Caution: Woman Constructing

Why is it when men work, they need to put up a sign that says "Caution: Men at Work"? You don't see women doing that! I know, it's an old joke, but our real goal here is to get our students to do the work. Yes, we'll probably get plenty of moans and groans, but after a bit of experience with project based, inquiry, problem solving, investigating,  and hypothesizing, students will appreciate the hands-on nature of constructionist learning methods. 

While I don't necessarily believe that generating and testing hypothesis is the most effective constructionist learning activity for my content area of social studies, I do aspire for my students to be "engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content." (Pitler, et al., 2007). However, I do see technology as a critical part in achieving this goal. 

So much has changed even since I was an undergraduate student five years ago in terms of completion and presentation of projects. Using spreadsheets and data collection software are helpful to students like me who don't feel the desire to tediously solve every problem. I always tell my students 'Work smarter, not harder!'. This is important because technology makes essential tasks more manageable. In the past, some students simply would not complete a project because of the sheet amount of work that can go into problem solving that can be completed by programs such as these. Now that this is eliminated, students will be able to better see the 'big picture' or major concept rather than get bogged down by details. Similarly, some of the projects that even middle school students create today are amazing! My colleague and I have had some mind blowing documentaries that have been produced for our National History Day historical investigation. It seems like making a poster is absurd when technologies like Movie Maker and IMovie are available today. 

This week's chapter did feature my favorite technology, web resources. Here is where the possibilities are endless for social studies! Especially in the case of simulation software, which "can provide incredibly engaging learning environments, resulting in increased motivation and retention in learning" (Pitler, et al., 2007). I have created several simulations in class such as immersion in Chinese philosophy activities and Life on the Feudal Manor, but they don't hold a candle to the websites such as the example given in our text, Practicing with the Catapult. Students love these types of programs and having access to a SMARTBoard makes it possible for the whole class to participate. Over the summer I plan to collect as many sites with simulations that fit my curriculum as possible in order to ensure that it is the students who are at work, learning and creating their own understanding, and artifacts throughout ancient history. 

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

Cognitivism in Practice

As a teacher of ancient history, I had heard the quote by Confucius that introduced the Cognitivist method of experiential learning: "Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand."(Orey, 2001). But reading about embedding technology in chapters four and six of Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works gave me a better understanding of what Confucius meant. Here I learned about how to integrate cues, questions, advance organizers, summarizing, and note taking while using technology to benefit students in the cognitive learning style. The goal of transferring information to long-term memory requires students to focus on main concepts, eliminate unnecessary information, and to organize it in a way that is meaningful to them so that they can build connections to their prior knowledge. In order to do this, teachers need to explicitly teach students how their brains work and model appropriate ways to manage the many pieces of information that they are required to learn. 

In giving cues, creating questions, and advanced organizers, teachers must recognize their role in helping students succeed. Higher level work will only be produced in the teachers create an expectation and environment that asks students to go beyond the basic facts and declarative information typical of rote learning. The students will probably have a tough time adjusting to this type of questioning and activities, but ultimately it will serve them well in helping them to make their own personal connections to material and will assist them in their careers in higher education. 

Technology can be applied in many ways to help teachers achieve this goal of student reflection and metacognition of learning. Some examples of specific programs that are helpful for teachers using the cognitive method include the various forms of Inspiration to organize information and multimedia sites like my personal favorite, United Streaming. If your district does not subscribe, urge them to do so before next year! "The technology, in turn, provides you with editable visual aids and multimedia resources that appeal ti a number of learning styles." (Pitler, et al, 2007). This is ideal for students since dual coding and elaboration can be delivered in this method. Additionally, this provides students with a specific episode of learning which can be drawn upon where no prior knowledge exists. 

As for summarizing and note taking, I recognized many of the problems that my students encounter as they worked on becoming better note takers from their limited elementary school skills in this area to the level that is expected of middle school students. When the students first begin taking notes in the beginning of the year they want to copy sentences directly from the book or power point presentation and they want to write down everything. If they were permitted to high light the text, the entire thing would be yellow! The authors of our text recommend that teachers do several things to prevent this from happening; teach students to eliminate anything that is not essential information, teach them to summarize, model various note taking formats, give teacher-prepared notes, and perhaps most importantly, to show students that information can be organized in a way to make it easier to understand. 

Again, the application of technology can make our job easier. Word can help to summarize student notes that are typed in a new document. They can also track changes, because as I learned, notes are not final. They should always be viewed as a work in progress. Infinitely more helpful could be the many available concept mapping softwares. Additionally, note taking can be a collaborative process- something I had my students dabble in by using blogs this year. But I plan to enhance the students ability for reciprocal teaching of our content by adding wiki projects and adding the steps of clarifying and predicting to their blogs. Mainly I had the students summarize and question one another about the material presented in class. I like the fact that blogs can take learning to the next level: "Blogs provide the means for students to use the strategy of reciprocal teaching be allow time for more in-depth conversation that can extend beyond the allotted time in the classroom." (Pitler, et al, 2007). Additionally, this kind of cognitive learning activity can help students review and assess their learning. 

In conclusion, technology can greatly aid teachers as they work to help their students learn. Cognitive tools can be applied for information seeking, information presentation, knowledge organization, and knowledge integration as teachers work to increase higher-order thinking in their classrooms.

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

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

Behaviorism in Practice

Reading about the authors' ideas for embedding technology in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works was really exciting! I know that I am confident in using technology in the form of blogs, streaming videos, pod casts, and Internet research in the classroom myself but I recognize that there is a great deal more I can do to help my students use technology to their own educational advantage. Additionally I was surprised to find that many of these methods were actually behaviorist learning strategies, as I assumed most technology integration in the classroom would fall under the theory of social constructivism. "The entire rationale of behavior modification is that most behavior is learned." (Orey, 2001). So in theory, my struggling students can learn how to be effective students by changing the behaviors that don't work for them into ones that allow them to be successful by modeling, shaping, and cueing.

I had heard before that students respond well to data, but doubted the truth of this statement. The idea of tracking students' effort compared to results in terms of grades in spreadsheets and other data collection software seems like a good way to determine whether or not this will be useful to my students. Students often blame poor grades on outside factors and most annoyingly, on the teachers who 'gave them a bad grade or just doesn't like them'. "The research indicates, however, that students can change their beliefs and make a connection between effort and achievement." (Lever-Duffy, et al., 2001 p. 156). By setting clear expectations and grading requirements through rubrics and keeping track of effort and performance in a program like Excel, my students can chart the correlation between the two. If I can explicitly show my students in the beginning of the next school year that if they don't try their best, they won't perform to the best of their abilities, I might set up an attitude of self-efficacy and responsibility. What more could a teacher ask for?!?

Practice through homework is a prime example of behaviorism in action. Homework allows students to master skills and adjust what they have learned until they have achieved proficiency. Many of the ideas presented in the chapter Homework and Practice were great tips for teachers that many probably are unaware of. Even a simple program such as Microsoft Word can allow students to conducted focused research, identify the grade level of their writing, and summarize their work. The applications of these tools are really endless. When I teach my fledgeling researchers how to find out more about History Fair topics in the beginning of the year, I know I would appreciate this application. I could easily model how to do this using my SMARTBoard. Also after a recent class I took on the importance of teaching reading in the content areas, I know that I should ask students to self-assess written assignments with these tools as a part of pre-writing and I might even include them on my grading rubric for them. Shaping and cues could assist the students as they work to perfect the work they produce. 

Perhaps the most appropriate way to use technology in my content area of social studies though might be multimedia. As mentioned earlier, I am comfortable in using multimedia programs myself, but I know I can do more to assist my students. "In addition to learning from multimedia such as educational games and interactive simulations, students can learn with multimedia by creating their own projects at home or at school to develop their understanding and practice skills." (Lever-Duffy, et al., 2001 p. 194). Behaviorist theory has its place, but in order to meet my goals, I know I will need to combine these methods with other educational learning practices to succeed. And this is my goal as a teacher-to use technology to take learning to the next level. 

Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

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