extra practice a student receives is going to be beneficial as long as they are working on the correct information.  You cannot just give them work if they have not been shown the proper techniques and if we do not give them adequate feedback in a timely manner.  What good is it if we provide advice on something a week later if they have spent that entire week doing it wrong?  One problem I saw with what these teachers were doing was how they were helping all the rest of the students they see in a day.  Targeting the football team is fine but that only accounts for a handful of students.  I wonder if they thought of a way to do a similar thing with all of his PE classes. This would enable them to have all the students involved with the project.    

       I feel Both of these strategies correlate with the behaviorist learning theory.  The whole premise that we have to understand what is going on inside our students mind to better be able to serve them is at work.  We have to reinforce the behaviors we want.  If the students can physically see how their effort on homework or anything else can impact their school work I think they would continue to work hard.  If we also went and posted this information on the school website or somewhere in the building like the text mentioned it could very possibly push our students to keep giving their best.   

Reference:

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

works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Reflecting on the last eight weeks

                Man have I grown since the beginning of this class.  Eight weeks ago I had never really blogged and I had never done a podcast.  Now I can say that not only did I participate in them but I helped create them.  I enjoyed doing the podcast so much that now I am doing them on my own so my friends in Ohio can listen and have a good laugh.  I am even thinking about getting a camera for my computer so I can skype.  Before this class that never even crossed my mind as something that I would want to do.  I think it might actually be cute to be able to see and talk to my two year old niece who has been doing this with my mother since before she was one.  Maybe her twenty-nine year old uncle will finally get up with the times. 

                I am beginning to understand how the twenty-first century student is wired. (Pun intended) They need us to give them the basic tools and the essential concepts to an idea and then let them work it out.  Gone should be the days when we just give the students mindless information and then have them regurgitate what we told them was correct on a test.  We need to give them the problem and then since we have taught them the skills already they should be able to find the information for themselves.  It is crucial for us to expose them to as many different uses for the technology that surrounds them.  They are going to need these skills to compete in the job market.  Now you cannot even be a mechanic without first having to hook the car up to a computer to run a diagnostic check to figure out what is wrong with it first. 

                My two year goal would be to have more than one recess for the students.  When I was in school we had PE twice a week and three recesses a day.  Now the schools are pushing our students so academically that they do not give them anytime to play and be kids.  They need time for physical fitness.  Studies have shown the correlation between physical fitness and academics.  I am going to have to overcome institutional obstacles and try to convince the principal that she will have to give up some of her academic time.  Now in theory if she just gives up a few of her minutes and lets the students get some extra physical fitness the test scores should improve.   

Student Questionnaire Podcast

Its been a fun week.  I had my wisdom teeth removed so I have been in some tremendous pain and not really able to function but I am fighting through it.  I might even try venturing back to work tomorrow.  Here is the link so you can check out my podcast about how a few of my fifth graders are using technology on a daily basis. I hope you guys enjoy. 
http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/8272

21st century website evaluation

When I first entered the 21st century website I was overwhelmed with the amount of information on the home page.  As I began to scroll down the page I was amazed with the disorganization.  If I was just looking at this website on my own I would have left this site and never been back.  I like to see a clean easy to navigate home page.  However since this was an assignment for a masters class I stuck around and started searching the site for something I could use.  I clicked on the tab for state initiatives thinking that I could maybe see how this website could work on a local level.  When entering that portion of the site I found out that there are only 15 states on there, mine not being one of them.  Reading through what it takes for a state to qualify I do not think it really is that worth it.  I personally feel that this website does not offer much in the way of helping with teaching the 21st century student.  We as educators can do a better job finding more pertinent info else where.  Again this is just my opinion and felt overwhelmed from the first seconds on the site.