Reflectiong on "Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology"

In my personal theory of learning I stated that I have a cognitive-constructivist perspective. I believe that students need to be emotionally and actively involved in the lesson in order for it to be meaningful to them. After completing this course, I would not change my personal theory of learning - I think it fits with the nine instructional strategies discussed very well.

Some immediate adjustments that I would make is to integrate technology more. During each lesson, I plan some type of a synthesis activity and my plan is to use technology more with these activities. Our school has limited technology so I plan to spend the summer brainstorming creative ways to use what I have at my disposal. One technology that I plan to implement at the beginning of the year is a class blog for each of my classes. This blog will serve as a place for students to discuss questions and to review content learned in class. I plan to post a question each week for students to respond to and to respond to each other. The other technology tool that I would like to use is VoiceThread. With the limited technology that I have, this is something that we would be able to use easily and it would be a great way for students to present information and have other students comment on it.

One long-term goal that I have is to implement and use a blog for each class. I will maintain this throughout the year and have my students continue to use it after they are out of my class as a place to remain in contact and pose questions to other students. This is something that I will implement in September and work out the kinks throughout the year. Then by the following year, it should be seamless. The other long-term goal I have is to use more nonlinguistic representations in my lessons. This will be difficult to do because I teach middle school math, but I hope to visually describe the use of mathematical concepts to make them more understandable. Again, this is something that I plan to start doing next year and continue to implement more nonlinguistic representations every year. These will mostly be in the form of a PowerPoint.

Overall, I found this course very useful. The exposure to different technologies was extremely helpful and I loved seeing everyone else’s ideas. I wish you all the best 

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Reflectiong on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Dress Code

Here is a link to my Voice Thread on the issue of the dress code in my school.

http://voicethread.com/share/1197688/

Social Learning Theories

There are countless ways to incorporate social learning theories into the classroom, and technology can be used with many of these strategies. A more basic strategy for cooperative learning is Think, Pair, Share. This is a strategy that I use on almost a daily basis. If my students seem confused on something, I will have them get with a partner to discuss the question. Or, other times I will just pose a question to get their thoughts on something, and two heads are better than one! Another strategy that I plan to incorporate into my classroom next year is having a base group. I think that having a group of people to serve as a support system will greatly help my students. Many of my students do not like to ask questions or come for extra help. With a base group, they can turn to their group for help or get a group member to give them the support, emotionally or physically, to help them succeed.

Blogging is a cooperative learning strategy. By reading other classmates’ blogs, the thinking juices start flowing. Students will start thinking deeper and more critically about what other people say and even about what their original thoughts were. While you can have the same effect with just a classroom discussion, you will get more people’s thoughts through the non-threatening nature of a blog. Also, kids love using the computer, so they can use the computer and really think through what they want to say before posting it.

Other strategies for cooperative learning are: activities using Multimedia software, PowerPoint presentation, Jigsaw activities, WebQuests, and virtual field trips.

Any social learning theory is beneficial for learners because it actively engages students in conversations and creating artifacts. There are many things that people cannot do on their own, even adults. Therefore, turning to find the knowledge elsewhere, and teaching kids how to do that, is an important life skill.