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.