Personal Theory of Learning

I feel that students learn best when they have ideas or goals set for the day and for the end of a unit. I see my students succeed when I incorporate technology into the lecture along with not allowing students to have down-time. My curriculum is broking up into 4 units with multiple lessons, activities, and a major project for each unit. When I start a new unit with the students we go over what the unit is about and what the outcome should be. Also, I write daily objectives on the board, so the students can see what the goals are going to be for that day.

I use a lot of technology in the classroom, but there is always room to grow as technology will continue to improve. My goal is to stay up to date with current technology and to incorporate new technology into my curriculum. The first piece of technology I plan to use in the future is a VoiceThread. Students will have the ability to use a VoiceThread when they work on their virtual design challenge with other students from around the States. The other piece of technology I would like to incorporate into my curriculum is online testing for students. Online testing would allow the students to take exams and have their scores generated for them right away. This would make my life easier being the computer will do the grading which would allow me to spend more time helping students or preparing lesson plans.

Reference
Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Can we go on a virtual field trip?

There are three video clips here.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

This week I explored how social learning theories provide students with the ability to be activily engaged in constructing artifacts and conversing with each other. I have my students spend about half their time through the school year working collabrativly and the other half working indivdually. I feel students have a sence of control when they work collabrativly because they are in-charge of their learning. They keep each other going while understanding that I am their to act as a guide if things start to get out of hand or they have a question that no one in the group can answer.

When students interact with each other, a piece of technology such as a computer, or with the teacher, I feel they are able to retain more information. When they help each other it allows the student to feel good about themselves and it shows the teacher that they have retained the information. Also, this shows the teacher that not only does the student understand, but they are able to teach the information to others in the class and the student has gone above inert knowledge. Using a piece of technology such as the computer, Skype, or a VoiceThread allows the students to not only interact with their peers in the classroom, but with other people across the globe.

References:

Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Connectivism as a Learning Theory [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Social Learning Theories[DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

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