Reflection - Learning Theory and Technology Tools

Reflection of my personal theory of learning and use of technology.

I mentioned early on in our course that I use nonlinguistic and cooperative learning style techniques to teach my students. Due to the new technology discovered over the past several weeks, I have expanded on my learning style to include these new technologies. I feel that I have deepened my knowledge on the use of certain technologies in the classroom by experimenting with and implementing the technology with my students. New discoveries and creativity with the technology has made my courses more interactive and fun. I feel as if a completely new window of opportunities has opened up for my courses.

Immediate adjustments that I have made to my courses are the use of VoiceThread and Blogs. I created a class blog for each of my classes so that students and parents know what we are working on and can provide feedback and input. VoiceThread is used in my web design course so that the students can interact with each other’s work and offer up constructive criticism through either voice or text. Using blogs and VoiceThread shows that I am using 21^st- Century skills and that I am keeping current with technology. I have had to adjust my teaching style a little bit to accommodate these new teaching tools, and so far, it has been well worth it.

One long-term goal I have is to help train other staff members on how to use VoiceThread and how impactful its use can be in the classroom. I will make a request to demonstrate this tool during one of our tech tool classes, which are offered once a month on Wednesdays. The teacher in charge of this is always looking for suggestions, so I believe I can get it on the calendar for next school year. Another long-term goal I have is to gain access to social media sites at school for educational purposes. As of now, many sites are blocked by the school district, and even the teachers do not have access to valuable resources such as Wikipedia and Youtube. Gaining access to these sites will be a big help.

VoiceThread - Post

To the students of Walden University, Check it out:
http://voicethread.com/share/1702750/

I ask a simple question as to what we, as educators, can do to get large districts on board with allowing access to some very popular social media sites for educational purposes.

Social Learning Theory - Cooperative Learning

The courses I teach are Web Design and Video and Film. My students are already actively engaged in cooperative learning through the use of multimedia and web site creation. My students are constantly feeding off of each other's ideas and work in small groups. With my Web Design class, I give them a topic, they work in groups of 3, and build web sites based on the criteria of the project. I monitor their progress, give them suggestions and help when needed. Typically, they do more than I expect, as they research together to find new web page features that they can add to their sites. My students are becoming more creative with each assignment and are usually in fierce competition with the other groups in the class. The groups will share with each other, things that they have learned while working together and help each other when needed.

In my Video and Film class, each student group is assigned a director, camera operator, editor, anchor, and script writer. They will rotate these positions throughout the semester, learning the different set of skills needed to be successful with this course. Most students find a role that they prefer, however, I have them experience them all to fully understand what it takes to get a video produced. Some roles are easy, while some are more challenging. This type of cooperative learning embraces social learning theory and it is a successful approach to get my students to understand and learn the curriculum that I teach in both my Web Design and Video and Film courses.