Theoretical Foundations in IT

I throughroly enjoyed both presentations this week.  The ARCS method was very interesting.  The websites that Amy O. showed really made me think.  It is amazing what a little motivation can do for students.  I love the idea for creating games to help students learn new material.  I want to try to do that in my own classroom.  The video of the blocks was amazing.  I can see so many different applications for them once they are available for sale. 

I have always been a fan of some of the constructivist methods.  To me it is common sense to make learning meaningful for students.  I use KWL charts often when reading a nonfiction passage with my students.  It allows them to pull their prior knowledge and gives them something to look forward to learning about when reading a selection.  Amy M. presented a great lesson and showed just how this theory works.  I found the information about the Iditarod to be fascinating.  I can only imagine how excited her students must be when learning about this event. 

Here is a website that exaplains how contructivism can be applied in the classroom. Constructivism

As an English teacher, I teach my sixth grade students how to write.  I spend countless hours grading their writing.  When I was in college, I wrote papers it seemed like every week.  I could write a five page paper in an afternoon and it would be well written and creative.  Some how though over the past five years my ability to write with ease has disappeared.  Writing an eight to ten page paper on my personal theory feels like an almost impossible task.  I was able to do it of course, and I think it turned out well, but it was not easy.

Here is an article that discussing forgetting.  It made me feel better to know there are reasons that my students and I forget.

My personal learning theory deals with students retaining information that they have learned from sixth grade to seventh grade.  As I was writing it, I was frustrated that students are not retaining information, but as I struggled with my paper, I realized that I did not retain my ability to write with ease.  I remembered of course how to write, but I am out of practice.  I now realize how important it is to review skills in the beginning of the year because many students just need to review the material because they are out of practice.  Writing this paper was not only useful for me as a teacher, but also a student.

Cognitive inquiry is a great tool to teach sixth grade students.  They are mature enough at this age to work in groups and present their findings to the class.  Also they are very social and enjoy working with others.  They also love to discover new things. I use this method when teaching a novel.   There are generally a few things that students need to have prior knowledge of to fully understand the story.  I will put students into groups since I find when they choose their own they get way off topic.  Then I will assign them a topic to read about or research.  They then will work together as a group and then present to the rest of the class.  Here is a rubricthat I found that can be used as an assessment for the group work that students can use when applying cognitive inquiry.  I understand that group work is not a mandatory part of this method, but I feel it works best at the grade I teach when it does involve group work.

Advance organizer theory, like all theories, I believe works best when combined with another.  Advance organizer theory usesadvance organizers, AKA graphic organizers, which I find very useful.  I also agree with the theory when it says that the instructor should teach the the “big picture” first and then work down to specifics.  For the students I teach, I find they learn better once they understand the larger concepts. 

I think that this theory needs to be paired with another theory to be successful.  Advance Organizer is lecture or presentation based.  I teach a block period of Language Arts which lasts one hour and forty-five minutes, and if I do not do some kind of group work or activity I lose the students’ attention. 

Great website for information on creating an advance organizer.

Synectics was a foreign theory to me before this week’s class.  Now that I know what I it is, I realize that use some of this theory in my classes.  It is helpful for students to make the unknown familiar by comparing to something that they already know.  It helps them create a meaningful picture in their head.  I start each new unit for vocabulary by introducing the new words and then having students either write a short phrase or draw an illustration to “connect” with the new words.  I noticed that their test scores went up after I started doing this.

Mnemonics was a theory that I have heard about before.  In my own learning, I have used mnemonics many times.  I have also used in my lessons as a teacher, most recently for memorizing the steps in an open ended response.   Good mnemonic examples

 I know that I write about this often, but it is worth mentioning again.  I truly believe that theses theories work best when combined.  In my opinion, no one theory by itself can be as effective then combing theories to get a better result.

While my trip to Stockton’s library may have had me a bit lost, it was well worth it.  Sitting in the computer lab, I learned how to access hundreds of journal articles from a few strokes of the keyboard.  It may be a bit more difficult to find relevant articles, but it still is not a tedious task.  I can’t help but wonder how hard it must have been when students had to look for journals through literally looking through the pages of the journals to find what they were looking for.  How many hours of research did it take to find what you were looking for?   

  In some areas technology is just another way to deliver information.  For example, some teachers use their Interactive White Boards to write notes on the board and it does the same thing as writing on a dry erase board.  The technology of online databases to be used for research truly does make life easier.  So if I ever start to become stressed about finding articles, I can think of students thirty years ago who were spending hours and hours physically searching for their articles. 

Here is a great articles about copy rights and libraries.  Libraries in Today’s Digital Age 

While I see the value in behaviorism, I am more likely to apply cognitive theories in my classroom.  I especially believe that learning is hierarchical.  For example in my English class, a student must understand what a verb is before he/she learns that there are different types of verbs.    The Gagne-Briggs model is similar to the lesson plans that I write each week so it is easy for me to identify and understand it.  I found a great website with a chart to help understand how  Gagne-Briggs model can be used as a lesson plan.  Gagne

  I enjoyed having class together in the lab this week.  Being a teacher, I do not spend a lot of time with adults during the week, and it is nice to see everyone.  I feel like I retain more of the discussion when face to face rather than online.  I understand that there are times when Wimba will be useful, but if we are able to meet face to face, that is what I prefer.

Behaviorism was a theory that I have learned about many times before, but after reading about it again and watching a presentation on it, I feel that I understand it more clearly.   I do think that it has some practical uses.  For behavior modification, I think that it does work well for some situations.  For young children, I think that it works better than for older children and adults.  In my opinion, if an adult wants to change a behavior then they should want to do it for instrinsic reasons. Also, what is a reward to some may not be a reward to others so it is difficult to use with a whole class.  For example, when I first started teaching if a student had all of his or her homework completed for the marking period, I would give a homework pass.  I soon realized  that some students wanted to do the homework because it helped them understand the material so a homework pass was not a reward to them.

   As a sixth grade LAL teacher, I do not use this theory in  my classroom.  My goal is for students to use higher order thinking skills.  Behaviorism does not lend itself towards teaching these skills.

Behaviorism and Technology Enhanced Learning

With a name like Wimba, I had a feeling it would be interesting, and I was right.  How neat is it that we can communicate with professors and classmates from home!  I missed last class, but after being on Wimba for a couple of hours, I feel like I am all caught up.  It was great being able to ask questions while I was working on assignment.  I can see the benefits that this program has going for it.  With our society becoming more and more technology centered, it seems like this is the direction that colleges and universities are heading.  Plus, it is nice being able to have class in your comfy clothes.

    Blackboard is something that intimidated me last week, but after spending time in it, I feel much more comfortable.  I am a very organized person, and it seems as though Blackboard is something that can keep all of the different aspects of a class organized.  There is a lot on it and it can be overwhelming at first.   When I sat and really looked at it, I realized that it very easy to use and find information on.  With all of this new technology, I am realizing that it can make things easier rather than my initial thought that it would makes things more confusing.

Here is an article about what we are doing in our own class. E-Learning

     Where to begin?  I am hoping that I am not the only one with this question running through my head.  This course seems like there will be a lot of different assessments and projects and that it will require a lot of time to get everything completed.  I like to think that I am comfortable with the technology that we have had to use so far in the MAIT program, but this course will require me to try new things such as Wimba.  I am nervous that this will be difficult me for me.

    Even though I am nervous about using this new technology, I am also excited about learning new things that I can bring into the classroom.  I really enjoyed the visual posters as a way to get to know students, and would like to do that next year in my classroom.  Without being there when each person presented theirs, I was still able to look at the posters and learn something new about my classmates. 

     Since we did not learn any theories this week, I thought I would post a link about ways to lessen stress just in case we need  it this semester.  Stress