Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

This week we were asked to reflect on cooperative learning and some technology that was presented in our book. 

First, what is cooperative learning?  Cooperative learning is the process of learning as a group (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  The group’s understanding of a subject grows together.  They receive the same grade, thus making peers responsible for peers.  No longer is the teacher the only expert in the room.  One interesting fact from the reading was that the groups should be long-term (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).  This makes sense, in that within the class students need to develop a small family that they can rely on.  Together they will work through assignments and complete tasks.  They will not always work with this group, but they are considered their base group. 

Available technology today assists students when working with any type of group.  Being able to research what experts in any field have to say about certain topics is an amazing tool.  Imagine being a student in a small town, and being able to ask an expert about their understanding of a specific disease through e-mail.  What seems simple to me – the ability to go see the doctor in his office (I live across from a hospital) - is not simple for many students.  Technology is allowing for this communication.

Global telecommunication networks assist with group communication today.  Conference calling, or video conference calling, used to be the only way to speak with people who were not in the same area as you.  Now, teachers and students can communicate with people across the world using keypals such as epals.com, worldkids.net, and Skype (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).  Think about being able to speak with someone who lives in China while doing a report on the country!  How helpful and enlightening the experience would be.  Students would be more likely to remember that experience in comparison to a lecture by a teacher who stats “this is what you need to know about China.”  I wish I could use networks more, I just cannot think of ways to use it in my math classes!  Any assistance in this area would be helpful.

One topic my students often struggle with is organization and prioritizing – especially my freshman male students.  To assist all my students, and parents, I keep an up-to-date Google calendar with upcoming assessments, homework, and school related activities.  While the link is on the class website (wiki), many parents and students ask for the link in order to link the class calendar to their personal calendar.  While it does not touch their lack of notebook organization, it is one step in the right direction! 

I defiantly can say Blackboard.com is an example of social learning.   The discussion boards allow for quick peer review and input.  The ‘base group’ is set up by the teacher, though in my case the base group has previously been either a blog group or discussion group.  Obviously, teachers can tailor it to their needs within their classrooms.  Has anyone used Moodle.org or globalschoolnet.org?  These were two mentioned in our reading and I know nothing about them.  Our district is going to blackboard this upcoming school year and I am very excited about it – though I personally hope they work all the kinks out first. 

            Do the above technologies help students acquire and integrate learning?  I would say yes, if chosen appropriately.   Social interaction with technology is the future.  We must prepare students for the future, while also appealing to their learning styles.  They will be the ones assisting us in just a few years.  Educators might be the worst critics when it comes to social learning though.  We are stuck in our classrooms for seven or more hours a day, with little to no collaboration occurring.  Yes, there are great websites that assist with collaboration, but who has the time to look at them once you sign up for the free membership?  Maybe we should reflect on ourselves within this process.  What is your districts and/or school doing to assist you in finding time for personal social learning?

Resources

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program eight: Social learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

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


Voicethread link: https://voicethread.com/?#q.b3144763.i16691552

Constructionist Learning

This week the class was asked to look at constructionist learning.  This theory is thought of as students learning best while working on a finished product of some sort, as compared to learning a topic and then applying it to a real life application (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  The product can range from an actual project model of a building, a web page with information, or even a PowerPoint.  The point is, the student learns through making the artifact.  The three topics we covered in our materials were: learning by design, project based learning, and problem based learning.  Each concept portrays the understanding that the students are their own teachers.  The teacher of the classroom is now used more as a help desk or guidance counselor.  No longer are the teachers at the board giving a lecture.  Teachers are now answering student’s questions, guiding, while letting others work independently or in a group setting. 

Reviewing spreadsheets for constructionist learning is a difficult task.  I see the need for spreadsheets in the business world, but in high school it could be rare for students to need them.  Of course, students need to learn about the program, and due to budget cuts they will probably not have a computer class that teaches them how to use it, so teachers will be required to teach what they know.  Spreadsheets turn into a constructionist tool only after students learning the Excel program.  Students must take their knowledge of the program and begin to make the connections the educators hoped for them to make.

Data collection tools are helpful in developing understanding as students perform experiments, collect the data, and then draw their own conclusions. As pointed out in Problem Based Instruction by Dr. Orey (2001), groups can take the same information as a class but come up with many different outlooks. 

One technology I use often, and have also spoken about before, is Geometers SketchPad.  At the beginning of the year the students have no idea how to use the software.  By the end of the year they are able to build and prove theorems we use in our class daily.  If setup correctly, much like a webquest, students can work independently or in a group to make connections related to many different math skills including: transformations, area formulas, and area under the curve. 

The key is that teachers must plan.  Learning takes on many different forms.  When there is meaning and a connection in the student’s eyes, they will learn.  Are you making your lessons meaningful? 

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program seven: Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Cognitive Tools

This week the class was asked to examine provided resources and how they compare to the principles of cognitive learning.   

First, what is cognitive learning?  It is the process of learning something new by performing a task/using your senses, storing the new material into short term memory, and making connections with already known material to allow it to enter into long term memory through the said connection (Laureate, 2011).  The brain consists of tons of connections, and it is through these connections (pathways) that we build off known knowledge to begin to develop a deeper understand of new information.  

With cognitive learning, one learns by doing.  In today’s society ‘doing’ often means with the assistance of technology (Orey, 2011).   For example, cognitive learning is not about reproducing the formula for volume of a cylinder, but it is using technology to model how the volume of a cylinder and cone are and are not alike.    

In our materials this week the idea of graphic organizers continued to occur.  Graphic organizers are an excellent way to collect thoughts about any topic.  It also is a great visual, thus an important cognitive learning tool.  On a side note - at the beginning of the school year faculty members were asked to implement more graphic organizers, not only to assist with ACT/SAT visual skills, but also to continue to grow and develop our students reasoning skills.  Even in Algebra I and geometry, we have found many ways to use them in assessing student understanding of topics. It was listed in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007), but I too realized it early in the year, you must teach and show students how to use graphic organizers in order for them to benefit from using them. 

Also mentioned was the process of taking notes.  Note taking is a skill I found I must take time to teach and reteach to my freshman and sophomore students in my math classes.  I have students who want to write every word I say down and then become mad if I move onto another slide, but on the other hand, I have some students who take no notes at all – not because they are lazy, but because they are not sure what is important.  Three years ago I did begin giving notes pages almost daily to my students.  They allow the students to focus more on the content, and not writing every word and problem down.  My notes pages already have the problems written out (not worked out), as well as most definitions written down with the key words missing.  As the year progresses I begin to have the students take more of their own notes, still giving them pages, but it is designed where they must write more of the concepts in.  I never take away the actual practice problems we work in class, as students have voiced they like to have those already written to insure they have the correct problems written down.  Note taking is a skill that develops over time, and must be age appropriate to be effective. 

Continuing with visuals, the ability that Word has strikethrough deletions is one of the neatest things I have seen in a long time!  How powerful would it be for students to peer review papers with group mates while sitting in their own houses, or peer review on computers instead of using different color pens?  I know there are Google Docs and such, but something about visually seeing the strikethrough really appeals to me.   

One visual assistance I use in my geometry classes is are highlighters and color pencils to enhance the side, angles, or arc we are asked to find the length or degree of.  Even the idea of highlighting all the congruent sides the same color visually shows the students that yes, or no, the polygon can be a parallelogram.  The highlighter and color pencils are not only skilsl I use with my students during lecture, but also during tests and quizzes as well.   

Another concept I use with my students is visual vocabulary and theorem/postulate cards.  During every chapter in geometry, my students are to write the definitions for each vocabulary word and provide a picture or visual representation.   They also must write every theorem and postulate onto notecards, to later use as flashcards.  On the back of these flashcards students are to draw a pictorial view of when the concept could be used in a proof, or to solve for a variable. 

Overall, cognitive tools assist student learning.  You learn more when you do something.  After all, many people do not know how to change a tire until they actually must need to change it themselves.  They learned, they make connections to previous knowledge, and they become successful.  Cognitive learning makes students think and learn on a deeper level, as compared to only recalling facts (Orey, 2001). 

References: 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learnCourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

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

Behaviorist Learning Theory

 Having covered the behaviorist learning theory this week in class, we have been asked to describe how some of our provided resources correlated with the principles of the theory.  First, the principles (according to James Harley):

1.       Activity is important.

2.      Repetition, generalization and discrimination are important notations.

3.      Reinforcement is the cardinal motivator.

4.      Learning is helped when objectives are clear.  (Smith, 1999)

           Some of the resources we looked at were based on 21^st century skills such as using Word, Google Scholar, Excel, Multimedia, and web resources such as tutorials and review games. I think this biggest thing for students is the immediate feedback given by technology today.  With Google Scholar, a student can search one topic and immediately articles pop up – almost as if you have just won the jackpot!  (If only the number of articles found related to real money right?)  Online tutorials help with student pacing.  If the tutorial is set up nicely, students can pause, rewind, and forward through the parts they do and do not understand.  My favorite video resource is Khan Academy.  This has many online videos and more are added daily!

         Webmath.com was a new resource for me.  Looking at the site I was intrigued to see it allows students to put in given information and instead of just spitting out the answer to their question, it logically steps them through the problem.  Again, it is another type of mini tutorial for students to take their time digesting.  My only concern is that students could submit their whole homework and have the webpage do the work for them.  What good does that do?  (This page even does derivatives, integrals, and right triangle trig though too!)

          Going along with immediate feedback would be online review games.  These cover repetition, activity, and reinforcing motivators mentioned above in the listed principles. One issue with online games is the availably of technology in schools today for students.  Some schools have a huge amount of technology, while others are scraping by.  However, with review games, students are more likely to be able to get on while teachers are working with other students, instead of working problems from their textbook.  Consistent spiraling review can never be harmful either!  Something to keep in mind, the game does not need to cover material from the current day, or even unit.  Especially with end of course tests in the future, all students could benefit from a little reviewing. 

         To make anything work correctly, educators must have their objectives stated and enforced.  This even includes the usage by students.  If educators let the students know from the beginning that it is a privilege to use the technology as a tool, not a social hangout during class time, more work will be completed.  More work completed, means engaged and prepared students. 

        While I originally thought the resources did not match up, I was incorrect.  They each would

stimulate the students in different ways, and if planned correctly by the teacher could have a significant impact on learning.  

Resources:

Smith, K. (1999). The behaviorist orientation to learning. In The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-behavourist.htm