A Reflection of My Personal Theory of Learning
In my original statement of my personal theory of learning, I said that I believe people learn in a variety of ways. Personal experience and preference, environmental variables, and the purpose for learning are some of the factors which determine how a person learns new information. There is a place in the classroom setting for each of the learning theories we covered in this course. I will continue to use the theories behaviorism, cognitivism, constructionism, and socialism in numerous ways as I develop lessons for my students. Undoubtedly, technology will be a means for teaching and learning in each of the aforementioned cases.
Immediate Adjustments for Technology Integration
Throughout the course, I was able to apply many of the teaching and learning strategies we were learning about directly into my own classroom. I used graphic organizing software programs, specifically Webspiration and Kidspiration, to help my students take guided notes during a science lesson. That prepared them for a virtual field trip in which they were exposed to a simulated, yet “real world” discussion about the importance of studying water quality. I was reminded about the necessity of summarization during our coursework, so I made sure to include different summarizing strategies in our end-of-the-year activities.
There are a couple of tools that I will plan on using at the onset of my school year in the fall. One of the tools that I will employ right away is Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” option. This tool will allow me to help my students understand the writing process. At first, I will conference with my students as they complete writing assignments and we will use the tool together to edit and revise their work. Then, I will use it during assessments of first and final drafts so the students can see where improvements can be made. Finally, I will have my students self-edit and peer-edit each others’ work with the “Track Changes” option so they can practice using the tool and develop stronger writing skills. As we learned in this course, providing feedback is an integral part of teaching and learning, and I believe that this tool would help my students and I communicate effectively about their writing. Another tool I would like to implement right away is Kidspiration. Although I have used the software before in lessons such as story-writing, the program offers much more than that. Kidspiration graphic organizers can be used as advance organizers that students fill in before and during a lesson, and they can also be used as summarizers after a lesson is complete. There are several templates for various subject areas and I would like my students to become adept at choosing an appropriate template or building an organizer of their own to suit their needs. This use of graphic organizers, which can include written and non-linguistic representation, will help my students to develop and understand connections between ideas; reinforcing a cognitive-based learning opportunity.
Long-term Goals for Technology Integration
Beginning next year, I would like my students to create an electronic portfolio that can showcase their work throughout the year. In the past, I have had students create PowerPoint presentations to share a sampling of their work at parent-teacher conferences. They have included tables with math and reading scores, writing samples, and other documents of their choosing. I would like to expand on this idea and have them save all of their work onto our network drive and a thumb drive. We could create more elaborate tables and graphs of assessment data and the students could watch for trends. Work that was not originally done on the computer can be scanned in or photographed. Work that is created during the year would become an artifact that supports the constructivist theory of learning. I would eventually like to have a work sample to demonstrate that a student has worked toward reaching the standards in all of the subject areas. My hope is that this portfolio can be used for parent communication as well as a record of student progress.
Another long-term goal I have is better parent communication through the use of technology. I plan to create a distribution list which includes the email addresses of all of the families I work with. I will formally communicate with parents monthly by email to let them know about current projects and upcoming events. I will also share information such as websites that we use in class or resources they can use at home to help their child practice a skill they have learned in school. Eventually, it would be neat if I had students write this “newsletter.” I think this would be an excellent way to provide feedback to my students’ families and possibly offer them a chance to practice their writing skills with a real audience.
Overall, I have learned a great deal in this course and I am excited about planning for next year with these new ideas in mind. My overall goal is to make technology integration a seamless and natural way for me to teach and for my students to learn.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Social Learning
Practically every technology tool can be used for social learning. There are different degrees of interaction and relationships between group members; from a simple writer-reader relationship, to a more interactive, fully collaborative relationship. When a student publishes their own work to a website, for instance, they will need to consider their audience and plan according to the audience members’ possible perceptions. Taking this idea a step further, a student posting to a blog site will need to consider the audience’s perceptions, but may gain feedback from an audience member as a posted comment. The blog author can further the conversation and, in turn, deepen their own understanding by responding to the feedback. And, to increase the level of interaction even further, students can work collaboratively on the same project at the same time (as on a wiki site), constantly sharing ideas, giving feedback, and making revisions as a team.
These technology tools can all be used to foster social learning. Students need to use appropriate social skills to interact face-to-face and in the virtual world of technology. It is important for teachers to be aware of these skills and to make a specific effort to teach them. For a technology- based, collaborative project, I believe there are three equally-important factors that will need to be considered. First, do the students know how to use the technology tool? Second, can the students use the tool to collaborate appropriately? Finally, what is the actual content that the students are responsible for learning? To become adept at these three things, students will need to be given explicit instruction and time to practice each independently before they are expected to be successful with an entire project.
These technology tools can all be used to foster social learning. Students need to use appropriate social skills to interact face-to-face and in the virtual world of technology. It is important for teachers to be aware of these skills and to make a specific effort to teach them. For a technology- based, collaborative project, I believe there are three equally-important factors that will need to be considered. First, do the students know how to use the technology tool? Second, can the students use the tool to collaborate appropriately? Finally, what is the actual content that the students are responsible for learning? To become adept at these three things, students will need to be given explicit instruction and time to practice each independently before they are expected to be successful with an entire project.
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