My cohorts and I continue on our journey to understand ways to blend technology with instructional and learning theories. This week, our focus is on Social learning theory, which is the foundation for cooperative learning. There are still strong elements of constructionism at play here, as students are actively engaged in creating something, that is their means of acquiring information.
The difference with social learning is that you add the element of socialization. It seems obvious, but I understand it to be constructionism + interaction with other learners. We looked at several ways to use technology to accomplish this. The most promising look to be voicethread.com, webquest, and various website creation sites/programs, such as Publisher or coolpage.com. Secondlife and Facebook could probably be the most engaging for students, but I don't know that the environment can be controlled well enough for them to be feasible to use in classrooms.
Taking the example of voicethread, students could post images related to their assigned topic, then have other group members surround the images with comments, both audio and text, thus all working together, interacting and learning from one another, and constructing an artifact to share with others (the rest of the class, school, world, whatever is appropriate). Webquest could be used in combination with software to create an artifact, and a similar finished project could be created and shared.
This approach is, in my opinion, the best of all worlds with learning theories. Appropriate behaviors are simple when students are engaged, there is cognitive learning happening, and construction of artifacts is taking place. Add to all of that, the students are interacting and learning from one another, as well as their available resources, and the addition of technology tools brings it all together for a seamless execution!
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I share your concern for cotrolling the environment in some of the social networking applications we visited this week. I know that these tools have tremendous capabilities, but the is also inherent danger. I have classes in my lab of up to 28 or so children, and maybe more this coming year. Of course, I make every effort to minoteor what they are doing online, but with that many students at one time, I fear something might get by me. And the kids would have logins to use at home where I could not monitor and cannot trust all parents to monitor either. I am torn between wanting to expose kids to all the wonderful new technology available, but not wanting to expose them to all the weirdos and other dangers at the same time. I wonder how other teachers walk this fine line?
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in incorporating voicethread into my class. I teach first grade, so it may be difficult to establish a system so that eveyone can understand, also difficult to actully have them use voicethread. But, I am excited about trying to make it work. I also think this could be an avenue to connect with parents in some way. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI keep reading about how teachers are incorporating facebook and twitter and the like into their lesson plans... apparantly with great success. I think it is because many students are already comfortable using the technology, and it is fun and motivating to get to use it for schoolwork. I tried to check into it, and found that my distict blocks access to those sites, and many others. I did find that I could download Skype, but the students cannot - so I would have to load it on each computer. I guess it's not just me that is behind the times!!
ReplyDeleteNancy, I know what you mean. I want to expose them to the good, and not put them in a position that makes them vulnerable. We can't trust filtering software at school to do this, as most students know how to bypass filters, but not teachers! What an irony!
ReplyDeleteLynn, yes, it would be great for parents, and I think many would appreciate being able to have a peek into what the students are doing. I know that I would love to be able to see a project that my son or daughter had done with this program!
Dianne, yes, those sites are blocked in my district, as well. Teachers were even "advised" not to have accounts! I don't see my district considering the possible educational benefit of facebook or twitter anytime soon. Nearly any interactive web technology must be approved in writing before being unblocked, even sites that are used to create wikis! It's so frustrating!