Constructionism in the classroom

This week, we learned about constructionism and what that means for the classroom. From what I understand, constructionism involves learning through creating a project of some type. I think that one way to support this is by making rubrics. I like the idea of rubrics because it clearly outlines what is expected. This way, if there is ever a question of the grades, the teacher can simply refer to the rubric and that's that. I think that if you expect your students to learn by creating something, it might be best to give them a clear list of what you expect. Has anyone used rubrics in your classroom? Has it had a positive or negative impact on your teaching?

Tools used to support the cognitive learning approach

The cognitive approach is all about how information enters the brain, is stored, and is used. In order to support this, their are several different tools that can be used. I think that it is a great idea to create advance organizers. This can easily be created on a word document. One type of advance organizers is a graphic organizer which can be represented as a table, chart, or artistic work. I think that this supports the cognitive approach by giving a clear way for information to enter the brain. I am a visual learner and so are many of my students so seeing some sort or chart or graph is very helpful.

Strategies to Incorporate the Behaviorist Learning Theory in the Classroom

For this week, I am going to talk about a strategy that I learned about. According to Dr. Michael Orey in a video I watched, the behaviorist theory involves either reinforcing a desired behavior or punishing a negative behavior. One way that this could be incorporated in a classroom is to use an online tutorial. A tutorial is a program on a computer that gives a small piece of information and asks you a question (usually multiple choice). If you get the answer correct, you get rewarded with a screen that says either "Correct!" or "You're right!" or some other positively reinforcing statement. If you are wrong, you get a screen that pretty much states the opposite. My district requires staff to do training for things like fire safety and communicable diseases by using tutorials. I would love to find some tutorials to reinforce learning topics for my students. I think that they would get a lot out of them.

References:
Orey, M. (2009) "Behaviorist Learning Theory." (video resource)

Hello again!

If anyone has been following my blog, I apologize for not submitting a posting for a couple months. I have to admit, I created this blog to fulfill a requirement for a class I am taking and now that I have to post to a blog for another course, I'm back. I hope to get into the swing of using this even when I do not have to.

For those of you who are subscribers of my blog for our current course, welcome. I hope to be getting comments from you soon!

Reflection

When reflecting upon the class that I am currently taking involving technology, there are several things that come to mind. First, I think that I have learned a lot more about using technology in the classroom than I thought that I would. Before I took this class, I barely knew what a wiki, blog, or podcast was, let alone how to use them. Now I have successfully been able to do each of these things. That is not saying that I am an expert by any means, but I definitely know more than I did before. Second, I have learned that with these tools, instruction can be more student-centered than teacher-centered. I think that I will try to use things like blogs and wikis so that my students can facilitate their own learning.

I think that in order for me to continue to learn more about using these technologies, I need to use them more frequently. I think that practice will make it a lot easier for me to use these tools effectively. I also think that it is important to set goals for myself in order to make sure that I continue to use blogs, wikis, or podcasts. One goal I want to set is to successfully create and maintain a blog that my students can effectively use. Another goal is to use blogs to communicate with staff rather than emails or meetings. I think that looking back on how I was with technology before, I have improved. I now have new ways of involving my students in conversations and other forms of interactions.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic