Voice Thread- "My Classroom"

Here is my go at doing a Voice Thread showing different aspects of my classroom. Please take a look at my voice thread and leave me your comments.

Mahalo.

http://voicethread.com/share/2164627/

The Social Learning Theory

I am of the belief that social learning is the primary way people construct meaning. If you think about it every bit of information we know to be true had to have been validated by someone or some kind of resource. Also, going back to Dr. Michael Orey teachings on what learning means, he has said, that learning is, "Making connections and strengthening them." Given what Dr. Orey has defined learning as, the Social Theory aligns with the idea of making connections because it is based on social networking that is engaging in collaborative or cooperative learning. As the saying goes, "It takes a village/community to raise a child". Dr. Orey shared this week about the "Jigsaw Strategy" where students are group based on mixed ability levels to complete an assignment together were the responsibility for learning and understanding the material is a collective affair. Looking at the Social Learning Based Technology tools previewed this week open doors for learning in a new ways with edublogs, voicethread, facebook, google docs, and others. All the things that I am learning have up until this week has continually reinforce my drive to incorporate technology as much as I can in my classroom. But one of the challenges that I am having is with FERPA. FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act this along with other policies and regulations coming form my Department of Education limits information that can be used. I am learning that there is a lot of red tape when it comes to posting your thoughts online as a teacher on facebook or using a class blog although there is a lot of good that can come out of it there is also things that can go bad and my Department of Educations is really sensitive about posting student work online with pictures, names and information. I am trying to learn more about what things are DOE approved and trying to call the office that handles technology in our district, but I have not yet acquired the answers I seek. Overall, my belief stands that the Social Theory is the primary way we construct meaning.

Week 4: REFLECTION ON CONTRUCTIONISM & CONSTRUCTIVISM

I learned a lot this week about constructivism and constructionism. I learned new ways of using technology as a medium for building ideas and publishing work. I have been doing research on various technology tools to learn more about how I might be able to use it in my classroom and found that there are so many possibilities. I am about to start my second year of teaching and I have so many things that I want to do with the things that I have learned thus far. I plan on using a blog for my class as a tool to communicate with my students and parents. I also would like to start a newsletter produced by my students to publish their work and share what they have learned. I also would like to collect a bank of interactive links that my students can use in class and at home to get practice on math skills, typing, games that are fun and build their academic skills. Dr. Orey has helped me to see that students need more then just paper and pencil worksheet assignments to learn and make their learning meaningful for them. I also just found that my Department of Education has a way teachers to create a website using the DOE server here at this link: http://nssb.k12.hi.us/webpage.htm. It has guides and the steps to set it up. So, I have a lot of homework to do before school starts to try and get this going to use with my students and parents.

Constructivism and Constructionism

In considering the types of learning experiences described in this week's resources from the learner's perspective and the instructor's perspective I have come to an understanding that these approaches have transformed the roles and responsibilities of the teacher and students. To understand the transformation of roles and responsibility of teachers and students, it is crucial to understand two words defined by Dr. Michael Orey, "Constructivism" and "Constructionism". According to Dr. Michael Orey, "constructivism", is a theory of knowledge stating that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning" and "constructionism", is when students are engaged in learning and the the process of creating an artifact. In reflecting on my learning this week I realize that my role is to allow for students to create and build things cognitively and physically. A quote that my Art Professor in college said once was comes to mind, "Creating is part of the Human Nature and how we gain meaning in this life." I feel that my role as a teacher is to give students the tools to create and to build. We as teachers must learn to step back at times and allow our students to make their ideas come to a reality. With this idea of trial and error as Mrs. Donovan mentioned in the video resource that her students go through this process in order to figure out how to construct something the way they want it. In any case creating something new does take time and effort. In the video one of Mrs. Donovan's students commented that it took her several times to get her text to take on the shape of a gumdrop and that she got frustrated at one point. But she also mentioned how her teacher Mrs. Donovan helped her and taught her how to use the different fonts, spacing and the changing of font size and color to manipulate the text in to the shape she wanted (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). I interpret Constructionism and Constructivism to be powered by the right hemisphere of our brains. Being an Art Major I love to incorporate art and opportunities for my students to create with their hands. The only thing that can be challenging is knowing how much time is needed for such projects and really understanding what tools and materials will be needed. Time is a challenge. Time, has always been somewhat of an ordeal or conflict for me as a teacher as well as a student. It takes me a while to formulate my ideas the way I want them. Hence, taking me a lot longer than most to construct my ideas. So what is my point? My point is we teachers need to take into account processing time. So as teachers we must always take into account not to lead them to everything but to steer them in the right direction and allow them to figure things out and find their way. When we as teacher give them opportunities to prove to us and themselves what they can do, that can be such a rewarding experience. Creating and building is all about taking ownership of something and that is when learning is meaningful to our students. So technology tools that can assist this type of learning that were shared this week that I liked and some that I use in my classroom are:
1.http://voicethread.com/#u314.b409.i848804
This is a way of collaborating online. I am not sure how I will use this in my class yet. But I know I can use this with my colleagues.
2.http://www.zunal.com/
This is a site that I came across when browsing and learning more about webquest. This is free and easy to use because you don't have to deal with html codes. I will try to play around with this and create my own webquest to use this up coming year. Webquest are, A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. (http://edweb.sdsu.edu/WebQuest/overview.htm)
3.http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/online_project_based/
This is a great resource for teachers. There is a fee if you really want to take advantage of everything it has to offer. But I think I will subscribe because a lot of what I previewed are things that I can use.
4. Power Point
Dr. Orey talked about power points and as a teacher I use them to teach mini-lessons but I think it would be fun for my students to create a power point on their own as he suggested, I just don't know if it is age appropriate for grades K-1. This question has led me to another question, "What technology tools are age appropriate for K-1?". I think I might have my students do new vocab powerpoints that explain the meaning of the word, how it is used, what it looks like? and so forth.

All of the sites that I have mentioned right above are useful sights that can be used to construct ideas and address constructivism and constructionism. In any case with technology there are different applications for these technology tools and really it requires time on these sites and playing with it to see how it can work for you.

-Kawehi Kammerer
  
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program number 5: Cognitive learning theories [DVD]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Baltimore, MD: Author. (2005). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

WEEK 3: Cognitive Learning Theories

So here is my concept map for teaching "What is a character?"

 https://grapholite.com/Viewer?fileid=3755

This week I am learning about how we all think and how we recall information that is taught to us. I learned this week that concepts maps are tools that help us to remember information better because it is organized graphically as a visual aid. Dr. Michael Orey of the University of Georgia explained, that in order to get sensory input to short term/ working memory to our long term memory we need to use concept maps. According to Paivios, "Dual Coding Hypothesis, which is the idea that images are remembered better than text."

Please take a look at my concept map and leave me a comment.

MAHALO!

Old School vs. New School

Kawehi- When reading your post, a couple of things came to mind. First, I agree totally that there are just some things that require drill and practice. Multiplication facts are an example of this. In third grade here in Arizona, we teach what multiplication means (groups of) but knowing the facts is a necessity has students get older. The other thing that came to mind when reading your post about the combination of 'old school' and 'new school' is the idea of standardized tests. Do you ever wonder if we are testing kids by 'old school' standards, but are teaching them by new world standards? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do think about the 'old school' and 'new school' often. I think that new teachers are the minority in schools, especially with all the budget cuts and tenured teachers being protected by the union. Here is a link to a pdf with information on Idaho's "Students Come First Plan", www.standwithluna.org/uploads/1/7/4/2/1742616/factsheet.pdf According to this source, "States across the country are working on laws to eliminate, and phase out or reform tenure. Colorado, Delaware and Rhode Island have already approved legislation that will tie a teacher’s tenure to performance..These states recognize that tenure may have been a rite of passage in the past, but it now serves as an obstacle to improving schools." So to connect this to your question, my thoughts are that we are teaching students that require us to think in terms of the times. What worked yesterday may not work today. We must always be reflective in our practices and know that to improve our teaching practices to meet the needs of students we need to reevaluate them and check if everything is still working right. Just like a car you have to take preventative actions by servicing your car regularly. If something is wrong you can address it before it get out of control or so bad you have to replace the whole thing. So just like we now fix new cars by taking a diagnostic we need to really figure out which parts needs fixing, or if it is really bad then we might just need to get a new car. Sorry to talk in analogy but that's how my mind works. I can't say that we are all teaching new world standards but there are a few of us and we are still testing kids by 'old school standards'. Until we figure out how to fix the areas that need fixing will be driving a car that may not be performing correctly.

WEEK 2: Behaviorism, Education and Technology

EVERYONE: Initial Post   
   *Do drill and practice, remediation, and traditional tutorial programs have a place in today’s classroom?
-I feel that drill and practice, remediation and traditional tutorial programs do have a place in today's classroom. If you think about sports, athletes are put through drill and practice to perform on game day. Remediation to specifically target desired skills that need addressing. Traditional tutorial are like sports clinic. So, does all of this transfer into the classroom. Well according to B.F. Skinner  operant conditioning is the method of reinforcing the desired behavior. I as a teacher do this on a daily basis. I try to reinforce good behaviors in my class by giving stars, stamps, happy faces, prizes, stickers,...etc. Students do respond to it. Traditional ways of teaching using drill and practice have in fact worked because I am a product of it. All those many flash cards, memorization of facts, and recalling information. My thoughts, though are that it should not be the primary way of teaching. I think that a lot of seasoned teachers are from the age of drill and practice who have difficulty deviating from traditional practices they are so accustomed to. I feel that our schools run drill and practice methods especially with testing being the drive and focus for determining the effectiveness of our schools. So in my estimations in order for schools to exceed the testing expectations it must go beyond just drill and practice and incorporate the a balance use of the right hemisphere of the brain. To balance the drill and practice with fun and creative is to allow students to enjoy learning instead of dreading it or to lack in structure.
    *Are there instructional situations when behaviorist technology applications are appropriate and effective?
-Yes, I do believe there are instructional situations when behaviorist technology applications are appropriate and effective. Some examples are:
1. interactive flashcards.
2. modeling how students can utilize online math games.
3. Power Points with trivia questions that have smiley faces for the correct answer.
4. Using computer time as a reward.
5. Online tutorials to demonstrate step by step instructions.
    *Given what we know about the evolving understanding of how people learn, is there still a place or behaviorist learning theory in today’s classroom and instructional technology? If so, how is it best incorporated? If not, why not?
-All of my responses up to this questions supports that idea that given what is known about the evolving understanding of how people learn the behaviorist learning theory is still applicable in today's classrooms and instructional technology. The relevancy of the behaviorist learning theory in today's classrooms and instructional technology is how well we teachers infuse the old school with the new school. The idea of if it is not broken then don't fix it can be viewed as outdated. In today's world what was new can go old real fast. So in an ever changing world I feel it is important to remember and to hold to traditions that work but to also stay abreast on what is new and try to make connections with the old and the new.

-Kawehi Kammerer