My learning theory is students learn best when the modalities of visual, auditory and kinesthetic are built into the lessons so that all students are reached. Students should be actively engaged in activities, either individually or with a group, where the emphasis is on the process and not the product with the teacher being the guide on the side instead of the sage on the stage. This engagement allows students to construct meaningful representations within math.
My learning theory has not really modified much since the beginning of this course. However, I have already planned to adjust my instructional practice to include more technology that will support my personal theory of learning. I plan to implement voice threads, and use the features in word like the readability scale and summarizing. Students are proficient with power point so I want to use voice thread as a way to present their mathematical findings and to introduce new technology. It allows the students to bring in graphics creating non-linguistic representations plus receive feedback from many different sources including their parents. (Laureate Education, 2009).
I am excited to work with our school staff in implementing the use the readability scale tool in word. Our school has focused on increasing our writing scores and we did until the last couple of years. Our students have learned how to write paragraphs and five paragraph essays very well but if we can now focus on the level of their writing, it will help them to increase the sophistication of their writing (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). I believe that by focusing on their readability they will be able to increase the sophistication of their writing.
My two long-term goals for integrating technology into my instructional practice are 1) to create problem-solving activities that incorporate technology in each chapter of my math book and 2) to learn to use the smart board effectively so I can tie it into lessons on a daily or weekly basis to make it seamless. Goal 1 will be completed this summer, as I will pick either a lesson or a culminating activity for each chapter and start developing activities that incorporate technology beyond what I already use. I have designed one already and plan to continue through the summer. We just adopted a new curriculum so as I develop these lessons I will be able to use them every year and continue to build new ones. Goal 2 will be started this August with training and continued throughout the year as I am going to be one of the district’s trainer of trainers for the smart boards. By doing this I will learn the smart board and have to be able to apply it to the classroom for both myself and other teachers.
Laureate Education, I. P. (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Denver: Mid=continent Research for Education and Learning.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Bringing Theory, Instruction, and Technology Together
Homework and Practice Instructional Strategy
“It takes 24 practice sessions with a skill in order to achieve 80 – percent competency” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Knowing this it is important that students receive feedback quickly to keep errors to a minimum and the use of technology can make that happen. There are many websites that provide practice especially in math that engage the student. I actually implement two programs currently with some of my students. One program identifies student’s age level within the different standards and then provides guided instruction and practice for them at that level. If an error is made it is identified and corrected immediately. The other program is a drill program working on fact fluency. For this area I believe connectivism best applies as student learning is being enhanced by technology and the diversity of the networking ability that allows students to readapt patterns in their prior knowledge (Orey, 2001). There is Social Constructivism involved as there is still interaction between the teacher and other students when additional help is needed. These two learning theories are dovetailed together within my homework and practice policies. Other technology that I use with my students for homework and practice is the use of the curriculum website with online book, practice quizzes, and online tutorials. I can set up an online quiz for the students and they get immediate feedback plus it emails me the results so I know in the morning what I need to review in class that day. I tried setting up a blog this year for discussion and to answer questions at night but it has been slow to take off with the students.
Notetaking and Summarizing Instructional Strategy
Teaching students how to take notes and summarizing is important in all subject areas. It may look differently based on the subjects which means they need to be taught different strategies. Technology has made this very easy with programs like inspiration, word, power point, wiki’s, blogs even excel to name a few. Teaching students how to use graphic organizers such as inspiration or any of the fore mentioned programs definitely falls within social constructivism. The students are actively involved in creating an external artifact that can be shared with others (Laureate Education, 2009). One way I would implement these strategies with my students is for example using power point to have the students collaborate on the procedures of solving a math problems such as finding volume of different 3- dimensional prisms. In the fall, I would like to develop a class wiki for my regular math class next year consisting of class notes for the day, tips and other ideas the students have that will help them when they are outside of class.
References
Laureate Education, I. P. (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Orey, M. (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. Denver: Mid=continent Research for Education and Learning.
“It takes 24 practice sessions with a skill in order to achieve 80 – percent competency” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Knowing this it is important that students receive feedback quickly to keep errors to a minimum and the use of technology can make that happen. There are many websites that provide practice especially in math that engage the student. I actually implement two programs currently with some of my students. One program identifies student’s age level within the different standards and then provides guided instruction and practice for them at that level. If an error is made it is identified and corrected immediately. The other program is a drill program working on fact fluency. For this area I believe connectivism best applies as student learning is being enhanced by technology and the diversity of the networking ability that allows students to readapt patterns in their prior knowledge (Orey, 2001). There is Social Constructivism involved as there is still interaction between the teacher and other students when additional help is needed. These two learning theories are dovetailed together within my homework and practice policies. Other technology that I use with my students for homework and practice is the use of the curriculum website with online book, practice quizzes, and online tutorials. I can set up an online quiz for the students and they get immediate feedback plus it emails me the results so I know in the morning what I need to review in class that day. I tried setting up a blog this year for discussion and to answer questions at night but it has been slow to take off with the students.
Notetaking and Summarizing Instructional Strategy
Teaching students how to take notes and summarizing is important in all subject areas. It may look differently based on the subjects which means they need to be taught different strategies. Technology has made this very easy with programs like inspiration, word, power point, wiki’s, blogs even excel to name a few. Teaching students how to use graphic organizers such as inspiration or any of the fore mentioned programs definitely falls within social constructivism. The students are actively involved in creating an external artifact that can be shared with others (Laureate Education, 2009). One way I would implement these strategies with my students is for example using power point to have the students collaborate on the procedures of solving a math problems such as finding volume of different 3- dimensional prisms. In the fall, I would like to develop a class wiki for my regular math class next year consisting of class notes for the day, tips and other ideas the students have that will help them when they are outside of class.
References
Laureate Education, I. P. (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Orey, M. (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. Denver: Mid=continent Research for Education and Learning.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Cooperative Learning and Technology
Social constructivism believes that learning occurs when individuals are involved in meaningful social activities (Orey, 2001). I cannot think of a better way than using cooperative Learning as it provides activities and helps students to construct meaning for new knowledge by interacting with others (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). With the development of read write web, there are a many sites that teachers and students can use for either organizing, remote group access or inquiry based activities increasing the amount of communication outside the classroom. Learning or group work is no longer limited to the classroom or gathering together at a friend’s house but can be done even when one of the members is out of town. The collaborative organization on the website has exploded allowing students and teachers to have shared calendars’, shared bookmarking and the ability to create online learning communities. Web quests and simulations provide activities in which students can explore concepts at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Pitler et al).
When using technology with the cooperative learning groups they can provide support for the individual learners along with teachers and parents. Cooperative learning can also provide instant feedback to both the student and the teacher as the teacher is able to observe students interactions thus assessing their abilities. Besides observations other authentic assessments that can be used are rubrics, peer assessment and writing reflection.
If you are interested in some of the sites I have alluded to above I have listed them below. I picked the ones that I can access from my school and I have either used or am exploring to use in my class next year.
• Webquest – original WebQuest site
• Second Life – Multi-User Virtual Environment (Educators can set up their own virtual world project (Dembo, 2008)).
• Google Docs – online collaboration tool (This allows multi users to share documents
• moodle.org – Is a course management system in which the teacher can create an online learning site
References
Dembo, S. (2008, October). Virtual worlds for educators. District Administration,
48-52.
Orey, M. (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. Denver: Mid=continent Research for Education and Learning.
When using technology with the cooperative learning groups they can provide support for the individual learners along with teachers and parents. Cooperative learning can also provide instant feedback to both the student and the teacher as the teacher is able to observe students interactions thus assessing their abilities. Besides observations other authentic assessments that can be used are rubrics, peer assessment and writing reflection.
If you are interested in some of the sites I have alluded to above I have listed them below. I picked the ones that I can access from my school and I have either used or am exploring to use in my class next year.
• Webquest – original WebQuest site
• Second Life – Multi-User Virtual Environment (Educators can set up their own virtual world project (Dembo, 2008)).
• Google Docs – online collaboration tool (This allows multi users to share documents
• moodle.org – Is a course management system in which the teacher can create an online learning site
References
Dembo, S. (2008, October). Virtual worlds for educators. District Administration,
48-52.
Orey, M. (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. Denver: Mid=continent Research for Education and Learning.
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