Reflection: Final Blog Post EDU:6711

After reflecting on my “Personal Theory of Learning” that I developed in week one, there are a few modifications that I plan on making as a result of my learning throughout his course. The various learning models and instructional strategies presented in this class has allowed me to effectively and appropriately integrate and adapt technology into my classroom and into my personal learning theory.

Structuring opportunities for students to interact with technology on a more consistent basis is one adjustment I plan on making as a result of my learning in this course. According to (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008),“Teaching, learning, and technology work together to achieve the ultimate goal of effective knowledge transfer”. I believe that combining learning theories and technology can help me make appropriated and successful instructional decision for my students’. The theories of learning and of multiple intelligences can provide students’ with many different potential ways to learn. I fee that it’s very important to understand how students comprehend knowledge in order to match learning activities to meet their needs. Technology can help students in the learning process by giving them the opportunity to learn in their individual learning style. Through the use of technology and learning theory I feel that I can accommodate different students more successfully according to their learning needs.

There are two technology tools that I would like to use with my students to support and enhance there learning. The first technology tool I would like to implement in my classroom is Voice Thread. I feel that it’s truly a social and constructivist technology tool for learning. It provides a creative outlet for students and encourages the sharing of ideas. Students are able to use VoiceThread as interactive tool that allows them to collaborating, share, and comment. I really like how Voice Thread allows students to establish and maintain a learning experience with there classmates during the learning activity. The best part I like about voice thread is it allows students to upload pictures, narrate them, and then allows others to comment in 5 different ways-including audio and text. This is a great tool that really utilizes various ways of communication. I would use VoiceThread as a cooperative learning tool to start with and then move to other instructional strategies. I think that having my students use VoiceThread for a problem-based learning activity would be a great way to use technology to engage students with issues and questions that are relevant to their lives.

Using Virtual field trips in my class is another technology tool that I would like to use with my students’ I believe that virtual field trips will challenge and expose students to new types of technology tools that will allow them to receive, organize, share and generate new knowledge. I feel that it’s a great way to spark their interest and motivate their learning in a specific area. Virtual field trips will allow my students’ to have an episodic learning experience which will allow them to create new networks and make connections. In addition, creating episodic experiences is related to Paivio’s “Dual Coding Hypothesis” and is part of the cognitive information processing model. According to Dr. Orey, images are really important tools in helping students make connections and store information into long-term memory (Laureate,2009). My students’ will be able to use the images from a virtual field trip to reflect internally and externally to create a visual representation of their understandings.

There are two long term goal changes I would like to make in my instructional approaches regarding technology integration. Making the effort to continually participate in professional development activities is one goal that will help me integrate technology into my classroom. Professional development training and development will allow me to use technology tools to enhance student learning and increase my productivity in the classroom. Slowly becoming proficient at integrating one technology tool at a time is another goal I have. Dr. Pickering tells us that we should focus at just a few strategies and become skillful at those instead of trying to integrate many strategies at once. (Laureate,2009). My goal is to integrate two new technology tools each year. I believe that this will give me a solid foundation on which to build upon. This will allow me to assemble a personal collection of technology-integrated instructional strategies to use with my students’.


Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author

Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc.,custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: TheoreticalFoundations, pp. 2–35

Voicethread

Currently our building is experiencing issues with overcrowding. The school is built for 900 students and we have 1,050 students. As you can see from the pictures, we are running out of room. The school district is comprised of 95 square miles located 2o minutes north of Columbus, Ohio. Most of the district is in Delaware County with a small, southern portion in Franklin County. The district serves all or part of numerous municipalities including Orange Township, Berkshire Township, Berlin Township, Concord Township, Genoa Township, Liberty Township, Delaware Township, the City of Delaware, the City of Columbus, the City of Westerville, and the City of Powell.

Connectivism and Social Leaning in Practice

I would have to say that the cooperative learning strategy is connected directly with the constructivist and social learning theories. According to Dr. Siemens, context and culture are critical in constructing and understanding of the world around us (Laureate, 2009). I believe it's a very it a very valuable expereince when students have the opportunity to present ideas, as well as hear and reflect on the ideas of others. This can be easily accomplished through the use of social collaboration tools and cooperative learning groups. I believe that these types of activities allow students to acquire knew knowledge and practice important communication and interpersonal skills that are used outside the classroom. In today’s learning environment and in the “real world”, sharing information and expertise is very important in supporting and facilitating learning. I have just started to get my feet wet with the Voice Thread and think it’s is an amazing tool thus far. I’m looking forward to experimenting with it and looking at the possibilities that it offers for collaboration.

Greg-

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).(2009).Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Constructivism in Practice

According to Pitler,Hubbbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, “we most often think about generating and testing hypotheses in the context of science concepts, this strategy is applicable to all content areas" (pg.202). I at first, I disagreed with this statement, but after exploring this weeks resources, I have begun to see how generating and testing hypotheses along with technology tools can complement the constructionist learning theory. In health class I structure a lot of opportunities for problem solving. I have the students’ role play, create scenarios, create projects, and debate topics. In most of these activities, the students have to either make a decision or solve a problem based on set criteria. At times, there could be a lot of data for students to consider when making a decision or trying to solve a specific problem. In the past I would usually just have my students’ create an informal way to assess their findings. I now see how technology can help students gather and interpret the data in a more efficient manner. Through the use of spreadsheet software, data collection tools and web resources, students are able to make more informed decisions based on their findings. In the furture, I'm now going to structure tasks that will help guide students through generating and testing hypothese when using constructivism activities.


Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Constructivism in Practice

According to Pitler,Hubbbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, “we most often think about generating and testing hypotheses in the context of science concepts, this strategy is applicable to all content areas (pg.202). I at first, I disagreed with this statement, but after exploring this weeks resources, I have begun to see how project-based learning tools can complement the constructionist learning theory. In health class I structure a lot of opportunities for problem solving. I have the students’ role play, create scenarios, create projects, and debate topics. In most of these activities, the students have to either make a decision or solve a problem based on set criteria. At times, there could be a lot of data for students to consider when making a decision or trying to solve a specific problem. In the past, I would usually just have my students’ create an informal way to assess and gain a better understanding of their findings. I now see how technology can help students gather and interpret the data in a more efficient manner. Through the use of spreadsheet software, data collection tools and web resources, students are able to make more informed decisions based on their findings.


Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Cognitivism in Practice

After reflecting on this week’s instructional strategies, I would have to say that “Advance Organizers” relate to and fit the description of the cognitive learning theory. According to Pitler, Hubble, Kuhn, & Malenoski, “Using multimedia tools as advance organizers is an extension of expository, narrative, and graphic advance organizers. For many students, multimedia is very effective because it helps them both activate prior knowledge and develop a mental model to help them understand new information” (pg.82). This relates to the information processing approach of the cognitive learning theory. Each idea is connected to every other idea and information that is stored in our long term memory. Advance organizers can help students use their background knowledge to learn new information that is present with advance organizers.

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

Behaviorism in Practice:

After exploring this week’s resources I have begun to understand how Behaviorism and technology instruction are similar in many ways and how they can be used together to aid students learning. According to Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, “the instructional strategy of reinforcing effort enhances students’ understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning” (2009). They offer and describe several recommendations for the use of technology to track effort, to reinforce content, and homework and practice in the classroom. The Behaviorism Learning Theory tells us that learning is determined by the environment either through association or reinforcement. I feel that there is a correlation between behaviorist learning theory and technology tools. Although behaviorism is criticized all the time, it seems that today behaviorism is still being used in the 21st century classroom. Many classrooms are using behaviorism-based technology instructional tools that are based on behaviorist learning ideas. Although I think that drill and practice, remediation, and traditional tutorial programs have a place in the classroom in certain situations, I believe that technology applications could be more effective and appropriate when used during instruction. Dr. Orey tells us “that technology is most effective when remediation activities are kept to a minimum” (Laureate Education, 2009). I do feel that there are instructional situations when behaviorist technology applications are appropriate and effective.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). 2009. Behaviorist Learning Theory [Motion picture]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Baltimore: Author

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD