NETS for Teachers and my GAME plan

The two NETS standards that I feel less confident about are “model digital age work and learning”, and “engage in professional growth and leadership.” To become more confident in these two standards I have developed a GAME plan. First I set goals to become more familiar with new technologies and to become more involved in sharing information about new technologies with other teachers. The second part of my GAME is to attend professional learning conferences and events that inform teachers on new technologies and how to implement them in the classroom. I also will set up opportunities at my school to inform other teachers about this new technology and show them how to use it in class. I will monitor my progress by making sure that I am proficient in new technologies and using them in my classroom on a daily basis. Also, I must have many different times when I can teach about the new technologies I have learned. I will evaluate and extend my learning by talking with other teachers who use these technologies and are responsible for teaching others about them. This should prove helpful in me meeting my goals with the NETS for teachers.

Jonathan Garrett

Personal Theory of Learning

This course has helped greatly shape and change my personal learning theory for my students. The implementation of constructionism should greatly help my students learn concepts and retain the important information that they need to be successful. When students have a working knowledge of a topic they retain the information much better. Having students work together and communicate and interact they also better understand the information they have received.

Some adjustments I must make to effectively impact my studesnts are the use of non-linguistic representations and informational organizers. The use of summarizing strategies using non-linguistic approaches and organizers will be beneficial for students and greatly help them. To implement these strategies with technology I will use tool likes Microsoft Word to complete these instructional strategies. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski show us that students saw great success using both the principle pattern summarizer and cause-effect pattern organizer(Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. 2007). The assignment I want to incorporate with the first technological instructional strategy is the passing of a bill into a law. I will teach the process prior to the assignment and then place the students into groups. This will add to the social learning aspect that students need to help them learn through interactions. We know that students are better able to create principle organizers to effectively describe their understanding because of they are more familiar with the topic (2007). The students will be able to graphically describe the concept using an organizational chart in Microsoft Word. The second idea I want to incorporate in the classroom to implement the instructional strategies is a cause and effect technological assignment. Here I want to use Microsoft’s Cause-Effect pattern organizers and small groups to complete this instructional strategy. The students will get into groups to create step-by-step organizers of a the election of the President from the primaries to the actual election. These strategies will allow students to see what they are thinking and can both be completed with non-linguistic symbols.

Two long-term goals I would like to achieve regarding technology integration in my classroom are to let student to build knowledge through the use of technological graphic organizers and to present more student-created activities in my classroom. Students can construct knowledge much more effectively when they are able to create an artifact using technology. I also would like to allow my students to research information for themselves instead of me giving them all of the information that they need. This will allow my students to retain more information and help other students understand the information better. I firmly believe that these strategies will improve my teaching and allow my students to master all of the skills that they need.

Jonathan Garrett

Resources:

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

VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/share/1041525/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

I think a majority of students construct meaning through social learning but a smaller number of students prefer different methods. A vast number of students learn more effectively when they are allowed to use collaborative practices because they are able to interact with other students and share ideas (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007, p. 139). I implement this practice about once a week in my classroom and have seen students succeed in collaborative activities where they may have failed in other activities. I have also seen some students who prefer to work by themselves and do quite well. Social learning is of the utmost importance but I believe that everyone is different so not everyone constructs the same meaning through social learning.

Implications of adopting social learning instructional practices and integrating technology tools that support and facilitate social learning are very great. By implementing these practices, educators are allowed to reach more students and allow all of them to learn interactively. Most of our students are very familiar and comfortable with technology so using it in various ways should also help students retain information better and make the learning process more relevant. Some technologies that has helped me facilitate social learning in my classroom are wikispaces, blogs, and podcasts. The students seem to enjoy these activities more and therefore retain more of the content.

Jonathan Garrett

Resources:

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

Constructionism Strategies

Dr. Michael Orey did an excellent job in illustrating effective constructional learning strategies inside the classroom. The construction of a picture or idea in our minds is the basic notion behind constructionist beliefs. Students working with materials and an idea in order to achieve an end goal constitutes basic constructionism practices (Laureate, 2009). Dr. Orey also discussed that the work of Piaget was a predecessor to modern constructivist ideas and that students must be involved in building ideas in order to learn and build from knowledge. Technology plays an important role in this approach because so many programs, such as PowerPoint, require students to work with a topic and slowly build and create a final product. With the physical construction students are mentally constructing ideas and notions about the topic. Seymour Papert purported the more involvement with an idea, the more building of knowledge (Laureate, 2009). Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski added to this point with the description of a high school history teacher’s classroom which used two methods to teach WWII. The first was a straightforward method, recognizable to almost anyone. The latter method was an interactive web approach utilizing a game. The teacher found that the students who had more interests in the game and performed as certain leaders did in history retained more information and performed much better on the assessment (2007). This example greatly supports the theory of constructionism because the students who had a more hands-on lesson and interacted with the game performed better than students who were just lectured to. I had a similar experience when teaching the executive branch of government. Two classes were allowed to create their own ideal presidential candidate. The students picked what race, party, religion, and stance on important issues their candidate would take. These students were more successful with the executive branch because they were allowed to construct their knowledge of the office of the president.

Jonathan Garrett

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 7. Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author

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

Cognative Learning Theory in the Classroom

After completing this week’s learning resources a few thoughts come to mind that connect some instructional strategies I use in the classroom to principles of cognitive learning theory. One method I implement and supports cognitive learning theory is the use of multimedia mapping. I recently assigned a project where the students had to find advertisements from special interest groups and annotate it using a myriad of programs. Their annotations had to highlight some of the key aspects of special interest group advertisements and their images had to contain at least 4 examples of these aspects. The students highly enjoyed this assignment and are extremely sharp when it comes to special interest groups. I attribute this to the fact that multimedia learning allows students to “both activate prior knowledge and develop a mental model to help them understand new information.” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007) This vivid connection supports the beliefs of Dr. Michael Orey, an expert in cognitive theory, as well. Orey stresses that for learning to be significant multiple senses must be integrated in the activity or presentation and ideas must be connected to other ideas. (Laureate, 2009) This learning activity exemplifies my best efforts to keep content relevant and fresh as long as educators’ best practices. Hopefully the integration of picture and words and the manipulation of both will aid my students now and in the future connect cognitively to the topic.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 5. Cognitive Learning Theories. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.

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

Behaviorists Learning Through Educational Technology

Behaviorist learning has a place in today's classroom. Behaviorism concentrates on actions that are measurable and can help keep track of a student's progress (Laureate Education, 2009). This allows students to set goals and actually see that they are making progress in a particular area. This is very relevant today because technology can be used to integrate behaviorist learning in the classroom. Students can complete online tutorials in areas where they need help and they can receive feedback on their answers. Also creating an effort and achievement spreadsheet to help students see areas they need to improve and help them associate their effort to their achievement. Behaviorist learning can be very useful in today's classroom if it is used for just more than just drill and practice and used to help students improve. Behaviorist learning in todays classroom takes advantage of the technology available and keeps students interested because they can physically see where they have made improvement.


References:

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