Technology and Social Learning

When I think of social learning my mind links it to cooperative learning groups of four students with established roles and individual accountability. Cooperative learning has been around for years but has been brought into focus for me through my graduate course resources on social learning while, at the same time, being expanded to embrace computer technology. Adding this dimension expands the definition of a group to include the computer as a group member in the role Orey calls a “knowledgeable other”. (2001) Students today can create and publish more accurate, thorough projects than ever before with the world wide web of information at their fingertips. The ‘smart kid’ in the group is now the computer.
Online web 2.0 tools are becoming prevalent in more classrooms today as savvy teachers create discussion groups online. This is another aspect of social learning. Wiki pages or class web pages can facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expression of opinion in a social way that allows teachers to monitor all conversations. Students in the 21st century may even be more comfortable with these methods.
Reference: Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Teachers Share Your Ideas for Using Technology

I have created and published my first ever Voicethread presentation on the topic of using computer labs in school. view it here http://voicethread.com/share/661269/

Constructing Learning Using Computers

Computers have changed so much in education; they have even changed education itself. Why learn and recite facts on a test when you can always look them up in a few seconds? The last time you actually performed long division was in what decade?
When we decide to use computers as tools for learning in the classroom, we can provide our students with valuable opportunities to construct knowledge for themselves and for others in unique ways. "(T)he computer can be seen as a cognitive tool to learn 'with' as opposed to learn 'from'". (Robertson, Elliot, & Robinson, 2007) Add in the ability to connect this learning to concrete experiences and the requirement of self-reflection about students' learning and the results can be powerful.
Given the right resources, students can use computers to collect data, retreive data from others' work, sort data, and present data. Information on the entire world is available online today on the internet. Any 'artifact' or project they create from this information forces students to think about the information they are choosing to include, assign it significance, and relate it to other facts. Beyond research online, students can use other computer applications to analyze their findings. They can create projects to present what they've found beyond the limits of their memory or communication skills, beyond their capability to spell or calculate, and beyond their talents of drawing, graphing or even organizing. The process of creating can completely engage the learner.

Reference:

Robertson, B., Elliot, L., & Robinson, D. (2007). Cognitive tools. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved October 1, 2009 from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Cognitive Learning and Technology

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. As teachers we are brain builders trying to make memories for our students. We must use every avenue available to get learning into their long term memories. From humor to images and from rhymes to actual hands on objects, our goal is to get students to hang new learning on the existing branches of their cognition. Students in our high school classrooms create and interpret concept maps making connections between concepts with pencil lines which we hope will be connections in their minds.
How we ever did this without today's technology tools is a wonder. I began teaching in the age before the internet was available and now I use it daily to access images, lab simulations, models of molecules, even songs and poems. My best lessons start by tapping into students cognition by asking for prior knowledge to be written into their notes or by asking their ideas and questions about a visual image on the smartboard or a video from YouTube. I can remember tearing out pre-made blackline masters of concept maps from text workbooks to turn into overhead acetates and now online concept map creators like www.bubbl.us make a professional product out of my own connected ideas for a lesson and, even better, my students' ideas. As a class we can even take virtual field trips to another part of the globe or to a far away science research project through the internet and then post our responses on our own class webpage.

Teaching Science with Technology and a Behaviorist Approach

Teachers study all types of education philosophies to prepare for working with students. One popular, although perhaps old-fashioned, philosophy is Behaviorism [a great tutorial on what behaviorism is from the University of Georgia Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology can be found at http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism]. Decades ago psychologists began to explore stimulus – response behaviors in animals and people. Both respond to positive reinforcement like attention and rewards and negative reinforcement like punishment. Education today is a complex process involving addressing different learning styles, implementing a more thorough understanding of how the brain thinks and stores memories , and the creation of meaningful learning environments for all students. I believe that behaviorist approaches still can be valuable in the high school science classroom.
In secondary science education, we face challenges with our students that come from years of conditioning. Many students enter our rooms believing they are no good at science, or that they are not smart enough to excel in science, or even that science is too hard. It is difficult to coax out of students the effort it takes to learn ideas, practice skills, and persist because effort pays off. Pitler, Hibbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski in their book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works reassured me that “(s)tudents can learn to operate from a belief that effort pays off even if they do not initially have this belief.” (2007, p155) Technology can provide terrific tools to reinforce student effort. From Behaviorism we know that students need to feel success to know that their effort paid off. Using a rubric and a spreadsheet program available to most computer users, teachers can direct students to enter their effort in various categories and compare it to their weekly quiz or test results. The computer can chart their effort next to their achievement in a side by side bar graph – a wonderful visual reinforcement for students. (Pitler, Hibbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, pp 157-160). This application of technology and the time it takes to implement in class teaches students the value of effort. It is data driven – perfect for science classes. I am excited to try this approach this year.

Reflection on Technology in the Classroom

I took the online course Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society eager to learn all I can about the web tools and other technologies involved in preparing a 21st century citizenry. I explored blogs, created one myself, and contributed to a group wiki. I even prepared my first podcast. As a professional educator, I know these technology skills will be useful and one day essential. I also know that I must keep learning and training in this area to keep confident and current and to refine my practice.

My perception of the learners in my classes has also changed. I have come to realize, nine years into this century, that we educators need to do more to help our students create successful futures. We are now in what Bernie Trilling in his article “Towards learning societies and the global challenges for learning with ICT” calls the “Knowledge Age.”(2005,1) Thinking critically and creatively are more important than content knowledge. Working collaboratively will be essential in the near and distant future. But this is different from the cooperative learning of the past. My savvy science students are focused on their cell phones, sending creative text messages, and collaborating through social networking pages. My new classroom tool--an interactive smartboard-- will help me teach creatively using technology and bring the resources of the world wide web onto a screen at the front of the room. But am I effectively teaching my students? Do my lessons match their skill sets? Am I fighting their learning preferences when I constantly fight against cell phone use during class or internet browsing in the computer lab?

My goal at the end of the course is to adapt to the learning styles of this generation of students. I have playfully added Instant Messages into a few of my lesson presentations – a simple trick on the smartboard to “distract” students with pertinent information on the topic. I have modified lessons to provide a visual image first, followed by text or calculation and quickened the pace of media followed by repetition that appears new or different . Within the next two years I hope to have successfully implemented lessons involving both a class wiki and a podcast in my high school chemistry course that are meaningful resources for students and result in improvement in student understanding of the science of chemistry. Overcoming the implied objections that come with a required high stakes state test covering 17 units of content in ten months of study has been and will be my biggest hurdle. I’ll also need training and experience in directing and managing filters for internet based lessons to keep students directed and on task. (I’ve asked to be included in school in-service training on this topic.) Rather than closure, I find I am just beginning to explore the impact of technology in my own classroom and am even more eager to learn.

LINK TO ARTICLE MENTIONED: http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/events/techforum/ny05/Toward_Learning_Societies.pdf