Bottom of the 5th - Final Blog Posting for Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology

I would have to say that the biggest adjustment I would make to my teachings and with integrating technology into my lessons is to not be afraid to explore more and to make use of the technology that is out there. Because of this class and the others I have taken through Walden, I have become much more familiar with how to incorporate technology into my lessons. Before, I felt very limited in my knowledge, capability, and awareness of how to do this on a regular basis with success. I felt that if I had my students typing out papers and completing some research using the web, I felt that I was doing an adequate job. With blogging, wikis, voice threads, photo shows, and the other various projects I have worked on over the span of seven classes, I feel that my skills on using technology with my students has greatly improved. I have also learned so much from the other students, my fellow educators, in class and through collaborating on blogs.

I really enjoyed blogging and the voice thread activities that I have completed during this class. I enjoyed seeing other voice threads that accompanied pictures and feel that this concept can be used to complete projects in social studies and science, making for some awesome artifacts.

My plan for the future is: 1) not to be afraid to explore and "get my hands dirty" with technology, realizing that having kids type papers on the computer is not incoporating technology into my lessons; and 2) to seek out other teachers, educational blogs, and educational journals for ideas and take the time to become familiar with the ideas expressed by these sources. To do this, I plan on to at least incoporate a new idea with each month. As I do this, I hope to follow through with this more frequently.

Top of the 5th: My First Voice Thread

Here is the link to my voice thread. It describes a common problem among teachers with limited access to inferior technology that does not satisfy the needs of teachers and students. Please take the time to listen and make a comment. Thanks!

http://voicethread.com/share/1046730

Bottom of the 4th - Cooperative Learning

I do not know of a teaching strategy that would better relate and be an example of the social learning theory in practice other than cooperative learning. In this week's resources, Dr. Orey (2009) describes social learning theories as students when they are actively taking part in assembling and creating artifacts that demonstrate what they are learning while engaging in educational dialogue. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) say that cooperative learning is when students are interacting with one another for learning purposes and for forming new understandings. Through cooperation and collaboration, students can learn from one another, forming new understandings that by themselves, would not occur.



One thing that the Internet and technology does well is allow for collaboration and socialization. Because of this, cooperative learning can take on a new form other than just working together in the classroom. With proper planning by groups, multimedia projects can be produced as a culminating artifact. The Web not only allows for collaboration among classmates, but it also allows for cooperative learning to occur between students of classrooms from different parts of the world. Through sites such as ePALS, Keypals Club International, and Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections, students from different cultures can learn with one another and from one another. There are endless possibilities when it comes to web quests and web site designs for collaboration, as well as multi-player simulation games. Wikis and blogs, at this point, seem to be common practice for cooperative learning and collaborating among classmates.



Again, I can not think of a better way to open up doors to working with other people near and very far, as far as a person can imagine. Even when thinking about the classes that I am taking along with many other students across the globe, Walden University is an example of social learning theories and cooperative learning. The Web must be a tool that is used for these purposes.



References:

Laureate Education. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning, theory, instruction, and technology. [DVD]. Baltimore: Author.

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