VOICETHREAD ACTIVITY


This week I was introduced to Voicethreads, and as an assignment I had to make a voicethread to share with my colleagues. I tried my best, I hope you get an idea of what voicethreads are and how you might be able to use them in your classes.

  

Here is the url: http://voicethread.com/share/2911929/

http://voicethread.com/share/2911929/

Constructivism in Practice

This week I explored the following instructional strategy which embeds technology: “Generating and Testing Hypotheses,” I found this strategy to be rather informative, since I never looked at this strategy as one that I could implement in my classroom.  So what is generating and testing hypotheses?  This is a strategy that enhances student’s understanding of and ability to use knowledge by engaging them in mental processes that involve making and testing hypotheses (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 9).  According to the authors, when we allow students to test and generate hypotheses, we are allowing them to engage in complex mental process, applying content knowledge, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content (Pitler, et. al., 2007, P. 202).   To implement this instructional strategy, we should ensure that students can explain their hypotheses and conclusion, and we must use a variety of structured task to guide students through generating and testing hypothesis (Pitler et.al., 2007, p. 203).  We were introduced to six tasks which we can use to aid students in generating and testing hypotheses, they are as follows: system analysis, problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making (Pitler, et. al., 2007, p. 203)

So you’re asking, how is generating and testing hypothesis related to constructionist learning theories?  Well first we must familiarize ourselves with the constructionist learning theory. The constructionist learning theories states that people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others (Laureate Education, Inc. 2011).  Both constructionist learning theory and generating and testing hypothesis learning strategy, requires students to construct a product, using some form of technology such as; spreadsheet software, data collection tools, or Web resources, and then present or share them with their peers.  This will also incorporate Project-based learning, Learning-By-Design, and Problem-based-inquiry. 

Project-based Learning is a comprehensive instructional approach that engages learners in sustained, cooperative investigation (Hans & Bhattacharya, 2001).

Learning-By-Design emphasizes the value of learning through creating, programming, or participating in other forms of designing (Hans & Bhattacharya, 2001),

Problem-based inquiry emphasizes learning as a process that involves problem solving and critical thinking in situation context (Gazer, 2001)

With these instructional strategies, we are moving our classrooms from teacher-centered to student-centered; we are now facilitators, and our students are now investigators.

For more information on constructionist click here

Resources

Glazer, E.  (2001). Problem Based Instruction. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging Prespectives on learning , teaching, and technology,  Retrieved 3/14/2012, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/ Retrieved from “http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Problem_BAsed_Instruction”

Han, S. and Bhattacharya, K. (2001). Constructionism, Learning by Design, and Project Based Learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved 3/14/2012, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title= Constructionism,_Learning_by_Design,_and_Project_Based_Learning

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

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

Tools for Cognitive Learning Theory: “Cues, Questions, and Advanced Organizers” and “Summarizing and Note taking”

This week we learning resources focused on cognitive learning theories and the learning strategies that would go hand-in-hand with cognitivism.   What is cognitive learning theory?  Cognitive learning theory focus on learning as a mental operation that takes place when information enters through the senses, undergoes mental manipulation, is stored, and is finally used (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008, p. 16).  Cognitive learning theory includes; i) limited short term/working memory, ii) elaboration, iii) dual coding hypothesis, and iv) episodic expressions (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).    Cognitive learning theory gives students powerful tools that they can use to help process information that they don’t usually use (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  Thus our learning strategies for this week; Cues, questions, and advanced organizers, and summarizing and note taking.

In chapter 4 of our text, “Using Technology with Classroom Strategies that Work,” I explored cues, questions, and advance organizers.  In this chapter we look at ways in which to enhance student’s ability to retrieve, use, and organize what they already know about a topic (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 9).  These tools are very important when it comes to the cognitivism, since they allow the students to focus on what they are learning.  Cues allows teachers to provide students with hints about what they are preparing to learn, questions are similar to cues by accessing students prior knowledge, and advanced graphic organizers, allow students to organize and focus their learning (Pitler, e.t al., 2007, p. 73).

 In my daily lesson plans, I provide my students with an essential question, which they should be able to answer at the end of the lesson.  This question gears my teaching and at times acts as a guide for classroom discussion, this question also allows the students to think back to previous lesson and try to connect it to the new lesson.  I find that it is necessary to activate student’s prior knowledge to gage their knowledge of the lesson; I have used different graphic organizers to carry out this process, such as Frayer’s Model and K-W-L charts.  With these strategies comes different form of technology applications which we can implement in our classes to engage learning and deepen understanding. These technologies include word processing applications, spreadsheet software and organizing and brainstorming software.  With these technology tools, teachers are able to input students’ responses, and organize these responses in to useful information (Pitler, et. al., 2007, p. 75).

Chapter 6 of our text dealt with summarizing and note taking.  Summarizing and note taking, enhances students’ ability to synthesize information and organize it in a way that captures the main ideas and supporting details (Pitler, et. al., 2007, p. 9).  To begin with the author’s states that we should first teach students the rule-based summarizing strategy then use summary frames and finally teach students the reciprocal teaching strategy (Pitler, et. al., 2007, p. 120).  One way of getting students to summarize information in math is to have them skim the text, and identify the key concepts, which are usually bold or written in color.  I also stress to students that the formulas are necessary when summarizing. 

Note taking is considered the most powerful study skills a student can cultivate, the authors suggest that we give students teacher prepared notes, teach students a variety of note-taking formats and use combination notes (Pitler, et. al. 2007, p. 120).  The note taking strategy that I implement in my classroom is Cornell Notes, this strategy allows students to question, reflect and review their notes.  This is also a requirement of our schools’ AVID program and for our 9^th grade academy.  The Cornell note also comes with a rubric that can be used to grade the given assignment.  The technology tools that are aligned with note taking are multimedia, wiki, blogs, word processing applications and organization and brainstorming software. 

Resources

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.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.  Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundations

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

Behaviorist Learning Theory and the Impact it has on Instructional Strategies: Reinforcing Efforts and Homework.

This week we were asked to explore two instructional strategies that were embedded with technology.  These two strategies are closely aligned with the behaviorist learning theory.  Behaviorist learning theory emphasizes changes in behavior that results in stimuli-response association made by the learner (Orey, 2002). 

The first instructional strategy I explored was reinforcing efforts; this strategy allows students to see the correlation between effort and achievement.  In “Using Technology with Classroom Strategies that Work” the authors gave two recommendations on using this strategy; i) explicitly teach students about the importance of effort, and ii) having students keep track of their efforts and achievements (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.156).  Since behaviorist believes all behaviors are learned, I can definitely see how reinforcing effort align with one of James Hartley‘s key principles that “reinforcement is the cardinal motivator,” (Smith, 1999).  Even though I have stressed “you get what you put in” in my classroom, I never thought to designing a rubric which my students can use to chart their effort and achievements.  As a high school math teacher, I can see how this would benefit majority of my students, since my students cannot see how valuable it is to study or even read over their note.  With the implementation of technology, it is now easier for teachers to develop a rubric or a spreadsheet which they can provide to students with an opportunity to chart their effort and achievement.  Once students are able to see how both effort and achievement correlate, they will in turn want to be successful.

The second instructional strategy I explored was Homework and practice; this strategy extends the learning opportunities for students to practice, review and apply what they have learned (Pitler et al., 2007, p. 9).  In math it is imperative that students are given the opportunity to practice what they have learned, thus the need for homework.   In order for students to deepen their understanding and achieve proficiency, they will need multiple exposures to the material, (Pitler et. al., 2007, p. 188).   I find when we start the assignment in class; the students are more inclined to doing the assignment.  With homework and practice, the following key principles of James Hartley come to mind, “repetition, generalization, and discrimination are important notions, and learning is helped when objectives are clear” (Smith, 1999).  With the use of word processing applications, spredsheet applications, multimedia, web resources, and communication soft ware, we can take our homework assignment to an innovative level.  One website that I allow my students to use for practice is Khan Academy, whenever I introduce a new topic I pull instructional videos from this site to present the materials, my students also use the practice problems provided on this site to check for understanding.  Our text also offer an online module that allow students to self-assess, where they can take the assessment for the given section, this is for personal use and at times can count towards n extra-credit activity.

For more information on instructional strategies with technology click here

  

References:

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

Smith, M. K. (1999) The behaviorist orientation to learning”, the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/learning-behaviourist.htm.  Last updated: December 01, 2011.

Strandridge, M..(2002). Behaviorism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved March 05, 2012, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism

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

          When I began this course back in January, I really didn’t know what to expect.  I am not new to technology; therefore, I was familiar with most of the tools that we were going to use throughout this course.  Even though I was not new to these forms of technology, I have never taken the time out to look deep into their development and there benefits to education.  Now that I am finishing up my last week of this course I can easily say that I now know enough about these tools to implement them into my classroom.  This course also allowed me to be reacquainted with the 21^st century skills which my students will need in order to be successful in the future.  You might be wondering what type of tools I am referring to, so let me cut to the chase, this course introduced me to Wikis, Weblogs, and Podcast.

Before this course, I had no interest in having a blog of my own, however, I did subscribe to the blogs of few of my friends, so I knew it was used to relay information, and facilitate communication.  So after completing the required reading for week 2, and learning of all the positive impact blogs have on students learning and the professional collaboration it allows for educators, I was more than ready to make my own professional blog.  The best part about using my blog, was the feedback I received from my classmates, so I knew this would be a hit with my students. 

By the time week three came around, I was required to develop a group Wiki with the members of my PLC. Before now, I stayed away from Wiki’s of all forms, this was all due to my ignorance, never had I taken the time to investigate the benefits  associated with Wikis, I also figured that wiki’s were not trust worthy, therefore, I avoided them.   This course offered me the opportunity to see the benefits of using a wiki, firsthand.  Using a Wiki in my classroom will definitely benefit my students, “they will become better learners-----namely, collaboration and negotiation skills” (Richardson, 2010). 

                Week four offered me the opportunity to do something completely outside of my comfort zone, not only did I have to interview and record my students, but I also had to upload to my personal blog.  Of all the assignments I thought this to be the most difficult since I had a HARD time uploading my podcast.  With utilizing these different tools, I was able to see my teaching in a different light, I am now able to introduce my students to a whole new way of learning, which will definitely offer engagement. 

          This course really allowed me to rethink my way of work in the classroom; it allowed me to see ways in which I can improve my teaching style to reach all my students.  Since my students are required to learn 21^st century skills I realize that I have to find the teachable moments to implement these skills into my lesson or class.  This course also reminded me that my students are not like me, they are from the digital era therefore, and I need to teach them with that thought in mind.  The teaching strategies that worked for me “back in the days” will not work for my students. 

          This year I have actually moved from lecturing four days a week to two, with this changed I have moved my classroom from teacher-centered to student-centered.  I have also introduced more engaging activities and project-based learning.  In doing this I noticed that I have more student participation, and student’s grades have definitely increased dramatically.  I think that with the change to student-centered classes I have placed my students learning in their own hands, they are now responsible for their own learning.  I must also say, I like my role as facilitator. 

         

          I will continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement by becoming involved in different PLC at school, gaining membership to different educational technology organization, and subscribing to different educational technology magazines.  In order for me to continue to grow I must keep learning.

          My two long-term goals for transforming my classroom environment to overcome institutional and systematic obstacles are; 1) become more of a facilitator rather than a lecturer, I will accomplish this by providing my students with more inquiry based, engaging scenarios with the use of collaboration.  Students will work more in cooperative groups rather than individually, 2) to have a running classroom blog, for students to use for collaboration, assistance and communication.  To accomplish this I plan on first talking to our administrators and getting permission to begin this task.  I will then send home parent letters, to get permission from parents to involve their students in this process.  Once all the red tape is eliminated, I will then set up a classroom blog for each of my five classes, and use this for collaboration.  By year two all my students will be required to have their own blogs.

          Looking back to my Check list, few of my answers have changed since the first week of class.  I would like to be able to collaborate with my students on new and emerging technology tools; I would also like to work on designing more collaborative learning experience.

Reference

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Finally after almost 12 hours of trying to upload this audio, it is finally a success....this was WORK!




http://ksatch.podbean.com/

What is Partnership for 21st-Century Skill ?

This week I got the opportunity to explore The Partnership for 21st-Century Skills website, and must say I was impressed with the plethora of information this site provides for educators, parents, and policymakers alike.  The Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, also known as P21 “is a national organization that advocates for 21st century readiness for every student.”  This organization, basically came about to help prepare students for future, by stressing the 3Rs and 4Cs.  It is imperative that our students learn the 3Rs, however, to survive in the future, they must be equip with the 4Cs; critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation.

I was rather impressed with the Framework for the 21st-Century learning; this framework outlines the six essential skills our students will need to be successful in the future.  These skills are as follows: 
•Core subjects (English, mathematics, science, etc.)
•21st-century content (finance, health, global awareness, etc.)
•Learning and thinking skills (communication, collaboration, etc.)
•Information and communication technology 
•Life skills (ethics, leadership, self direction, etc)
•21st-century assessment
P21 actually gave me a deeper understanding of the 21st-Century skills, and also ideas on how these skills can be implemented in the classroom.


As of this writing there are currently fifteen P21 partner states, which can be found at Route 21 (www.p21.org/route21) .  I was not impressed with this information, why are more states not involved in this movement? The benefits associated with being members of P21 are tremendous, such as professional development, resources, assistance needed to implement the 21st-century skills, and well rounded students not only equip in the 3Rs but also the 4Cs. 


References
Partnership for 21st Century Skills http://www.p21.org/home
Welcome to Route 21 http://route21.p21.org/