Final Reflection for 6711

My own personal learning theory is still very much the same. I believe that all students can learn, just some may be harder to reach than others. The traditional methods of days gone by are becoming more and more obsolete as technology continues to evolve. While some districts are still behind due mostly to lack of funds, teachers still share the same drive, to prepare their students the best they can and continue to educate them both academically and about the world. I also think that the more technology can be integrated into curriculum and the more active role students can take in their learning, the more they will understand and retain information. I will continue to provide my students with a variety of methods and strategies to make sure that all students get a fair and equal opportunity to learn.

There are a couple of new tools that I will use in my classroom that I learned about through this course. One, is VoiceThread, I really like the ease of use associated with it and think that the students will enjoy seeing and hearing each other during their presentation. Done individually or as a group can only help the students better retain the information by creating it or like Dr. Orey said, "constructing something they can hold onto and will help them later be able to demonstrate that knowledge," on their own. The other tool I will use more, is the concept mapping tool. This is a great tool used troughs Inspirtaion or Wespirtaion depending on which you prefer. They both work great and it gets the students engaged. By starting one at the beginning of each unit, I will have the students make their own, then come up to the interactive whiteboard and build one together with different students adding to it. There again, this is just another way to start to outline and present information that is different and another way of meeting my studnets' needs and different learning styles.

One long term goal I hope to achieve is the continued and improved use of technology in my classroom. I plan to continue searching out new and useful ideas with technology as well as looking for new tools. By continuing my progress through my master's program I hope to gain more insight. I also plan to attend as much technology training as I can.
The second long term goal I have, is to continue to gain students input and give them more opportunities and open ended projects for material we are covering. I feel, by letting them choose the technology tools they would like to use and project type, that as I stated earlier, they will gain a better understanding of the information they need to know. Plus, they may actually even like what they are learning about without even realizing it until later. But, that will be our (as teachers) little secret!

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program seven. Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore: Author.

My first voicethread

http://voicethread.com/share/895551/

“Cooperative Learning”

I believe that cooperative learning is a perfect example of what is talked about when looking at social learning theory. The reading this week talked about different examples and projects that students could work on and "build together." My favorite and one that I plan to incorporate into my seventh grade classroom is the website creation project. It involves students researching a city , making a multimedia presentation on it, creating a website, present a proposal to the class on how to basically draw more tourism to the city and finally even contact the city's Chamber of Commerce for feedback and to let them know they have it up and running. (Pitler 2007 ) By working together and building a website, this also helps them take ownership, which in turn will help to retain more about the city or area. My plan is to change it over to a country in a region we are studying or capital city/major city of a country. My brain is still going through the motions as to how it would play out.

The other idea that I loved, which would work for my class, was the introduction or inclusion of Civilization III, a web-enabled multiplayer simulation game. The students would, according to the description, "have to work together and match wits against some of history's greatest leaders as they employ exploration, construction, diplomacy, and conquest to build and rule and empire to stand the test of time." (Pitler 2007 ) This works great because it hits on culture, economics, geography, inquiry and many other important Social Studies ideas and concepts. I think it would be a great tool because it also has them not only working, but learning together, which is really what the social learning theories are all about. Just not sure how or where to put it in? Thanks in advance for the feedback!

References

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program eight. Social Learning Theories [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore: Author.