Weekly Reflection, March 4, 2012
This week had a new term for an education method that I was taught as a student teacher fifteen years ago: constructivism. Discussing background knowledge, asking probing questions, and good old K-W-L charts are all examples of constructivism I have been using in my classroom for years, only without the help of technology. I am also familiar with the theory of connectivism, but we referred to it as teaching across the curriculum. This is what I do every day in my Social Living class: when I teach a lesson, I am not just teaching Science or Social Studies to first graders, I am also teaching Reading, Language, Spelling, Handwriting, and sometimes Math as well. The Cyborg theory was a little out in left field for me. I know that this type of surgery (computer chips implanted in the nerves) is used in the medical field, especially with people who have suffered nerve injuries, but implanting chips with knowledge is a new one to me. It’s a little like Star Trek, and I’m afraid I can’t really get into human beings becoming a sub-species. I found the readings very interesting when they discussed that using technology as part of the learning process actually stimulates the students to further their own learning (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 208). I have seen this in action when we began using interactive whiteboards in our classrooms. I am looking forward to using more technology to apply these theories with my first grade students.
Another interesting thing that drew my attention was the discussion concerning the prevalence of the use of MySpace (Solomon & Schrum, 2007, p.21). This is another example of how much the Internet has changed in a very short period of time; in the five years since this book was written, MySpace has been so eclipsed by Facebook as to become almost obsolete.
Our team got together again, although one of our members, Casey, is not in our class this time. We will miss her input and working with her. I am team leader, and I hope I do well by my team. We are to choose our subject and target audience this week for our lesson, so it looks like a busy week ahead.
All in all, I feel as though this is going to be a labor intensive course, really utilizing all of our knowledge we have gained in our courses so far and connecting them with future learning, as well as a tremendous amount of collaboration with other members. Hey, that sounds like constructivism and connectivism to me! However, no chip implants for me, please.
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn; Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded edition). Ch. 9, pp. 194-218. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved on March 1, 2012 from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853&page=208
Solomon G., and Schrum, L., (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, pp. 7-44.
No comments:
Post a Comment