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.

Constructivism in Practice

This week I learned about constructivism and constructionism theories used in the classroom. Constructivism states that each individual activiely constructs his/her own meaning. Constructionism states that people learn best when they build on external artifacts or something they can share with others. My classroom theories are based on contsrtuctionism. My students use technology everyday to produce products on the computer and 3D models of their products, power point presentations, and tri-fold displays.

A concept that teachers could incorporate into their classroom is the ability to allow their ability to allow students to generate and test hypotheses. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) state "when students generate and test hypotheses, they are engaging in complex mental processes" (p 202). I feel that constructionism and generating and testing hypotheses go hand and hand. When students generate and test hypotheses they are in control of what they want to learn. This allows students to stay in equilibration.

A great activity that I use in my classroom is I have my students reverse engineer a product to see how the product functions and how they can improve it to make it better or easier to use. This allows the students to be engaged in problem solving, invention examine, experimental inquiry, and decision making. For the most part, the students have full control over all these aspects in their reverse engineering project with some guidance from myself.

Reference:

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

Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitive learning theories allows a student to make a connection with what he or she is reading with a visual artifact. Wheather the artifact is a painting, an image, or a video the students have the ability to make a connection with an image and the text. Cognitive learing theories could allow a student to process and retain information for a longer period of time. In the video clip “Spotlight on Technology: Virtual Field Trips” Dr. Orey discusses how using virtual field trips in the classroom can create an enriched environment for students.

Using the technology of virtual field trips correlates with cognitive learning theories because it allows the students to put visualizations to text. This can help a student retain information and make it eaiser for a student to recall on such information at a later time. Giving a student the opportunity to make connections with what he or she is learning, such as virtual field trips, makes processing and recalling information easier for the student.

Does anyone have insight on cognitive learning theories? Do you use this method in your classroom and if so; how?

References:

Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Spotlight on Technology: Virtual Field Trips [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

Behaviorism in Practice

When a teacher uses a behaviorist teaching method they have positive rewards for right answers and use reinforsement for wrong ones. A behaviorist tends to use technology to reinforse what is being learned. In the book Using technology with classroom instruction that works by Howard Pitler, Elizabeth R. Hubbell, Matt Kuhn, and Kim Malenoski they talk about how using technology can keep track of a students' effort and how using technology for homework and practice provides the student with a better understanding of what he or she is doing and learning.

These strategies correlate with the behaviorist method because it allows the students to use technology to reinforse what they are learning. I feel that technology can be a powerful tool and students should use it as much as possible. Students now days are brought up in a technological era and that is what they are comfortable using. Using technology as a guide (or a helping hand) will allow the students to learn what is being taught while receiving reinforsement throughout the activity or project.

For me being a high school engineering teacher I, along with the students, have technology surronding us. I use technology such as a computer and a projector to demondtrate to the students then they turn around and use a computer, software, and sometimes tutorials to complete an assignment.

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

Intergrating technology reflection

For me being a technology educator I use technology on a regular basis. Technology is incorporated into my class room for my students to learn and hopfully enjoy. One activity I enjoyed from my masters class; Understanding the Impact of Technology and Education is the wikis we had to build as a team. I have never worked with wikis before and to learn what, why, and how they are used was worth while. We worked in groups of 10-15 students and we had to build our own wiki page with everyone contributing to a page within the wiki. The cool thing about the activity is we used technology throughout this process by means of communicating with one another; noit to mention we are from all parts of the world.

My knowledge for technology is always expanding. For the engineering curiculum I teach I am getting trained yearly to stay current with colleges and industry. I continue to use cutting edge technology which allows me to teach this technology to my students.

Since I am a technology teacher a long term goal that I set for myself on a yearly basis is to stay current with the curriculum and technology being used by todays engineering industries and colleges. It is my goal to make sure that the students that do continue on to colloge or industry and a good grasp for what is being applied in todays world as far as technology goes.