At the beginning of my course, EDUC 6711, we were asked to create a personal theory of learning. Apparently a lot has happened in the past seven weeks for me to have actually forgotten writing one. After reading through it again, I have realized that my theory of learning really has not changed very much. To be perfectly honest, I owe a lot of that to my professors during Undergrad and my educational psychology classes.
I am and always have been a firm believer that all children learn differently. In order to create a positive learning experience, we should be making learning meaningful and try to help them make connections. Along with this, educators should be choosing multiple teaching strategies to target individual needs of students. For this, we include Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.
Cooperative learning and problem-based learning are two other theories that I believe in. Teachers should not be standing in front of their class lecturing on a daily basis. Number one, the students will probably ignore everything that the teacher has said, and number two, this is when students tend to act out. If they are not engaged, they probably will not listen to a word that has been said. Being able to let them critically think and solve problems with one another will be a lot more beneficial for their futures.
I have to say that I really do not feel my thoughts on the use of educational technologies, has changed much either. I decided to master in technology education so I would be able to make an impact on my students without only using an overhead or a SMART board as a glorified white board. Through the past few courses I have taken, I am starting to really include technology as a learning tool for my students. In doing so, I am seeing a positive change in the motivation of my students.
As a result of this course, I will definitely be including voice threads, concept maps, and virtual field trips. I actually have experimented with all three over the last seven weeks. Voice threads are a very new concept to me, as well as my students. Being able to teach them about a new technology that allows them to create something and then give each other feedback on the project itself has given my students a new meaning to the learning world. Concept maps and virtual field trips are very similar. I am no longer asking my students to read from a textbook and take a test. I am asking them to explore locations around the world through a virtual field trip and do more than just take notes in a notebook. Before this course, I had only created a blog for my classroom. I am so excited to help my students create exciting projects and take them somewhere through a virtual field trip that they would not be able to actually go to.
In order to make my instructional practice regarding technology more effective, there are a couple of goals I am setting for myself. One goal I have is that I would like to use technology as more of a learning tool with my students as opposed to an instructional tool. I have allowed my students to use the SMART board, but I have found myself at it much more than they are. I plan on looking through my plans each week and find at least one point during each lesson that I can have the students really be included with the technology. I would also like to create a literacy center that allows them to use the SMART board in groups. Lastly, I would like to actually try the response clickers. I have heard wonderful reviews of having these in a classroom. This will allow the students to utilize the technology.
The last goal I am striving for is to try and include at least one technology based project with each of my units in language arts and social studies. I would also like to try incorporating it into my math classes. As math is a new subject to me this year, I feel as though including technology in my language arts and social studies classes will be much easier, as I am familiar with the content. I plan on finding times for my students to use one of the computer labs in order to create a wiki, voice thread, or some other exciting project. In order to incorporate technology into my math lessons, I really need to collaborate with my teammates that have taught math over the past few years. If they are able to help me with what content I am teaching, I will be able to help them include some sort of technology tools to enhance the unit. Hopefully this will keep all of our students actively learning.
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