Final Reflection
Throughout
this course, I have discovered new ways to motivate my students with technology
and learned more about how my own teaching will help or hinder this
integration. As I reflect on my own personal learning theory I am reminded of how difficult It was to identify one
learning theory as my own personal theory. This made me realize the truth in
Dr. Wolfe’s statement that teachers are instinctive and cannot explain how they
teach what they teach they just do based on instinct (laureate education, Inc.,
2011a). I wholeheartedly agree, I did not fully understand multiple
intelligences, learning styles, and learning theories until beginning my
masters. Though I found that through instinct many of my instructional
strategies incorporate a variety of modalities and strategies that meet various
learning styles and theories that I learned about through my masters courses.
Another reason it was difficult to identify with one theory is because I found
them all to be so similar and interrelated in many ways. However, in the first
week of the course I stated that my personal learning theory was the
constructivist theory and the multiple intelligence theory. While this still
holds true today I need to add that all of the learning theories correlate in
some way with my teaching methods. I do not believe that an educator can simply
use one theory without incorporating the other theories in some way as well.
The key is to have a balance of the theories. I also realize that many of my
lessons are also based on the social learning theory. The most important thing
that I learned about learning theories is that there are a wide variety of
learning strategies and technology tools that help to facilitate the learning
theories. I am very excited about enhancing my lessons in the future by
integrating these tools.
Over the past seven
weeks I learned that there is a difference between instructional technology
tools and learning technology tools. Instructional technology tools are mostly
teacher-centered and represent what the teacher can do with the technology.
Whereas, learning technology tools are student-centered and represent what the
students can do with the technology. In order for learning to be powerful and
meaningful students need to play an active role in the learning process (Laureate
education, Inc., 2011b) This makes a great deal of sense to me and forced me to
rethink how I use different technologies in my classroom. As I reevaluated my
technology use I realized that I was guilty of using power points many times as
strictly an instructional tool without enhancing them in anyway. Dr. Orey,
states that, if there is a need for teacher-centered instructional tools then
the educator can make them effective by applying the dual coding hypotheses
(Laureate education, Inc., 2011b). Research has proven that the brain is very
visual therefore by removing the words from our presentations and incorporating
visuals while teaching the students a topic the teacher is able to engage
multiple senses; such as auditory and visual. By engaging multiple senses
learning becomes more meaningful and powerful.
Dr. Orey also tells us that the most powerful strategy for learning is
learner-centered where the teacher is merely the facilitator (Laureate
education, Inc. 2011b). I strongly agree with this statement and was very
appreciative of the many technology resources and strategies provided during
this course to help revamp our lessons and teaching strategies to better engage
and motivate our students.
One technology tool that
I learned about this week that I have come to absolutely love is VoiceThread.
This tool coincides well with the constructivist theory and the social learning
theory. This tool can be used effectively as both an instructional technology
tool and a learning technology tool. I plan to use this tool in place of
powerpoints to introduce topics to the students. I also plan on having the
students use this tool to create multimedia artifacts of their learning.
Constructing an artifact that they can share with their peers is an example of
the constructivist theory (Laureate education, Inc. 2011c). This tool allows
you to upload audio, visual, and script to demonstrate learning. It also allows
students to provide feedback directly onto the VoiceThread in audio, video, or
script. Not only does this tool encompass concepts of the social learning
theory, which indicates that students learn best while communicating with
others, it also encompasses Pavlov’s dual-coding hypothesis (Laureate
education, Inc. 2011d). I especially liked this tool because it is extremely easy
to use, effective, efficient, motivating, and actively engaging for all types
of learners.
Another technology tool
that I found fascinating and useful was the use of Spiderscribe to create
concept maps. At first I had difficulty figuring out how I would incorporate
this into my lessons as a foreign language teacher, but after using it with the
students I was impressed by the results. This tool is a great way to organize a
variety of concepts and chunk information to make a topic more meaningful and
easier to understand. I used this tool with my interactive white board and had
the students come up with the web nodes and move them around with their hands
as they saw fit. Students were also able to attach pictures, videos, websites,
and my favorite virtual field trips to the nodes to assist in making
connections to the information. This tool represents the dual coding hypothesis
and is also a useful tool in facilitating the cognitive learning theory
(Laureate education, Inc., 2011e).
These past seven weeks
have provided with an enormous amount of insight to the abundant ways that
learning theories, strategies, and technology tools can be used in combination
to create an engaging and motivating environment highly conducive to powerful
and meaningful learning. With this in mind I have set two goals regarding how I
plan to change my instructional practice and how I integrate technology in the
classroom. One of my goals is to use technology tools like VoiceThread, concept
maps, webquests, blogging, wikis, virtual field trips, and Prezi into my
lessons. Although technology is very limited in my district, having these tools
available on the web free of charge without having to download them makes them
useful in any setting. My favorite part about using these tools is that
students can use them anytime anywhere. These tools allow students to work
collaboratively without having to be in the same room. As I become more
familiar with these tools I would like to have students use them globally, as
well.
Research shows that “Student-created multimedia is a natural
environment for cooperative learning” (Pitler, Hubel, Kuhn, & Malenoski,
2007, p.141). Along with multimedia projects, students can create wikis, blogs,
and use Skype, to engage in active anytime anywhere communication and
collaboration not only with people in their very own classroom but on a global
realm, as well These are just a select few of the fascinating web 2.0 tools
that not only supplement the cooperative learning theory but the social
learning theory, as well. Meanwhile, they are also preparing students for a
fast paced, global, virtual workforce in the future (Pitler, et. al.,
2007).
This brings me to my
second goal, which is to incorporate more project based learning with
cooperative groups into my teaching using web 2.0 tools such as the ones
mentioned above. Not only do these tools make project grading easier they are
more motivating and engaging for the students to use. The 21st century brings
many changes to education and although it maybe difficult to embrace at times
it is necessary for the success of our students now and in the future. I would
also like to begin using Skype as a weekly class activity to actively
communicate with other classes in Italy that are studying English. This tool
will be helpful to students when they are creating projects because it will
provide students an opportunity to identify different similarities and
difference between the two cultures and will provide students with an assimilated
immersion experience. It is also a great way to practice the language by
speaking with native speakers.
In order to accomplish
my goals, I plan on improving my knowledge of these technology tools and skills
by attending workshops, collaborating with peers, and researching a variety of
ways that others have used these tools in my subject area. The internet
provides a plethora of resources for integrating a variety of technology. I
also plan to continue to further my knowledge of technology integration through
my graduate courses at Walden University. This will help me to better
familiarize myself with the tools and in turn use them effectively. Once I have
gained a strong enough confidence and a portfolio of examples for integrating
these fascinating and highly motivating tools into instruction I hope to
facilitate my own professional development workshop at my school where I will
be able to demonstrate and share my knowledge with my peers.
Thank you for being a part of my journey! :-)
Daniela Petruzzella
References:
Laureate
Education Inc. (Producer). (2010a). Program one: Understanding the brain.
[DVD].
Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore,
MD:
Patricia Wolfe, Ed.D. Retrieved
from
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011b). Program thirteen:
Technology:
Instructional tool vs. learning tool [Video
webcast]. Bridging learning theory,
instruction
and technology. Retrieved from
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011c). Program seven:
Constructionist and
constructivist learning theories
[Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory,
instruction and technology.
Retrieved from
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).
(2011d). Social learning theories [DVD]. Bridging learning theory,
instruction and technology Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from
Laureate
Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011e). Program five: Cognitive learning
theory.[Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology.
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