Reflection Final Blog Posting for 6711

Personal theory of learning-While reflecting on my personal theory of learning I believe most of what I was observing or doing was along the lines of our class. A few of the theorists that I included were Papert, Gardner, and Skinner. Their practices aligned with many of our learning applications. I think it is important to understand what strategies work well for you and your children. These might even change from year to year depending on the students. I found that making things memorable is more important than anything. I will make the students remember more and put it in their long term memory banks. These activities can also incorporate technology as well. Make things a learning activity rather than a teaching activity. Make the students involved and responsible for their own learning.

Immediate changes to implement technology- I am going to try to use more learning tools. Let the students explore technology more on their own rather than me always using teacher centered activities.

Two technology tools- I am going to use Voice Stream to present at the end of the year for each child. I am going to take pictures of some of their work and record their voices to narrate their Voice Stream. I am also going to take more virtual field trips and have many follow up activities to extend the subject while using group work.

Long term goals and plans-Now that I have 2 computers in my class I am going to make a computer center that the children can use during center time. I plan to have interactive web sites for them to use and explore. Let them use power point to make slide shows of the units we are learning. I am going to implement a technology small group weekly in my lesson plans that will include virtual field trips, Voice Streaming, and other on going projects that the parents can access at home as well with the students.

Brandy Rainey

VoiceThread

Here is the link to my voicethread account. I am doing it on school and classroom security. We don't have an office staff and our doors are just locked all day with a phone to access the classrooms. It can be frustrating for the parents and teachers. With budgets tight an office staff doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

http://voicethread.com/#q+school+and+classroom+security.b1041843.i5554078

Cooperative Learning in a Social Learning Theory Environment

Applying the social learning theory in a classroom is present in most classrooms today. The classroom is a melting pot of many different aspects of different theories. One theory in a whole is not relevant to a 21st century classroom. We as teachers are asking our students to do more and more social learning. We have expected behaviors and outcomes when giving a task, and we rely on the students to adapt and learn socially to complete these tasks. We ask them to model appropriate behaviors in their groups to show their peers what is desired.
Cooperative learning has an important place in today's classrooms. As stated by Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler students need, "To be prepared for the fast-paced, virtual workplace that they will inherit, today's students need to be able to learn and produce cooperatively" (p.139). There are many generalizations about cooperative learning. The recommendations would be to use different criteria for grouping, use formal, informal and base groups, keep group size down, and combine cooperative learning with other styles as well (p. 140). There are many components to cooperative learning that relate to social learning. Students have to have interaction with their peers. They will foster their interpersonal and group skills such as communication, leadership, and conflict resolution. They will be required to reflect as a group on their task when finished. These are life skills that they will be able to transfer over into the work force.
Technology can play a part in cooperative and social learning. Technology tasks are usually a group task. It is a vital role of cooperative learning. Studies have proven that technology collaboration gives the students a increase in effect size (p. 141).
Using multimedia and web enhanced tools are a positive way to use technology in cooperative learning. ePals is an excellent way for students to interact with other students. It is the Internet's largest community of collaborative classrooms. They share many projects, cultural experiences, and language learning. Using a webquest or producing a website are cooperative and social tasks. Students can work together to gather the information to use these sites.
When a teacher is planning for a technology project the first thing that should come to mind is how can I group my children for this project. Lay out social goals along with the learning goals for each group. The groups can assign roles for each students as to work cooperatively together in a flowing manner. It is important to "model" appropriate behaviors for the students before the project starts. A rubric is a great tool to let students know the expectations
Brandy Rainey