Final Thoughts

When I originally attempted to put together my personal learning theory I compared teaching to training new deckhands on a fishing boat and highlighted some of the difficulties in training deckhands.  I said “Every year attempts are made to explain to the new crewmembers what their jobs are and how to do those jobs, and every year the same lesson is learned again: explaining the job means next to nothing.  When the crewmember actually does his job is when meaning and understanding is built.   After the crew member has experienced the job discussions will have some meaning and benefit, but until there is an experience, there is nothing to discuss.   People learn by relating knowledge to their own unique experiences, in other words, I follow the constructivist learning theory.”  While I still believe this, I now understand that if a learner doesn’t have an experience to relate new information to, it is extremely important that an instructor do more than simply provide lecture.   Paivio’s dual coding theory teaches us that a learner who is provided with both linguistic and nonlinguistic representation has a far greater chance of making a connection to new information and therefore understanding, and retaining, that information.  While I am still thoroughly a constructivist and believe there is no substitute for the learner creating his or her own learning experience, this is the next best thing.

            My immediate goal for my classroom is simply to make sure I don’t get too comfortable.  I need to constantly challenge myself to try new things because I have had a habit of finding a strategy or two that I like and simply sticking to those few that I am comfortable with.   One short year ago all I had my students use computers for was to do research and then type papers.   My studies at Walden University have helped a great deal because, quite simply, I didn’t have a choice.  I was forced to try new things, and I have loved it.  I have been pushed well beyond my comfort zone and I am extremely happy with the results.  My students have also enjoyed the changes.  Student engagement on our recent blog and VoiceThread assignments has been far higher than my traditional lesson plans.

            My long term goal is to quit complaining about my school’s lack of technology and see what I can do about it.  I can’t build a new computer lab for my school, but I can look for grants to increase the number of computers for my classroom.  In almost twelve years of teaching I have never written a grant.  In fact, I don’t even know the process.  It is time I changed that and see if I can do something about not having enough computers for my students other than just complaining about it.

Sources

Laureate Education Inc.  (2009). Program five. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and

Technology. [DVD]. Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories.  Baltimore: Author.

My Computer & I Have a Complicated Relationship.

This week’s assignment of creating a voice thread presentation about a problem or issue my school faces had me more than a little stressed out.  First, it’s conference week at the school I teach at, and as any teacher can tell you, conference week is a busy week with little to no time to spare.  Second, I didn’t do as good a job as I should have preparing and choosing a topic for this assignment.   Finally, I had a great deal of trouble getting photos to upload at the VoiceThread - Group conversations around images, documents, and videos site.

So here I am frantically trying to get this assignment done.  It is not due until tomorrow, but tomorrow I have conferences until eight o’clock in the evening, so I don’t see myself having a lot of time to work on it then.  The two biggest reasons for my stress though, are my own fault.  When I started planning for this project, the topic I was thinking about was one many teachers have trouble with: how does a teacher motivate the unmotivated student.  I ran ideas around in my head and began to sketch out a plan.  Everything seemed in order until it came time to start choosing images or documents to illustrate this problem on the voice thread presentation.   Then it suddenly hit me: what pictures or documents could I use?  Obviously, I am not going to post pictures of my unmotivated students.  Posting a report card didn’t seem like a good idea either, even if the name were blacked out.  Maybe I was tired, or maybe I’m just not very creative, but I really was having trouble choosing images and documents that could represent the problem of unmotivated students (fortunately, I don’t think that my problems stemmed from a lack of motivation, because that would simply have been far too ironic).  So, I switched topics to one I have discussed several times throughout my studies at Walden University.  I truly am excited about the strategies we are learning that incorporate technology into our classrooms.  The problem is, with fifty computers for over 500 students, my school simply doesn’t have enough computers to use these strategies nearly as much as I’d like.  This would be the new “problem” for my voice thread project.

Switching topics definitely raised my stress level.  I was now getting a later start than I had wanted, but I had already familiarized myself with VoiceThread when I was over at a colleague’s house, so I wasn’t too stressed yet.  Unfortunately, when I came home and tried to use VoiceThread on my own computer, I simply couldn’t get images or documents to upload to the site.  I knew I was doing it the same way as when I was over at my colleague’s house, so I was more than a little frustrated.  I watched the Laureate Education Inc. tutorial, and I watched the VoiceThread tutorial.  The instructions are not complicated, but I still couldn’t get anything to upload.  Finally I figured out the simple answer: my laptop hates me, and at this point, the feeling was mutual.  I racked my brain for hours today, trying to get images to upload.  Finally, I tried my old desk computer at school and amazingly, I was able to upload a document.  The obvious solution was to use my school computer.  Unfortunately, my school computer doesn’t hate me; it hates pictures.  I can write a novel in the time it takes to upload or download a picture on that computer.  I tried every troubleshooting option on the VoiceThread site but never found the answer to why my school computer could upload to the site, but my laptop could not.  Finally, I was so frustrated and angry that I had to walk away and take a break.  When I came back I was about to click on the web browser icon when I froze.  I took a long look at the icon.  The web browser icon on my laptop is the Mozilla Firefox icon.  The browser on my school computer is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  I much prefer Firefox, but if you are trying to use VoiceThread - Group conversations around images, documents, and videos on the Firefox browser, you will get frustrated, angry, and maybe even a little paranoid about your computer hating you, because it simply won’t work.  I hope that this post can keep others from having a similar experience, because there is nothing worse than having to apologize to your computer because you told it you hate it and called it bad names.

My computer has finally forgiven me and allowed me to complete my voice thread project.  It can be viewed at http://voicethread.com/share/1895008/.

Constructionist Learning Theory

 

After watching Michael Orey’s video about constructionist learning theory (Laureate Education Inc., 2009) and reading about generating and testing hypotheses in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pittler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007), I was a bit apprehensive.   I understand and agree with constructionist theory: we learn best by connecting new information to an external artifact or experience, so it is best practice for the instructor to allow the learners to create this experience or artifact.  I also am a fan of the strategy of generating and testing hypotheses: at the middle school I work at we have shifted away from traditional test-based assessment to guiding inquiry-based instruction by posing questions where there is no one right answer and letting students develop and explore their own theories.  What was troubling me was that I was not seeing an immediate connection between the tools discussed in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, spreadsheet software and data collection tools, and my Humanities classroom.  Fortunately, when I looked at the website WebQuest Design Patterns I immediately saw possibilities for my classroom.

In the video Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories (Laureate Education Inc., 2009) Michael Orey states that a key element of constructionist theory is that students are actively engaged in building or creating a product.  In other words, the students are creating the external artifact or experience that will enable them to connect and understand new material.   The web quests at WebQuest Design Patterns provide many opportunities to enact this strategy.  The one with which I immediately saw possibilities for my own classroom was the Civil War Museum project.  This project could be used to help students synthesize the new information they have learned at the end of our Civil War unit by having them design and create a museum exhibit for the Civil War.  The guiding question could be as simple as, “If you had to take all the information we have learned from the Civil War and group it into five categories, decide what would those categories be?”  These five categories will eventually be the five rooms or parts of their museum exhibit.  The project fits perfectly with constructionist theory because students have to take the new information they have learned and build or create something with it.  Without this building or creating phase of learning, the majority of the students will most likely retain the information long just long enough to answer some questions on a test, but not much longer than that.  Because students will have created something though, they now have an external experience to tie the new information to, and therefore will understand the information on a deeper level as well as retain it much longer.

Until this week, I had zero experience with web quests.  Obviously, I will need to research and explore their potential further before I will feel comfortable introducing them to my students.  Because of the way they support constructionist theory, I am looking forward to using them in my classroom.

References:

Laureate Education Inc.  (2009). Program five. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. [DVD]. Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories.  Baltimore: Author.

Pittler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenolki, K.(2007).  Using technology with classroominstruction that works.  Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

WebQuest Design Patterns. (2010).  Retrieved March 23, 2011,from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm.

Cognitive Learning Theory

What Stood out most in Michael Orey’s discussion of cognitive learning theory was his explanation of Paivio’s dual coding hypothesis (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).  When someone reads the word “boat” the brain doesn’t simply store that information as the letters, but as the letters of the word and whatever image of a boat came to the readers mind.  The brain stores text and images, not simply text.  Orey also described elaboration, or making connections to information, as the primary mechanism for taking information from short-term memory and storing it into long-term memory.  Concept maps, advance organizers, summarizing, and note taking are all strategies that can help students make connections and meaning when processing new information.

Often text is meaningless to students because is a mass of information that they cannot make any connections with.  Concept maps can take a great deal of information and organize it in a pattern where connections and importance are visually represented.  Orey stated that students’ short-term memory is limited to about 7 pieces of new information at a time, so it is essential that they be able to make connections and store information into long-term memory.   Having students summarize and take notes helps in this process.  The PowerPoint combination notes described in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works lets students use images, sounds, and text that have meaning for them to make connections to new information.

Getting students to recall previous information can sometimes be a challenge because students have forgotten information.  Orey explains that we don’t actually lose knowledge when we forget something, we simply have lost the connection to that information and therefore can no longer retrieve it.  Strategies such as cues and advance organizers can help activate prior knowledge and lay the groundwork for making connections to new information.  As many of the organizers listed in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works incorporate images, graphs, and charts, as well as text, students should have an easier time processing and storing the information according to Paivio’s dual coding hypothesis.  

Sources:

Laureate Education Inc. (2009). Program five. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. [DVD]. Cognitive Learning Theory. Baltimore: Author.

Pittler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K. (2007). Usning technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Behaviorist Theory

I am confused by behaviorist learning theory.  This is due to the fact that it doesn’t specifically deal with learning.  Instead, it is a key element in learning.  Behaviorist learning theory deals with the conditions under which learning occurs best, but not the learning itself.  With this in mind, the teaching strategy of “Reinforcing Effort” discussed in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) is an effective behaviorist strategy, but “Homework and Practice” create some unique challenges.

Reinforcing effort is part of behaviorist theory.  Michael Orey states that behaviorist theory consists of operant conditioning, and the most powerful part of operant conditioning is reinforcement of desired behaviors (Laureate, 2010).  Every teacher would classify effort on the part of the student as desirable behavior.  It sounds ridiculously simple, but actually effort, or lack of it, is one of the biggest challenges in the classroom.  Many teachers today would agree that when it comes to students who are failing classes, it is not because the student tried his/her hardest and failed, it is because the student failed to try.  In order to change this behavior teachers have two choices: there is punishment and the more powerful reinforcement.  Punishment is fairly simple.  In my classroom I don’t call it punishment; I call it lunch-time assistance.  If a student misses an important assignment he or she stays with me at lunch to finish the assignment.  As soon as the assignment is complete, they are free to go.  Reinforcement can be a bit more challenging.  It has to be worthwhile to the student, and what is worthwhile to one isn’t necessarily worthwhile to the next.  I have students who thrive on public praise from the teacher and I have students who are mortified if they are publicly praised by a teacher.  Teachers and schools need to spend as much, or more, time thinking and planning for rewards as they do planning for discipline.  Another challenge is that, according to Melissa Stantridge of the University of Georgia, reinforcement needs to be immediate (Orey, 2001).  Often, the projects that require the most student effort are also the ones that take teachers the longest to correct and give feedback on.  

Homework is a huge problem at my school right now.  Simply put, the majority of the students will not do it on any regular basis.  As a result teachers end up with far too many students failing their classes and begin to take heat for having so many students who are underachieving.  I try and give as little homework as possible for this and several other reasons.  First of all, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler et al., 2007) discusses homework strategies that use technology.  This simply isn’t possible where I teach.  I have had students who don’t have running water, so obviously, it is safe to say, I have a fair amount of students who have no access to technology outside of school.  Another problem can be explained in behaviorist theory terms.  The more immediate the reinforcement or punishment the better, but when the student is working at home it is quite possible there will be no feedback on school work until the following day.  Many students today go home to where there is no external source of reinforcement until much later in the evening.  Students often are faced with the choice of playing for example, where the enjoyment, fun, or encouragement from friends gives immediate reinforcement, or doing homework.  If they do their homework there may be no reinforcement until the following day, and if they don’t do their homework there may be no punishment until the following day.  As far as the teacher is concerned, there can be no immediate reinforcement.  I know of no teacher who would not like to have their students getting more practice in their subject area, but in terms of behaviorist theory homework is an uphill battle.

References

Laureate Education Inc. (2010).  Program  Four.   Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. [DVD].  Behaviorist learning theory. Baltimore: Author.

Orey, M. (ed.) (2001).  Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.  Retrieved March 1, 2011 from, http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/.

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

Final Reflection

Katie is a wonderful student.  She has an outstanding work ethic and is driven to succeed, but on the day when I was trying to teach a format for conclusions for my students’ research papers it became obvious that my teaching style and Katie’s learning style were not matching up.  She was becoming frustrated because she wanted to write a quality conclusion, but my explanations weren’t helping.  I was getting frustrated because I had a student who wanted to not only do her work, but do it well, and I couldn’t seem to help her.  Eventually the class ended and I told her we would continue working on it the next day.  I came to class the next day with some fresh ideas, but Katie came to class with a complete and extremely well written conclusion.  When I asked her how she did it, she told me she just went to Google and typed in, “How do you write a conclusion?”  This incident provided a good illustration of what my most recent class at Walden University has taught me; the role of the teacher is drastically changing.  I don’t have to have all the answers or even all the questions for that matter.  In the student-centered classroom I simply need to be a guide who helps my students come up with the questions, knows where to find the answers, and shares that skill with my students.  Will Richardson refers to this as “Big Shift 5: Know “Where” Learning” (Richardson, 2010).

A personal big shift my studies have created is that I have been forced well beyond my comfort zone.  At times I was quite frustrated and may have even been heard saying such things as, “If I knew how to create a blog I wouldn’t be taking this class!”  Obviously, my efforts to complete my assignments did not always go smoothly.  Although at times I wanted more instruction on how to complete blogs, podcasts, and wikis, in retrospect I’m glad I was forced to master these skills on my own.  We learn by doing.  If I had someone telling me what to do every step of the way I wouldn’t feel as comfortable with these resources as I do now.  This has also served as a reminder that I am not the only one who learns best by finding the solutions on my own; my students do also.  I need to be more prepared to step out of my comfort zone and let students discover their own solutions rather than guide them through every step.

Giving students more input in my classroom is the first of my goals that I am leaving this class with.  It sounds somewhat simple, but my colleagues and I have worked quite hard redeveloping our curriculum.  We are finally reaching a stage where we have everything mapped out.  In other words, it feels like I have everything under control.  It will not be easy to relinquish that control and allow students to help decide the direction of the class.  Although it will be difficult, it is important if I am going to help my students develop 21^st century skills.   “As 21^st century educators we can no longer decide for our students, we must decide with them. (Prensky, 2005).  I need to learn how to share the standards or goals with my students and then work with them to decide how we might best achieve those goals.  Once again, to others it may sound easy, but to me, it is a big step beyond my comfort zone.

Susan Cramer asked the question, “How are you using technology to support student learning?” (Cramer, 2007).  I am not the least bit comfortable with my answer; I barely use it because it is barely available at my school.  This brings me to my second goal: quit complaining about my school’s limited technology and do something about it.  I have never had much patience for people who complain about a problem but offer no solutions, and I have done plenty of complaining.  The simple truth is my school will not have funds anytime soon to purchase more technology tools.  My district’s administration would love to purchase smartboards, or more computers, but the money simply isn’t there and probably won’t be anytime soon.  If the money isn’t there I simply have to look somewhere else.  I have never applied for any grants, so to be honest, I’m not even sure how to go about it, but this is my goal; seeking out technology grants.  Obviously the entire school isn’t going to have new computers, or suddenly every teacher will have a smartboard, but I should be able to get something and every little bit helps.  It has been exciting to learn about incorporating technology not only as a source of knowledge for students, but also as a venue for students to display, share, and discuss their own knowledge.  Unfortunately, it has also been frustrating because my school simply doesn’t have the capabilities needed.  I may not be able to transform my entire school through grants, but at least I can work on transforming my classroom into a 21^st century classroom and myself into a 21^st century teacher.

As for me some of the transformation has already begun.  Earlier this term we were asked to complete a checklist about 21^st century skills. From the beginning of the class until now there are several responses on the checklist that I would have to change, but three stand out the most.  First, while before this class I rarely included activities that required collaboration to complete a joint task, I have been attempting to include these projects more often.  At times it has been messy and chaotic, but that was due more to the fact that some of my attempts need more polishing than anything else.  For the most part, my eighth graders have surprised me with the effort they have put into the projects where they have more of a say in how they will get things done rather than me telling them what to do.  One change that is a direct result of my current class is I am now providing more opportunities for my students to share and present information in multiple ways.  Previously in my classroom there was either a paper, an oral presentation, or rarely, a PowerPoint presentation.  Currently I am working with our honors teacher to help the honors students create the first Hawkins Middle School blog.  We have also looked at creating a Hawkins Wiki.  So far, student engagement has taken a dramatic leap and it has all been much less intimidating than I originally thought.  The biggest surprise is the final transformation.  I do not see myself as a leader.  I see myself as a good team member who will work very hard to support the team, but I won’t create the vision.  The only reason I checked “Rarely” in response to the question about participating in the development of technology integration was because “Never” wasn’t one of the options.  Now I suddenly find myself fielding questions about integrating technology not only in my own subject area but others as well.  What is almost amusing to me is that the entire reason I chose integrating technology into the classroom as the specialization for my major is because I have never considered myself as proficient when it came to technology.  Perhaps it is time to change this perception.

The next time Katie, or any of my students, asks me a question I want her to be answering one of her own essential questions, not mine.  I need to remember that I am not necessarily there to provide the answer, but rather to assist her in finding her own answers.  She will need room to find solutions, not me telling her what to do every step of the way.  She will need to work with her classmates to find these solutions.  Finally, I hope she and her classmates will have the technology tools they need at their disposal to find, as well as present, information.  If I can transform my classroom to this model, I will feel far more comfortable in the knowledge that I truly am assisting  my students in their quest to acquire 21^st century skills.

References

Cramer, S.R. (2007). Update Your Classroom with Learning Objects and               Twenty-First-Century Skills.  Clearing House. 80(3), 126-132.  Retrieved February 1, 2011 from EBSCOhost.

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the Natives.  Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8-13.  Retrieved February 15, 2011 from EBSCOhost.

Richardson, W. (2010).  Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hey Kids, Wait Up!

“Hey kids, wait up!”  Sometimes it seems as though this is what my school is saying to our students when it comes to technology.  When I recently interviewed several of my students about their exposure to technology, I had a hard time believing that they actually spent as much time using technology as they were saying.  Between texting, television, Facebook, and video games their entire days were taken up.  As it turns out, they do have enough time; they have learned to multitask.  According to a 2005 survey, the average 8 to 18 year old spent 6.5 hours a day using electronic media.   Because they had learned to multitask though, they were able to receive 8.5 hours worth of exposure in that time (Are kids too plugged in, 2006).  The problem is that, unless you include students who are texting during class, very little of this exposure to technology is happening at school.

My student interviews made one fact obvious: my students are what Marc Prensky describes as “digital natives”.  They have been surrounded by and used technology their whole lives (Prensky, 2001).  My students are already using, and are proficient, with multiple forms of technology, and the speed at which they can familiarize themselves with, and become proficient with, new technology is truly astounding, especially to a digital immigrant like myself.  My concern is that education is supposed to be leading the way when it comes to helping our students understand and use new resources.  Unfortunately we are playing catch-up.  In terms of digital natives and digital immigrants, going to school is the equivalent to a visit to the old country for our students.  To address this problem it will take more than just additional equipment and resources for schools, but also educators who are creative and ready to adapt to the new world.

Student interviews: 8th Graders & Technology

References

Are kids too plugged in. (2006, March 20).  CNN.com.  Retrieved February 1, 2011, from http://articles.cnn.com/2006-03-19/us/time.cover.story_1_kids-media-educators?_s=PM:US

Prensky, M.  (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 2: DoThey Really Think  Differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-6.  Retrieved February 5, 2011, from ProQuest Central.  (Document ID: 1074252431).