Relection on Theory, Instruction and Technology

This week marks the end of another Masters class through Walden University. I am very excited to say too that I am at the end of this week half way done with my Masters.
The current course I am in is called Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. The class started out talking about education theories and I have to admit that I was sceptical of the class because I am not a huge fan of theory. However as the class went on found that I had a lot in common with two of the theories: social constructivism and social learning. The social constructivism theory focuses on making concrete things and the learning that goes on in the creation of the project. This theory is the one theory that I immediately identified with but as I learned more theories I found the social learning theory. The social learning theory is all about working together with others so that we can all learn from each other. I believe that putting these two theories together will make a powerful learning environment.
To accomplish a class where social learning and social constructivism work together I have made two goals. First I want to have a project a month where students work together to create something original with technology. I do know though that I will get push back from parents and students when it comes to students working together since obstacles can come up in groups. My second goal goes hand in hand with my first: make my projects as student/group friendly as possible by doing things like having class time to work together and making projects online. If I can do more with technology I know my students will like the projects more and the students will have easier access to each other through the use of technology. For example, I want each of my classes to make wikipages since they can be worked on anywhere and any time as long as there is an Internet connection. Another technological activity that I would like to do in my class is a game called Making History. The idea to play Making History came from Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski (2007). In their work it talks about a history teacher using the game to teach WWII politics and history to his students. The teacher had great success playing Making History. He did a study on the academic performance of the students that played the game and found that they learned the concepts better than a control group of students that did not play the game. Both of my goals can be accomplished in projects/activities like these.
In the end I really hope to make my classroom a better learning environment by combining the social learning theory and the social constructivism theory. By combining these theories with technology my students should be able to learn and understand more of the content I am teaching.

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

Cooperative Learning and the Social Learning Theory

I do not think there is a more controversial topic with parents, students and teachers than group work. I have had parents and students absolutely despise me because I assign group work. Some teachers will not even assign it because it is so controversial. Personally when I was a student I hated group work or any time I had to work with others. It often was difficult to find time to meet outside of class and everyone had the same grade but not everyone put in the same amount of work. However in the educational world we find lots of research, theory (social learning theory) and requests from businesses that support teaching our students how to learn and work together. As I grew in my teaching I too realized that group work is needed. I always try to think of what my students need in life when they turn 18 and without a doubt they need to learn how to work with a group. If you go into any business or organization you will find people working together on projects, boards, co-ops, councils, committees, and so on. Therefore if I am going to prepare my students for life I need to prepare them to work in groups.
Students also can learn from each other. The social learning theory tells use that students learn from each other. While I think there are many ways to learn I do believe many students can learn by working together because others can provide a different perspective or set of knowledge.
Now that you know why I think group work is important I also have to say it is often times flawed. To limit or prevent these flaws groups need to be well regulated by the teacher, everyone needs to be accountable for their contributions and communication needs to be easy and appropriate. In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski, 2007) you can find many mediums for communication and cooperation. However these need to be monitored so students do not abuse them by sending inappropriate material or messages to each other.

Constructivism in the Classroom

This week's theory of study is constructionism aka constructivism. The theory is very big on the students finding out the information for themselves through experimentation, creating strategies and hypotheses and so on. The theory can do great things for students in their creativity and enthusiasm for school but it can be time consuming so it is not practical for every day classroom use in my mind.
Two strategies that were introduced by Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski (2007) are using Excel to make data sheets and playing games that require strategy and critical thinking. I really like both of these strategies because I can use both in my class. For my Business class my students have to make personal budgets for each stage of life so Excel is critical in planning out a budget and calculating needs. For some of my other classes the games can be really fun and educational. My favorite of the example games was the WWII strategy game that is online. The kids have to come up with a strategy and then test it in the game. The teacher who originally designed the game tested the effects of the game on his classes. The test scores and enthusiasm in the class with the game were overwhelming. Both of these strategies work well with constructionism and will be used in my classes.

Cognitivism in Practice

This week in my masters' class I am learning about cognitivism and how to use cognitivism theories in the classroom. The readings for this week were really interesting but the best part was the practical ideas for lessons in the classroom. From Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski (2007) I really learned how improtant concept mapping is. Concept mapping is plotting ideas on an area but in a non-linear way. Therefore you can have multiple paths or strands to follow. This is much more like how people think rather than linearly like in writing.
I will use concept maps more in class after reading this text because I do a lot of writting activities which are not reaching all of the learning styles in my class. If I add in some concept maps for both assignments and notes it should help my students. The reason I think this will work is because the cognitivism theory says that we need to do more work with how the brain works and learns rather than the ways we have always done. So my hope is cognitivism will work in my classroom by doing helping my students learn better with concept mapping.

Behaviorist Learning Theory and Instructional Strategies

This week I have been learning a lot about the behaviorist learning theory and how it works in the classroom. This week I also learned about two different instructional strategies that fit under the ideas of behaviorist theory (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).
The first instructional strategy is reinforcing effort (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). In this strategy the teacher makes sure that the student is putting forth their best effort. As a middle school teacher I can say this is the biggest challenge I face. My colleagues and I have often said in middle school students are not graded on how smart they are but if they do their work. Those students who work the hardest are guaranteed at least a B while other really bright students get F's because they don't try at all. The main tool used in this strategy is getting the students to realize how much effort matters in their success and how much effort they are putting in. From a technology stand point the best way I saw to do this was to track grades and a self-survey of effort through excel. The students can then make a graph that represents their grade and their effort and see how they are related. From a behaviorist stand point this is great because the students get to see how their behavior is effecting their learning and hopefully changed their behavior.
The second strategy is homework and practice (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Every teacher knows that we can not teach everything in the class. Therefore we assign extra practice outside of school we call homework. This home is great because it gets students to reinforce what they are learning in class. Again from a technology point of view practice is essential. Almost no one can do something on a computer once and be able to do that again and again forever. We all need to practice skills before we can master them. The part of this strategy that stands out to me as being behaviorist is the fact that students always need feedback on their practice. Then they can change or continue what they are doing so they can be more successful students.
Both of these strategies are useful for the classroom and both work well with technology. One can also categorize these strategies as behaviorist because they show students what is good and bad and allows them to change their behavior based on that analysis.

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

Reflection on Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society

In the past couple of months I have been working on my latest class for my masters: Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. The class was the best one I have taken through Walden University. The reason why I liked the class so much was that I actually learned things that I can easily apply to my classroom. For instance, I had to create a lesson plan where my students created a blog, wiki or podcast. I decided to make a wiki assignment for my Human Conflicts class. In the assignment a group of students have to create a wiki page with information on a conflict that they have chosen. Before the class I had never done anything with wikis but now I can use this new technology to assess my students and give them another creative way of expressing themselves. This class and this one assignment are not the end of my integration of technology into my classroom. I also learned through the class how important it is for us teachers to have the students collaborate with each other to create something digitally. In a previous post I shared about the Partnership for 21st Century Schools. The partnership and Walden have showed me that we need to make workers for the future of our nation and they need to know how to use technology and work with others. Therefore in the future I will continue to come up with new ways to teach my students and prepare them for the future.
Over the next two years I really want to embrace the ideas that I have just shared with you from my class. In the next two years I want to have two digital projects where the students have to work together to create the assignment for every class I teach. Each class I teach is 8 weeks long so ever month I want to challenge my students with something cool digitally. I look forward to developing these projects and seeing how the students respond. The second goal I have for my classroom is that I focus on teaching the students how to work together. Any teacher and student knows that group projects always have flaws. That is why I have stayed away from doing group projects in my classes. However I know what to teach the students how to work together more so they can succeed not only on projects in my class but on projects in the real world. I think in the next two years if I can accomplish these goals I can really help my students.

The Partnership for 21st Century Schools

I recently went to this website: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php
I greatly appreciate other individuals out there that are working towards the same goals I am. This group is hoping to accomplish the same things as me so I support their work in any way I can. The one issue that I do have with The Partnership is that they work on the administrative and district levels where as I work on the teacher level. Teachers always have lots of say in eduction so if we can educate them in the need for new technologically advanced skills then they can pass it on and work towards getting support. The Partnership tries to teach districts mostly on the need for new skills and that can change schools too. We have the same goals in mind but different ways of promoting them.
I am mostly impressed with The Partnership in how they have corporate support. If you look at their board it is all people from the corporate world. Teachers and the corporate world need each other. We need their support and they need use to provide them with educated workers. It is the same effective partnership that recently started a new charter school here in Colorado. Story at: http://coloradocharters.blogspot.com/2009/11/douglas-county-school-board-hears-stem.html
IF you look over the goals and tools on the website you will find some great stuff. The Partnership I believe is truly working towards a great thing. Again most of the resources are more at the administrative and district levels but it is still good stuff. Please everyone contact The Partnership and ask them to start doing their initiatives here in Colorado because they will be a great ally.