Course Reflection on Integrating Learning and Technology in Classroom Instruction

Although on the whole I still agree with my philosophy of teaching as expressed in the first week of this course, I have learned some very interesting ideas that have been essential to its modification. During the past few weeks, I have gained insight into some concepts that I previously instinctively agreed with and had some theoretical basis for supporting. Now, however, I have more solid grounds than ever to back up some of the things that I have learned, through my teaching practice, are effective.

For example, Paivio's theory of dual coding helps to explain why the addition of visual images is such a powerful tool for learning (Laureate, 2009). Although I felt that virtual field trips are fun and visually exciting, experiential learning theory has made very clear for me just how new learning is incorporated into prior knowledge through active student participation (Orey, 2001). After reading articles on mind-mapping, I can appreciate its value as a cognitive tool; even though my methods of planning are far more random and chaotic, I know that many of my students require a much higher degree of structured organization as well as clearly-delineated presentation, in terms of creating visual and aural connections (Hartley, cited in Smith, 1999).

In addition, I have found myself opening up to social networking as an everyday tool, since I have found the Delicious site to be indispensable in the past two months. Although I have experimented with using blogging as a learning tool in the past year, I feel that there are ways I can make improvements that will encourage further and more in-depth participation on the part of students. (Pitler, 2007).

For example, up until now I have been the primary question generator on blogs that respond to literature. Although my questions seem perfectly clear and reasonable to me, my students in their particular stage of development may draw a blank. I noticed that when I asked students to generate their own questions, there was more dialogue and reciprocal discussion, rather than students attempting to answer a question and worrying about whether they had the “right” answer. When the discussion is student initiated, they feel more empowered to correct each other's perspective if anyone is completely lost. This year I am also planning on creating a wiki, and students need to feel as though they will have some control over content; there are also some students who need to feel confident enough to take part, and having the responsibility of creating a discussion topic during a given week may be a confidence booster.
Just this week I attended a summer seminar on Promethean boards. My colleagues from school who also attended had the same reaction as I did: we have barely scratched the surface in using or equipment. Since this system is available to me already in my classroom, and with my new knowledge on dal coding, I am going to spend a good part of the summer developing lessons that will be truly interactive and engaging to students. I plan to make far more use of the interactive remote “voting” devices that are part of the equipment(ActivExpression): for formative assessment, for surveys, and for eliciting student response in an anonymous form so that even students who never speak or raise their hands in class will be actively engaged. With Promethean, responses can be converted into Excel files, so that later I can review individual student responses, for evaluation and for planning differentiated instruction. I occasionally did that this past year, but I was still using a software version that was sometimes difficult in that students all had to answer in the same time frame, whereas with the new software, responses can be self-paced. I also want to train students to use the board in various ways so that they can create their own reviews and assessments.

One major long-term goal I have is to develop continuous distance relationships with classrooms in other parts of the country and the world. My students too often know little to nothing about their own state, let alone the rest of the world. In order to prepare them for contact with students in another country, I would introduce different cultural perspectives through literature, conduct surveys using ActivExpression about their knowledge of their own culture, and they would design surveys to give to their families. The results of these surveys would be compared and contrasted through discussion and the use of spreadsheets, so they could get a good view of a cultural cross-section of the school. The school family counselor has mentioned that she would like to collaborate by helping students with interviewing techniques. I have asked the principal, who enjoys making discoveries about technology, to review the Voice Thread website; with her support I would like to lobby to have it removed from the district restrictions list, since this site would be wonderful for students to learn about each other and their cultures. Since our laptop computers are nearing the end of their battery lives, I am actively involved in writing technology grants, so sooner or later I will hopefully “strike gold.”

Once the getting-to-know-you phase has been established among my students and between them and their distance correspondents, I would like to develop projects that deal with how to greatly reduce negative social interactions (bullying, negative peer pressure, fighting) among middle school students. This is still an issue of paramount concern in our school, as I imagine it is in many other places; I feel that by collaborating with many other students, mine would learn not only how to interact in the most positive ways, they would also be in a position to supply advice and information to others. By sharing their views and findings, they will create their own knowledge base (Rogoff, cited in Kim, 2001). My feeling is that students can be a great support to administrators who struggle to deal with these same problems, and eventually can be part of the problem-solving team, becoming key players in the school-wide improvement plan. By creating a wiki in which parents can also take part, and reaching out to parents whose first language is not English by publishing articles in Spanish and Haitian-Creole on the wiki, there is a greater possibility of one hundred percent student and community buy-in.

As can be seen, my goals for integrating technology into my classroom practice hinge upon creating lessons and opportunities that will engage students in experiential as well as reflective learning; they also involve expanding the classroom walls to develop wider partnerships with classrooms and organizations outside the school. By accomplishing these goals, I will be preparing students for work in a world that is increasingly based on social interconnectivity through technology and collective problem-solving.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Cognitive learning theories. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology Baltimore: Pearson

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

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

Smith, M. K. (1999) 'The cognitive orientation to learning', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive, Last update: September 03, 2009.

Voice Thread

Check out my Voice Thread:

http://voicethread.com/?#u534086.b1197333.i6460588

Social Learning

One of the most interesting concepts I read about this week in terms of social constructivism is intersubjectivity. "Intersubjectivity is a shared understanding among individuals whose interaction is based on common interests and assumptions that form the ground for their communication" (Rogoff, cited in Kim, 2001). Shared knowledge evolves through articulated thought processes in dialogue. Recently when my students were reading a novel, I had them blog about it together online, and I enjoyed reading their comments as they reasoned their way through some of the more complex questions that I posted for them to answer. I find that I usually have to make adjustments to my own perspective after reading or listening to student ideas, as they adjust theirs.

Recently they finished cooperative podcast projects, based on research. My students are on many different levels, intellectually and socially, but as we were watching the results of their efforts, I was impressed by the amount of information they had been able to assemble and synthesize in a relatively short period of time. For most students, this was their first podcast, so they also had to learn how to write a script from their research, assemble the audio and the pictures, and add a bibliography. Students who were able to build on each other's ideas and to integrate their tasks, assisting each other where necessary, were more successful than students who saw their individual tasks as being a separate part of the project, rather than a piece of the "flow".

Pitler mentions online calendars and next time I assign a project, I want to try one of those, since students can sometimes find time management very challenging.

De.icio.us is a wonderful site, and I have found it indispensable for sharing information and bookmarks. It is very flexible, in that I can keep whatever bookmarks I want private while sharing others. I have recently found out that I can circumvent the Youtube block my district has set up by sharing videos on a blog that I keep just for that purpose. I realize that not everything on YouTube is worthwhile, but there is a lot of valuable content as well.

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

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