Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology - Final Thoughts

At the beginning of this course I contested that there was a place in our 21st century schools for the traditional cognitive learning theory. I stated that this operative learning style was a conditioning that humans naturally progress to obtain new information. Similar to Pavlov’s dog humans generally are attracted to positive rewards and try to stay away from punishment. I also contended that the multiple learning styles also have a place in our schools today. While the traditional learning theory may be great for classroom management the learning styles are great for helping students obtain information better. As a teacher it is important to develop several ways to present our lessons to appeal to these learning styles. This is the only way we can reach the most students.

I also stated that there are always going to be those students who get all the information no matter what and these students will always get high marks. It is thorough multiple intelligences that we can reach the rest of the students, the ones I like to call tweeners. Tweeners are students that are in between a B and an A, or a C and a B. These students are on the border of the next grade. If through multiple intelligence teaching I can push my students up one or two levels, then for me multiple intelligences will be worth.

A goal for me is to continue the development of the multiple intelligences theories in my lessons. I hope to be able to reach as many students in my classes as possible. I will continue to research and find new ways to present my material to appeal to as many students as possible through the use of cooperative learning and technology.

Another goal for me is to look at my records over time to see if progress is being made. By looking at my grade books, building unit scores, and MEAP scores over time I can see if my practices are paying off for my students. I know many teachers reject these standardized tests and criticize them harshly, but as long as our students have to take these tests, teachers may as well use the information we get from these tests.

Overall, I learned a great deal from this course about how the brain works and learns and many different ways to appeal to the brain in learning. I also learned a great deal of ways to implement teaching strategies that will appeal to many different learning styles. Most importantly these teaching strategies do not completely change my old way of doing things rather it simply adds a few changes that make the lessons appeal to more students. By making these small modifications perhaps I can reach more of my “tweeners”.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

First off I have to say I had a blast making this voice thread. I think that I if had so much fun doing this than my students will too. I do have to say, however, that there are a lot of things my students can do that are fun, but are not school related or educational. I think the key to these voice threads is that they are educational, thought provoking, and require the students to really get involved with the project.

Check out my voice thread by clicking here

For my voice thread I thought of a problem that I have been having since the beginning of the year with my sixth graders. I am new at teaching the sixth grade so there are a lot of issues I was not prepared to handle. Probably the biggest difference between my high schoolers from last year and my sixth graders is their organization. My sixth graders will walk into class with nothing and when I would ask them to get out a book or paper, they all would stand up and go get their books and paper, others would be asking for a pencil, and still some would be going to the sharpener. It took some time for me to get my students prepared. At first, I thought I could just tell them to come prepared. That did not work. Finally I realized these kids needed to be shown how to be prepared and instructed every step of the way. I also quickly realized that I needed to maintain this behavior with reinforcement of positive and negative behavior.

Click Images to Enlarge

Here are a few screen shots of a voice thread I have made to reflect the issues I was having along with some solutions, and finally my expectations. As I mentioned at the top of this blog, I had a blast making this thing. I created all the graphics in publisher, using paint to create all my graphics. I added clip art characters and furniture to portray my classroom. I made three pictures; one with a disorganized class, one with an organized desk, and one as an organized class. I saved each of these documents as a PDF, then uploaded them to the voice thread site. I got a cheap pair of headphones with a mic on them for six dollars at Wal-Mart and used them to record my voice. (Plus I feel like a pilot wearing them.)

To make this an educational assignment would be easy. Students could use it to do any of the following:
· Use it to record poetry
· Collaborate on creative writing projects.
· Discuss the branches of the government
· Compare different types of government
· Show the steps to solve mathematical problems
· Show the step of how a bill becomes a law
· Show the growth process of a human embryo

These are just a few things I came up with from a quick brainstorm. I tried to think of a couple for each core subject area, but one could easily develop a voice thread for physical education, health, or any other subject. The key is that your students connect to it on a personal level. This will insure a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and voice thread. I am curious to see how you are, or plan to, use these thing in your classes. Feel free to give me feed back on how to use them or possible obstacles I may have not thought of. Also, let me know about your ideas.

Thanks