I recently gave a workshop that decried the woes of state testing, and what to do as a teacher. Students are in a gap between skills and a high level test. Teachers are pressured to pull, push students to achieve scores, and students are caught in a frenzy of pre-testing, reviewing, testing, prepping, post-testing and analysis of testing cycle of purgatory. Teachers are looking at how students are learning. Technology is part of the answer. One book gave very useful advice for incorporating technology into the classroom and lessons. Teaching is an art and a business. A profession. A lesson is created with an end purpose of what the student should learn and know. If a lesson is to incorporate technology that must still be included. Technology is not about just typing a paper or playing video games. Using Technology with Classroom Instruction, (2007) claimed effective use of technology in the classroom showed important gains in knowledge and skills for students. ( Ringstaff & Kelly, 2002) Teachers in the classroom using technology would have seen an increased interest in assignments whenever students have been allowed to be involved with lessons and control over the outcome. My main point at the workshop was that students can no longer passively sit taking notes, watch teacher prepared powerpoints, and drill for tests. Students must be more actively involved in their assignments. Students must process and analyze information by creating and working with material. Technology can help with this. Tests today require much more processing by students. Teachers are having to adapt and change teaching styles, habits, lessons, classrooms, and mindsets. Further studies in the book support claims that technology is more interactive, and students have a sense of control using technology. ( Russell and Sorge, 1999). Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn,. M., & Malenoske, K. Using Technology with Classroom Instruction, (2007) Teachers have already observed this firsthand of course. The skills observed in the studies were broken into nine categories of strategies and skills. It is important to note again that any lesson should have an observable objective and measurable outcome as stated as very practical in the book. One reading looked at how people learned and technology incorporates all learning styles. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. (2000) Bransford. introduced the idea of students not all having a shared experience and not being able to appreciate reading material due to lack of life experiences. As a former reading teacher, I had to bring to life many different settings, cultures, and explain situations for students who didn't understand. As a history teacher, I enjoy technology advances that enable me to link live web cam with the Panama Canal and watch it stream live in class while we work on assignments. My students have a much better appreciation for it afterwards. Not everyone learns the same or internalizes information the same way however.
Three theories of learning have been offered for reading this week. I find all three interesting, if a bit divergent in theory. One theory is constructivism. The theory posits the learner begins with what he or she knows and puts a personal spin or applies to personal experience. Constructivism to learning is like a cook making a recipe and putting a unique personal style to it. You can always tell a Paula Deen recipe from a California gourmet meal. This is especially important to learning today due to the need for students to process and analyze material on state testing. Students must internalize information and make decisions based on what they know not on what they have memorized. Questions are multi-stepped, and require indepth analysis. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism.
Another theory for this week's reading included connectivism learning. In this theory learning is a continual process- a network. Knowledge is used in association with other information to build upon and create further knowledge. The telephone and radio are such examples. These inventions were not created in isolation, but rather build upon multiple technological discoveries of the day. I try to use this in the history classroom by using science's process of having student's justifying their answers on their work as a strategy in my class, and reading strategies as well as math cognitive skills to solve problems. All learning skills are related and transferable. I use the analogy of football drills in class. Athletes must do many mundane drills, weightlifting, exercises that are not actual plays in the game, but it enhances their playing skills. School is the same way. Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning.
The last theory may seem a bit bizarre, but not really when you look at technological advances today. It is the cyborg theory. It involves the human/machine interaction. Ray Kurzweil, inventor, hypothesizes the inclusion of technology into education including implanting chips in human nervous systems is not inplausible.
There is no analogy necessary the cyborg says it all. We implant information chips in dogs, medical chips are used today. Defense uses many enhanced technology today. While I don't think we are quite to this point, I don't quite discount the possibility for the future. Goggles for individual monitors and viewing, desks for keyboards. The technology exists ready to bring into the classroom and advance learning to the level we need. McPheeters, D. (2009, March). Social networking technologies in education
resources:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Introduction, 1 – 14.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.
McPheeters, D. (2009, March). Social networking technologies in education. Tech and Learning
Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning.
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