Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Connectivism is when learning takes place in a cooperative group using technology to enhance the relationships between individuals and the content/curriculum. A great example of connectivism and social learning was in the article, "Social Constructivism Vignette", when Mrs. Smith divided her class into groups and assigned each group one act of the play, Hamlet (Orey, 2001). After Mrs. Smith had realized for years that she had struggled teaching her students about Shakespeare's plays, she turned to social learning instructional strategies. As each student was to complete their part of the project, the end product of a modern-day puppet show was created through a social learning process. In the end, each student's mark was on the project, and they were able to feel a sense of ownership (Orey, 2001).

An instructional strategy that could be a great example of a social learning activity is a "wiki". The whole idea behind a "wiki" is for each student to to put forth their unique ability and talent to the project so the end project is a result of a "diversity of network" (Orey, 2001). I strongly believe that students can just as well learn from other students as well as the teacher. Just like Mr. Orey says a social learning project is where "the students [bring] their diverse interests and collaborated to create their finished product" (Orey, 2001). That is the true definition of a "wiki".

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.

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Constructivism in Practice

The constructionist approach is all about the student’s process of learning is through building artifacts. Just as one of the types of constructionism, Learning by Design, says that the "emphasis is [on] the value of learning through creating, programming, or participating in other forms of designing" (Orey, M., 2001). I agree that students learn better from manipulations than from cut-and-dry class lectures. Some of the best memories I have personally as a student in school are the projects that I created and built, not worksheets that I completed. There are many activities in my classroom and other colleagues’ classrooms that exemplify the constructionist learning theory. For instance, in Social Studies during our World War I unit, students created models of a battlefield, including the trenches, “no man’s land”, and barbwire. In using technology to prepare for the building of the model, students had to research what the World War I battlefields looked like. From ETV streamline video clips to websites (www.firstworldwar.com) that we had viewed in class, students were able to picture in their minds the various elements on a battlefield. The students had so much fun with this project! In this project, and in others, the students became the learner and teacher became the facilitator or guide. This week's resources talked about generating and testing a hypothesis. When the constructivist theory is practiced, roles in the classroom change and a hypothesis can be tested. When activities and lessons are student-centered, students will have a better chance on learning and remembering—and of course that is the whole goal.

References:

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

Experiment with VoiceThread

Hey Everyone,

I skipped ahead and created my account for VoiceThread. I was playing around and created this little album.

http://voicethread.com/share/1012760/

Enjoy!

-Amy

Instructional Strategies Paralleled to the Cognitive Learning Theory

This is by far one of my favorite topics! Almost all the instructional strategies explained in chapter 4 & 6 in our text are great. Fortunately I have used a good bit of them in my classroom or have seen them in action in a colleagues' classroom.

I am a big fan of the program, Inspiration (Pitler, 2007, p.79). My first year of teaching I had my students create a concept map using Inspiration as an organized way to gather their research for their World War II research topic. After creating the concept map, students then had an outline for their research paper and media project they were creating next. In the program, Inspiration, if you change the view from 'concept map' to 'outline', literally the students have typed a good outline to a research paper. The students were amazed (and so was I) how much they remembered and comprehended by using technology and visual cues.

Also, the BrainPop website (www.brainpop.com) is a great place to find short animated video clips based on your state standards topics (Pitler, 2007, p.80). The students are engaged to the lessons the characters Tim and Mobey explain. Hey, we all know our students would rather watch a guy and a robot have a conversation and explain a lesson rather than us (aliens! :) In addition to BrainPop, my school has access to the online Ignite Learning program (online version of the "Purple COW--Curriculum On Wheels"). This program also provides short animated video clips based on state curriculum standards. Check out the following website link to learn more about Ignite Learning: http://www.ignitelearning.com/ . Both of these websites are great sources to find educational visual images that your students will learn and remember--supporting the cognitive learning theory.

After reading in chapter 6 about using the program Inspiration as a note-taking template, it really got me thinking about a new way to have my students take notes. Even though it is required in my school that every student takes "Cornell-style notes", using Inspiration is a great way too. Like it says in the text "using a variety of note-taking formats" can provide students with a new and maybe better way to organize their information (Pitler, 2007, p.128). To learn about "Cornell-style notes", please visit the following website: http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html. I believe Cornell notes are a good way to have students organize the learned information, but Inspiration is digital--something that will engage students anyway because it is using a computer rather than paper/pencil. I also think that the program Inspiration has the students more actively taking notes rather than just writing notes. With the program Inspiration, it allows the students to move around where and how they would organize their information based on how they learn--talk about individual differentiated instruction!

References:

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

Concept Mapping Website

For this week's assignment, we have to create an account on a free concept mapping site. After looking through all the choices under 'Tech Resources', I decided that bubbl.us is a great website! Check it out!

-Amy