As
I reflect back on my personal theory of learning that was written seven weeks
ago, I notice that there have been some minor changes. I still believe as far as behavior
management, behaviorism goes a long way and is the most effective for the
students to be successful with school and classroom rules. However, I did state that my theory was in
the process of change. In the beginning I stated my learning theory influence
was constructionism. I do believe that
students need to be actively doing something and creating something. However, I also believe my learning theory is
now leaning more toward the social constructivism theory. In the graphic, two people interact to help to extend each other's
understanding of what makes a rainbow (Orey, 2001). This graphic shows how two people exchange
information to come up with a collaborative conclusion. People on a daily basis gather and process
information obtained from others. Why
shouldn’t we allow students in school to learn the same way others learn
outside the school environment? This
course had given me more of an insight of how students learn and how we can use
educational technologies to enhance their learning.
An
immediate adjustment I plan to make is to use is to use technology more as
learning tools instead of instructional tools.
It is more important that the students are using technology to enhance
and increase their learning than for the teachers to use it to give knowledge
(Laureate, 2011). Two technology tools I
would like to begin using with my students are VoiceThread and Google
Docs. These two tools will support the
social constructivist theory where students are able to share, communicate, and
build products together. They can also
receive feedback so that they can effectively make changes and improve their
understanding. My repertoire of
instructional skills has been enhanced greatly.
As most teachers think when they read the list of instructional
strategies, I also thought, “Oh, I do that.” But, then I realized that there
are steps to take to effectively implant these strategies into your instruction
and you need to make one or two a major focus with almost every activity you do
for them to become effective instructional strategies.
My
first long-term goal would be to acquire more technology. I would like to have enough technology for my
students in my classroom. This will
eliminate the need to find a day the lab is available and my students will be
able to use technology whenever it is needed and not when it is available. I plan first ask my principal about the feasibility
of acquiring the technology and various steps I can take to accomplish this
goal. Another long-term goal I am setting
is to include a technology option on every project and unit assessment I
give. The steps I would take would be to
research various ways to include technology into assessments. The main thing to remember is that the technology
I implement is a learning tool.
References:
Laureate
Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program thirteen: Technology: Instructional
tool vs.
learning tool [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and
technology.
Retrieved from
Orey, M. (Ed.).
(2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved
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