As a
teacher, one must understand learning theories and styles for the benefit of
their own students. Lever-Duffy and McDonald (2008) affirms that understanding
different learning theories and how it relates to one’s personal views will
help teachers “design instruction that is consistent with [their] own view of
the teaching-learning process and its principles” (p. 11). Looking back and reflecting on this course, I
have deepened my understanding of how important educational technologies are to
students of today and how these tools relate to learning theories and
instructional strategies.
Through
this course, my ideas of learning have not changed but have strengthened and
reaffirmed my beliefs of how students learn and how to use technology to
support this learning. In week 1, I
wrote my beliefs are closely aligned with the constructivist perspective. I
believe that students must do, make, or construct in order to grasp and retain
knowledge and ideas. I believe that students learn best by doing and experiencing
activities and situations that allows them to develop knowledge by a guided or
facilitated approach. Like Robert Gagne, I believe that learning is a mental
process and “is a result of an individual’s cognitive efforts to construct his
or her personal knowledge” (p. 18). In
reflecting, I beliefs are affirmed through the understanding of the importance
of constructionism theory and the ideas of students constructing their own knowledge
and sharing artifacts of the learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011c). Also, this course strengthened my beliefs of
students learning through others. According to Dr. Orey, students learn best
from sharing ideas with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011c). Allowing
students to work collaboratively through cooperative groups is directly aligned
to the ideas of social constructionism (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a)
As
a result to my learning in this course, I have two immediate adjustments to my
instructional practice. First, I plan to
use more images during introduction of concepts and presentations through
PowerPoint. Images are a powerful tool
to help students remember key information, which directly aligns with the
cognitive learning theory (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b). Secondly, I want to use more collaboration
and cooperative learning to allow students to share ideas and learn concepts. I
plan on using tools such as VoiceThread or something similar to allow students
to share ideas and comment on others work. Through this course, my repertoire of
instructional skills has expanded to include more collaboration tools such as Web
quests, Google Docs, SpiderScribe, and VoiceThread.
As I move
forward in incorporating technology tools into my instructional practices, I
have two long term goals. As a kindergarten teacher, I want to help my students
understand the power of technology and how it can be used for communicating and
sharing ideas. In order to accomplish
this, I want to increase the amount of computer instruction and use in my
classroom. I plan to check out the school’s laptop cart and create min-lessons
on identify parts, keyboard features. My
second goal is to eventually allow students to create projects and share
learning using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and online collaboration tools. I,
also, want them to learn to work together on using this tool to research and
find information on the Internet. My
plan for implementation of these goals is to start now in this school
year. I have started allowing my
students to explore key features of the computer and typing a simple sentence
using Microsoft Word. As I move forward next school year, I want to start
sooner so that my students have more opportunities to share ideas. I, also,
plan to work closely with one of my colleagues who have a degree in technology
instruction. She always has great ideas on how I can use technology tools to
help students learn and do.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011a). Program eight: Social
learning theories [Video
webcast]. Bridging
learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011b). Program five: Cognitive
learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and
technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1
Laureate Education,
Inc. (Producer). (2011c). Program seven: Constructionist and constructivist
learning theories
[Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology.
Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1
Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical foundations
(Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
