Bridging Theory and Practice Reflection

Course Reflection
Completion of this course has altered my "Personal Theory of Learning." The theory I composed during week one was mostly based on classroom experience, as well as my undergraduate education. Now, I can openly admit my theory is outdated. My theory prior to this course was of a behaviorist approach. I believed in reinforcement of good behaviors, punishment for inappropriate ones and quality personal, professional relationships with students. My visions have definitely changed with the advancement of technology & completion of this course. I still believe in those qualities, but I do not feel they have a large impact on the learning process.
Currently, my "Personal Theory of Learning" is more of a constructionism & social coonstructionism approach. I believe in constructing objects to ensure a connection and also collaborating socially with groups sharing the learned information. My theory has developed into a student centered approach instead of teacher centered.
Immediate adjustments I will make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration as a result of your learning in this course is allowing students to manipulate technology resources instead of only instructing from them. Doing so will give ownership to the activity and better the chances of retaining the newly acquired information. Two technology tools which I see most beneficial to the age group I instruct would be concept mapping and voice threads. These two tools will greatly support a student-centered classroom which I intend to create. These tools will also enhance the quality of group communication and collaboration a key in competitive employment after high school.
Two long term goals I will be setting for myself are allowing students to do most of the communicating and creating lessons where technology will be integrated more. Adequate planning and preparation will make this feasible. Also accepting the fact that the more the students are involved in the learning process the more likely he or she will retain the information. It will be a challenge to not be the “center of attention”, but the benefits I have read about in this course proves teachers need to take a step back in the learning process.
The new information and technology resources presented to us in this course will have a great impact on this coming school year. I believe it is important to review and refresh one’s personal theory of learning. It keeps education current and exciting making our students more employable in this new global society.

Stephanie Coultrip

VoiceThread: Passing a School Levy

http://voicethread.com/share/573505/

The issue in my VoiceThread is passing a school levy. My question to you is what are some tactics your school districts have used in order to pass a levy?

Hope you to hear from you soon,

Stephanie Coultrip

Cooperative Learning

In this week’s resources we examined instructional strategies and how they correlate with social learning theories. Cooperative learning, the main instructional strategy utilized in social learning theories, is the ability to make sense of, or construct meaning for new knowledge by interacting with others. In today’s workforce people most possess the skills to be able to interact and produce cooperatively in a group. Early and thorough exposure to social networking and collaboration tools will greatly increase the employability of our students.

Cooperative learning can take place within the classroom with your own students or via the worldwide web interacting with many different cultures. When setting up groups for multimedia projects, jigsaw research/teaching, peer collaboration, webquests, reciprocal teaching, keypals or web site creation it is important for teachers to produce a rubric for students to follow. In these student centered learning activities guided rubrics are necessary to ensure the objective of the activity is being met. Tools such as blogs, wikis, concept mapping and voice threads are also great activities which incorporate skills of collaboration and cooperation.

The mediums listed above are just a minimal amount one can utilize in reflection to social learning theories. Any activity you do in your classroom which includes students working together to produce a final artifact is cooperative learning. In Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat (2005) he states we are living in a time when learning and innovation are increasingly global. If our jobs as educators are to produce quality and employable citizens then shouldn’t our teachings be centered around this fact? What will it take for school districts to be open to this new theory of learning?


Stephanie Coultrip