Reflections on Course 6711I

In my personal theory of learning that I wrote about in week 1, I mentioned that when I first started teaching it was based on verbal/linguistic intelligence. That is lectures, notes, homework, and tests. Over my teaching years I modified this into doing more visual and hands on type of learning. After being exposed to all the new possibilities for types of learning, in this course, I must say my personal learning theory has expanded tremendously. The many different theories of learning such as Social learning, Behaviorism, and others, and the different types of instructional strategies such as Cooperative learning, Constructionism, and more that are based on these theories opens up a whole new world of teaching that I never knew exhisted before. Combined with the many technology tools that are available to use with all these types of learning will deffinitely change how I do things in the future.
I am limited in my classroom with little technology availability but I now have many more options to use with these limited resources. One of the new technology tools that I am anxious to use in my classroom is the voice thread. It is so versitile and so much can be done with it that I can use it in almost any area of study in my 8th grade science classroom. Another technology tool that I have used before but am now encouraged to use more of are simulations. Especially with these two tools my students learning will be greatly enhanced because of a few reasons. They will be able to use unlimited creativity while working through problems and will absorb the content that they need to know without even realizing it, because this type of learning is fun.
My two long term goal changes that I would like to make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration in my classroom are these. I would like to convince that administration in my district that technology is essential to prepare these students for twenty first century jobs. The first change that needs to be made is we need to bring back a computer lab for our students. The second goal is for me to be able to use all of these new technology tools regularly once a new computer lab is reinstated. My strategy for achieving these goals is simply this, so the administration and my fellow teachers what can be done with even limited technology and convince them of how much more could be done with a greater amount of technology. The only way I can do this is by doing a good job using technology in my classroom now.

Phil Palumbo's voice thread on ed. tech.

This is the URL for my Voice Thread

http://voicethread.com/share/1441778/

Thoughts on Social Learning

Social learning theories such as Social Costructivism and Connectivism are catching on as the latest learning theories with subsequent strategies. The idea that people construct meaning primarily through their interactions with other people and their environment is one that I believe is flawed at the core. I personally believe that meaning is derived though inside thoughts, self thoughts and self discussion prompted by a catalyst possibly from the outside or inside.
But be that as it may we are now faced with using social learning in our classrooms. This can be a good thing when guided carefully and instruction is given regularly. One of the examples in the text book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) is using multimedia as a cooperative or collaborative learning project where the students create a video on a particular subject. By using this technology students can learn collaboratively using social constructivism. They can learn from and teach each other. Jig-sawing can also be used as an enhancement to the collaborative learning. Each student is responsible for a particular task or tasks and becomes an expert in it. Where the teacher comes in is where the students go beyond their zone of proximal development as discussed by Dr. Orey in the video Social Learning Theories. Once they go beyond this zone where they are able to learn from each other the teacher is needed to guide and instruct about the project on things that the students are unable to know by themselves. There is a need for a "more knowledgeable other" (Orey,2009) to help them learn.
I believe that there is a place for social learning and ultimately connectivism in schools today and that it can be used effectively in many situations. But I also think that the nature of it's meaning is flawed and it is not an overall nirvana for student instruction.

Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories [DVD}. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Resources to Previous Blog Post

Resources:
Cajun (1998) Food Chain (Cajun Software Inc., CD-ROM, 1998 release)
Maxis (1996) Sim Farm (Maxis Inc.,CD-ROM, 1995, 1996 release)
Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and
technology.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malensoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Thoughts on Technology and Constructionism

In one of the readings this week, "Generating and Testing Hypotheses", the emphasis of creating questions and problems, and then how to solve them, is presented. This is something that I have used for many years in my science classroom. But, not until recently have I been able to use technology to achieve this. I have always used the recommendations given in the reading. The first one being, to make sure that the students can explain their hypotheses and conclusions. The second being, to use a variety of structured tasks to guide the students through generating and testing hypotheses. But now, I am able to use technology to achieve these recommendations. In the past I have used simulation software and simulation games to enhance and promote the creation of questions and hypotheses and to carry out the experimentation to find the results. Then the students would analyze the results and create new questions. This is one of the tasks presented in this chapter, that being "Experimental Inquiry". Some of the software that I used allowed the students to use their background knowledge, make decisions, and then see the outcome of their hypotheses.
One piece of software that I have used is called "Food Chain", put out by Cajun Games. It is set up as a board game in which the players make decisions on what and who other animals eat, or if they eat at all, and what the outcomes are based on these decisions. This was great when I was teaching Ecology. Another one is "Sim Farm", put out by Maxis. In this simulation software, students created a farm and made all the decisions to run the farm. As you would imagine this got into more than just how to grow crops but also, economic, labor, and market decisions. I use this when teaching a class on farming, which is what my Bachelors degree is in. Both of these programs had students create artifacts and learn from them as you do in constructionism. They were both also able to go on for extended periods of time culminating in realistic products or presentations from a series of artifacts building one on the other. I don't know if these programs are still available since it has been a number of years since I had obtained them.
What is good about simulations and games is that you can utilize them in a classroom with limited resources. I used these that I mentioned with the students in groups so everyone could take part even though I only had access to two computers. On the other hand Data Collection tools and software usually require more resources that aren't usually obtainable to many classrooms. But with the resources Data Collection tools and software can be quite useful.

PLCs

This posting is promoted by work that I must complete for a class in my Walden masters program. Right now the question has arisen as to how effective are professional learning communities (PLCs) in my career? I will go one step farther to explain how educational technology for my students has been enhanced because of the use of PLCs. Near the end of the school year I introduced into our professional learning community the question of where our students were in terms of educational technology in our science classrooms. I pointed out how far behind our district and school were in keeping up with any advances in technology for our students. The other teachers in the PLC were astounded at far behind we actually are and we decided to make a point to do something about this next time.

Reflection

After reflecting on what I have learned and experienced in this course I must say I am suprised at how much I have developed in the field of educational technology. Before this course I knew very little concerning what ed tech was all about. I did not realize how far the cutting edge had gone and therefore how far our students should be advanced. Not only have I learned to weave my way through things like blogs, wikis and pod casts, but also how to use them effectively in a classroom situation to facilitate learning in a new and advanced way. Teaching and learning are no longer what they used to be. They are no longer what they were when I went through my teaching program in college and started teaching 16 years ago. My students no longer respond the way they used to, to the old ways. Teaching them how to learn with and use technology in the classroom and to be more of a facilitator of learning than a master teacher is becoming paramount to learning in the 21st century. Showing students how to learn for themselves and being their own knowledge gatherer is of the upmost importance considering all the knowledge that is available to them good or bad.
I think now that I am enlightened as to what is out there in technology with respect to using it for education, I can expand my knowledge of using these things for learning in the classroom by activiely taking part in the ed tech world that is available on the internet. Actively participating in web sites of any kind that has to do with education and student achievement whether it be blogs, wikis, pod casts, or anything new that comes along, will be a primary goal in my preparation for the classroom. Within the next two years two long term goals that I would like to set for myself to transform my classroom will have to be both challenging and realistic. The realistic goal is one I can achieve now with the technology that I have available to me at the present time. This goal is to make all of my students aware of what is out there available to them in the technology world and on the internet. I will do this by bring these new things to them in the classroom and allowing them to freely use and explore them. Hopefully this will cut the numbers of technologically illiderate students down substancially. My second goal is to educate the other teachers and "rally the troups" so to speak to bring pressure on our administration and district to make technology more important for the classroom and to hopefully reinstate the computer lab to our school that we lost a few years ago. As for any of my answers changing from the check list from week one the only thing I can think of is at that time I did not realize how specific and individual technology could be for each student as opposed to being effective only in groups in the classroom. Technology can be very personal and individual while also being useful for the masses.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

After spending some time going through the information on the Partnership for 21 Century Skills web site is that they are overwhelmingly "In Your Face". Their overall idea of making people aware of the need for education to be addressing the need for students to know how to use and understand current and future technology is commendable, but everything combined on this web site looks almost like a religious cult. Many things suprise me that I found on the web site. For one they have their own politiclal agenda, buisinesses they support and a list of converts in all fields that agree with their doctrine. They even have their own writings which is in Route 21 for teachers and others to adhere to. In my opinion they go beyond the necessity of keeping up with technology by expounding what they call life skills which have little to do with this. I think some of these life skills are good ideas but are also questionable as to how well they can be taught in a classroom. Their list of state initiatives shows a definite political leaning. As far as the implications for my students and myself I think that the quest for teaching better technology in the classroom may actually be lessened by the way this organization comes across on the inter-net.

Idea for Using a Blog in the Classroom

Although I only have three computers in my classroom I think that creating a blog collaboratively with my class would work on a subject we are going over right now. The idea is to collect student opinions on whether the NASA budget, particularly the moon program, should be cut as was proposed. This is something that my students are very interested in and I think it would serve them well to see how other students around the country, let alone around the world, feel about this. It would be a great way to interact with other people from different back grounds. I am not sure how I would get this blog well known enough to be successful but I think that just the experience of blogging and communicating through the Internet would be valuable in it self.

First Blog Posting

My name is Phil Palumbo. I am a student in a masters degree program for educational technology at the online university of Walden University. As a requirement for one of my classes I am to create a blog for anyone who wants to read or respond. For my first subject I would like to pose a question based on my situation. I have 38 eighth grade science students in my classroom that I would like to expose to educational technology. I have in my classroom 2 windows computers with access to the internet, also I have my teachers' computer that can display on a screen for the whole class. This is all the technology that is available to my students. I would like to know of any suggestions as to what would be the best use of these limited resources in the classroom. How can each student best benefit from this? Please respond.