Cooperative Learning

In the ideas explored with the EDUC 6711 course authors this week, there are great tools available for teachers to utilize in order to help students perfect their collaborative abilities as well. The authors recommend that students work together on spreadsheet software or webquests for research (Pitler et al, 2007). Although traditionally students must have been physically present in the same environment to socialize and collaborate on a common set of projects, certain technology tools are available where students can share a common digital space, which replaces the actual physical one. For an alternative final assessment, I allow my students to work collectively in small groups to determine if a certain form of alternative fuel would be suitable to replace the high use of chemical fossil fuels. The students collaborate online using a wiki database hub, to compile their research and thoughts. Students can login form their home computers where they can contribute to the project at a time that is convenient to them.

 

After collaborating online the student groups organize the information to be presented to their peers via their submitted wiki sites. On my course website I place all the links to the wiki sites, where students conduct their own peer review of the submitted recommendations. Students must peer review and comment on at least two other wikis before the conclusion of the project – quite similar to the Walden discussion setup.

 

The students in my physics section love this alternative final assessment at the end of the school year, not only because it’s not a traditional individual final exam, but it allows them to socialize and collaborate with their peers while contemplating and debating a topic which has a special meaning for all of them.

 

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

VoiceThread

Check out my voice thread for my current problem in my 7th hour physics class!

http://voicethread.com/share/521851/

Constructivism/Constructionism Article

In the ideas explored with the EDUC 6711 course authors this week, there are great tools available for teachers to utilize in order to help students perfect their constructive abilities as well. In order to foster these constructive skills, students must have the freedom to choose whatever outlet that best suits them to accomplish a simple task or larger project. That is where technology opens up a larger set assortment of methods and tools for students to express their knowledge.

 

For students to utilize different methods of technology to express their learning on a subject I allow all my students to present the final projects of the course year in one of the following formats: podcast, powerpoint, wiki site, or blog site. By using such tools the students can build their projects in the manner they deem fits their lifestyle and reflects who they are in their own personal communication characteristics. In the past, students have commented how much they love that freedom of academic expression and I am excited to learn more options to offer my students in the future from this particular course as well.

 

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

Cognitivism Tools

In the ideas explored with the EDUC 6711 course authors this week, there are great tools available for teachers to utilize in order to help students perfect their cognitive abilities as well. Technology includes a wide range of resources that can aid students in visually planning their cognitive processes to complete a given project. By utilizing concept mapping software to compile their thoughts in a project plan, it is easier for students to organize their thought process as they complete a given project. Students can also complete this task through a video organizer with streaming feeds such Google Video (Pitler et al, 2007). During my own alternative final project my own students utilize google video to compile a record of their thoughts, then eventually editing those ideas into a logical comprehensive report on their project that they will present to the class.

 

For completing note taking within the classroom EDUC 6711 course author’s recommend that students learn the ability to filter quality from subpar information and that teachers should provide an outline copy of the course notes to the students within the classroom (Pitler et al, 2007). I complete numerous keynote presentations in my class whenever I introduce any new topic to my students. I do complete these activities a little different from other teachers though. From day one I tell my students not to take at all during these activities and merely sit back and soak in the conversation. This way they are not distracted about the recording of the information presented, but can cognitively absorb the information being discussed. Also the students can more readily participate in the keynote discussion. Afterwards I post all the slides of the keynote presentation to my course website where the students may download the presentation to their own computers to review the presented material at their own leisure. I highly believe that these measures effectively help my students cognitively absorb the challenges of the physics curriculum.

 

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

Behaviorism in Practice

In the ideas explored with the EDUC 6711 course authors this week, there are great tools available for teachers to utilize in order to help students monitor, assess, diagnose, and correct their instructional behavior. Technology includes a wide range of resources that can aid in these tasks and places more responsibility of their behavior in the hands of the students. By utilizing spreadsheet software that is integrated with a behavior assessment rubric, students can self-monitor their progress on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis (Pitler et al, 2007). Every student’s assessment period also allows for students to learn the connections between their own efforts in the classroom and the rewards or consequences for those efforts as well as they tally up the points for their behavior during that given grading period. With an effort measured against achievement spreadsheet chart, students can see the relationships between the two, which is often difficult for many to realize inside of the classroom. There are also online surveys that teachers may utilize to collect the necessary data for students to analyze their classroom behavior and effort into the curriculum.

This week the EDUC 6711 authors also make light on a challenging topic in the classroom of homework. Homework should be purposeful to the given course and it should be commented on for feedback in a timely manner (Pitler et al, 2007). It should offer some variety as well to the course structure and this is the purpose of utilizing technological tools in the classroom. Through my own discussion board posting, I introduced an online homework database hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, which provides immediate feedback to the students once they submit their answers to the software. From the program, students can self troubleshoot their erroneous problem solving processes and make internal corrections to their processing skills. In addition to my original discussion post, I found out in a previous Walden course that students may complete a group project with a wiki program to compile the groups’ thoughts and research into their projects. The collaboration involved teaches students that completing such projects at home does not constitute cheating at all really, but how to utilize their partners’ strengths effectively within the given group.

Through this week’s learning resources it is obvious that technology aids in a students learning and effectively teaches them good behavior practices with their education. Any teacher should complete more research into all the tools involved in order to help their students gain more personal accomplishments.

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

Final Reflection for EDUC 6710

This course provided me with courage to finally explore the many different tools available on the World Wide Web. In my past I always heard about Web 2.0 applications yet I never had that much experience with those tools and was quite frankly intimidated with integrating them into my own classroom. The applications included in this course were blogs, podcasts and wikis, yet it is quite easy to realize the potential for more unknown Web 2.0 tools in the future. This course forced me to utilize these three applications in a new educational arena. From using these tools, it is quite easy to see how 21st Century skills can be accomplished by turning the classroom from a teacher centered environment to one that is more student centered. In such a setting student achievement will greatly improve as the students will have a larger value of ownership on the content material, and they will be much more engaged in the classroom. Also, today’s work place is highly technological and the employees in that work environment have a large amount of responsibility thrown on their shoulders to lead the company in new innovative directions. Today’s engaging and student centered learning environment, which allows for copious collaboration among peers, should be able to prepare those students for those future occupational roles.

Currently my school has little access to computers within the school day. It is true that a large majority of my students do have access to personal computers at home. Yet when reviewing the course DVD segments, I am quite jealous to see how all these other teachers get to teach using computers in their own classroom environment and I do not have access to such similar resources at my school. In the future it is my responsibility to convince the administration, other colleagues, the parents of the importance of using such resources in the classroom setting as well. My hope is that I will be able to obtain these resources in the classroom environment in the near future for the betterment of my students. A second goal of mine is to utilize these new tools in collaborative Web 2.0 projects, using a wiki as the small group hub for student collaboration. In my courses students do complete research for a variety of projects, but it is of high importance that I use such a tool to prepare my students for their own futures.

Education Podcast!

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Note... original posted on 2/3/09, corrected on 2/9/09