Final Reflection: Bridging of Technology and Instruction

As my current Walden course about combining technology and instruction comes to a close, I reflect on my personal learning theory, which was my very first assignment.  At the beginning of the class, my personal learning theory focused on my belief that learning is social.  I would not make any changes to my original theory because I feel even more strongly about students collaborating and learning cooperatively in my classroom.  The resources I have read and watched over the last eight weeks have shown me even more ways that I can incorporate cooperative learning into my lessons.  

Two specific technology tools I would like to utilize next year to improve my instruction and help my students' learning are VoiceThreads and spreadsheet software.  I had no clue what VoiceThreads were before learning about them a few weeks ago.  Once I saw what they were, I realized that I have watched a ton of VoiceThreads without knowing it.  Even more exciting, my students can create their own awesome videos to apply class content in a creative way.  I plan to have students work in small groups at the end of each quarter to create tutorial videos about a challenging topic from the covered chapters.  As a math teacher, I would also like to use spreadsheet programs, like Excel, to show students various math applications, such as equations, graphs, and formulas.  Another way I would like to use the software is to have students track their effort levels with their grades, to help them see the correlation.

I also have a couple of long-term goals for my instruction and technology.  I would personally like to try to stay up to date with different technology tools that are available for educators, especially free resources on the web.  I learned so many tools and techniques through class resources, and I hate that I was so oblivious to them prior to taking this course.  It is my responsibility to look for ways to improve my instruction and student learning.  My other goal is to work at being a technology advocate in my school.  My school has some technology tools available, but teachers are given so little information about what they can do with them.  I want to make more time for myself to play around and research the different applications, so I can help others become stronger in technology usage in the classroom.

Social Learning Theory

There are many instructional strategies that align with social learning theory.  Social learning theorists view student learning as a collaboration through interactions while constructing things, accompanied by content-based conversation (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).  When students step into the working world, they will have access to a wealth of information to assist them in their daily tasks and activities.  They can practice that same access in school by working with the "more knowledgeable other," as Dr. Orey describes it (2009).  People get support from a person, computer, or any other information source when they are unsure about a topic.  

Cooperative learning is a widely used strategy that involves students working in groups to complete tasks.  A way to avoid lack of participation is to have group consequences or further independent steps that require focus in the group portion of the process.  Cooperative learning is a reflection of social learning theory because it revolves around students collaborating to reach an answer or result.  They can discuss ideas with classmates and be encouraged that their knowledge contributes to the group product--they do not always need the teacher for help.  I love opportunities for students to conduct multi-media presentations for the class because their creativity can be amazing.  Students learn the concepts as they work with peers to create clear (and often entertaining) methods of presenting the content.  Students can even communicate with students from other states or countries, based on their area of focus, with programs like Keypals or their own student-created websites (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).

References:

Laureate Education, Inc.  (2009).  Social learning theories.  Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology.  DVD (custom ed.).

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

Technology Challenges in My School

Please enjoy my VoiceThread about technology challenges I encounter at my school.