Connectivism

Social Learning Theory and Connectivism go hand in hand when discussing Cooperative Learning and many of the other technology learning tools. For instance just going online to a blog or facebook account you are able to discuss with a certain person any topic of your choice. Dr. Michael Orey discussed that in Social Learning Theories that there is a zone of Proximal Development or what students are able to learn, at a certain point. However there is the level above and below that Dr. Orey also talked about the low being information that is already known about something, things that we do not need to teach them and the higher order being information they students are not able to learn at a certain point.

I think it is so important that teachers keep this in mind when coming up with lessons. In math I see this all the time, teachers going over topics that the students learned in the past and have mastered and then topics that need much more prior knowledge to even begin to understand. This is where I think that Connectivism really is important. Students and teacher use this on a daily basis. When I am teaching a topic in physics and I need information on something I go straight to my email or the Math and Physics teachers of Michigan Blog and look for an answer. I am connecting with others that are more knowledgeable.

A way that our staff meetings usually start off is by using the jigsaw method of collaboration. We are usually asked to do something in our department and then when we get all together we break out into smaller groups and discuss our department topics. It works great because you are able to talk about it in a small group and ask questions, whereas if each department head got up and described what was going on it would be less personal and much more boring (I have found).

Cooperative Learning as discussed in or course text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works by Howard Pitler et al, really puts into perspective all the possibilities in grouping students that allows them to learn by sharing knowledge, experiences, and expertise on different topics. There are so many ways for students to interact and discuss even if they are in different sections of the same class at a school or in a different part of the World. Just to name a few students could use email, wikis, blogs, skype, voice thread and not even to mention facebook or myspace which most students use on a regular bases for social networking.

Voice Thread on School Issues

Click below of the link to listen and view my voice thread on disruptions in the classroom.

http://voicethread.com/share/569743/

Constructionism

Constructionism is defined as “a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others” (Orey, 2009). Dr. Michael Orey also describes four mechanisms for learning that correspond to constructionist views which are Assimilation, Accommodation, Equilibration, and Schemas. All of which help us to change or perceive a previous assumption. It is no wonder why constructionism should be an important theory of how students learn in the first place. It has been said that a person’s experiences are influential to how quick or how well someone learns something. Earlier in this course we discussed how difficult it is to learn of something without the experience. I think back to a classmate’s discussion where they said how difficult it was for their students to know what snow was having never experienced it in Hawaii. It is that physical process of building something that I feel provides students with the experience they need to learn.

Generating and testing a hypothesis is indicative of that building process that I spoke above of. In order to generate a hypothesis a student needs to decide on what are they trying to answer. As a science teacher I like to think of it as the scientific method. You have to come up with a question that you want to answer before you start to research how you might answer it. First you are building or constructing a set of data, any research that relates to your initial question. By generating or forming a hypothesis you are coming up with or building a possible answer to your questions. Then by testing the hypothesis this is where I truly feel a constructionist view of building comes alive. In testing the hypothesis student in all sense of the term are building an experiments or what I like to think of as an experience. Experiments or testing a hypothesis always provide information, even if it is not the information you want to see if allows you to build more of a basis of information.

There are so many ways that technology can be incorporated with the generating and testing of a hypothesis. Spreadsheets can be used in so many different ways and for many different classes, from science and math to social studies and geography. Interactive spreadsheets can be very helpful when collecting data and then representing it in a graph. Again when dealing with graphing you have that physical graph that has been built from the data that has been input.

Cognitivism in Practice

Dr. Orey described cognitive learning theory as the pathway or networking that allows us to recall information that we have learned or experienced. Some of the specific strategies that he spoke of were information processing, dual coding, and elaboration. These strategies all have pros and cons for total recall of information, for example dual coding where images and text information are used together to help commit information to memory. However if there is not a balance between the text and the images used to represent it, a student may not make the connection between the image and the text that it represents.

The instructional strategy discussed in chapter 4: Cues, Questions, and Advanced Organizers correlate very well to cognitive practices. I feel that they represent a way of teaching that helps student commit information to memory. In the course text it is said that this strategy is “used to enhance students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic” (Pitler et al, 2007, p. 73). Many similarities such as concept mapping and advanced organizers connect this strategy to cognitive learning theory. Dr. Orey talked about constructing a concept map that one needs to come up with a main idea which is called the node and then build a network of connections off of the main idea. Cues and questions are another way of building this network of connections, with reminders and questions that build on one idea and leads to another.

The other instructional strategy that was discussed was summarizing and taking notes. I feel that this instructional strategy is important in conveying the initial information. The process of learning a new concept is important to how well it is committed to memory. By taking notes and separating the important information verse the extraneous information and then stating it in your own words helps to make the connections to recall the important information.

Behaviorism or not?

When talking about Behaviorist Learning I personally do not see it as a negative Learning Theory as many educational psychologists do. Dr. Michael Orey really reinforced what I had always thought about behaviorism in his video “Behaviorist Learning Theory”, that it is used in many educational setting whether people like to admit it or not.

For the specific learning strategy of Reinforcing Effort I feel that I found some aspects to be very similar to Behaviorist Learning Theory and other aspect very dissimilar. First for the similar aspects, Dr. Orey talked about how this 5th grade sons’ teacher kept a chart on the board for each student’s behavior. When that student did something that was undesirable they were to move a clip down a notch and there was a consequence associated with a downward move. I found this very similar to using excel to track progress (such as taking of class notes, attention, participation, homework, and studying) for each student independently. Students are able to see the amount of effort they put in and what grade they should receive based on their effort and then the actual grade they received. This is a great visual representation of what you put in and what you got out. Instead of receiving a consequence or punishment the student sees why they are not achieving and hopefully makes changes that are desirable for the next weeks progress (a high grade). The way in which I feel that this is dissimilar from Behaviorist Learning Theory is the way in which the operant conditioning (the reinforcement or punishment) is being administered. I mainly see that in behaviorism there is not as much internalization of why something happened the way it did, where in Reinforcing Effort the student must make connections on their own to why their grade is the way it is.

For the specific strategy of Homework & Practice I see fewer similarities to the Behaviorist Learning Theory then I did with Reinforcing Effort. One example that our book talks about are Spreadsheet Software used specifically in physical education and math. Where students or a teacher can input data and then the computer shows a graph or chart. This is definitely a form of practice however the operant conditioning (the reinforcement or punishment) is not personal to the individual student, unless you attach parameters that allow for it. The same with Communication Software and Multimedia resources, they are all great ways of incorporating educational technology into the classroom, however I do not see the correlation between them and Behaviorist Learning Theories.