The four learning theories is a concept that caught my eye whilst reading this chapter. I find that constructionism is the best learning theory. Students that get to be hands on and interpret their own thoughts and knowledge into the activity that they are doing will allow them to express themselves through their school work. When I was in middle school I lived in Elgin, Illinois. I was required to take a music class when I was there. I despised pianos and guitars. Only for the sole factor that I didn't know how to play. For a week I practiced on a guitar, I found it to be to complicated because it hurt my fingers. I ended up switching to piano. Although, they where both complicated to learn, I enjoyed myself because I was able to put my own personal touch to the songs we were playing. I would have given up and hated trying to play those instruments if it wasn't for constructionism. I was putting my knowledge into playing the piano and expressing myself in my own way.
Some students need one-on-one tutoring to help engage them. It helps for them to have an individual teach them directly with real world examples.
While others may need to be engaged by working in learning groups. These groups allow students to have others to brainstorm their ideas with and toss other ideas around until they come up with a solution.
Others may need to be engaged by inquiry learning. Students are able to use information, not only that of which they learned from their teacher but through their own research and hypotheses.
Metacognitive thinking engages students by showing them how to examine their own learning methods through self-explanation and self-evaluation.
Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA; Pearson Education Inc.
While reading chapter one, it was going hand in hand with what I experienced in my Intro to Teaching class. I walked in to an elementary school classroom and noticed that students were using touch screen boards doing math or watching videos and I was sitting and thinking this is pretty cool. If schools would have had things like this when I was in school then I may have never dropped out of at the age of 16. Students were doing their work in a way that truly engaged them they were using tablets and computers in the k-2. Students that young doesn't need technology, right? Wrong! They seem to be more in-depth with using technology than any one reading this post. Students now have the ability to do their work with different types of technology. We have internet technology which help them figure out how to use and assess the information that they find online and act as a group of digital citizens. Information management technologies that use online educational materials. Such as search engines, web browsing management tools, and online and blended-learning courses.
As a teacher it will be essential to have a digital identity and get on social media were all the students are most of the day. I could use social media to inform students of their homework or even of due dates. I could also you Facebook live as a way to stay connected with the students and go in further details that I couldn't fit in to the period that we had. Students would clearly prefer to sit on their phones on social media and respond to things on there than in a classroom. If I could get my students to enjoy learning, I would try to do what ever I could using technology to help keep them focused in my class.
When I first seen that we had to do blogs I was like, "Oh, no! I don't know how to make a blog. I'm going to mess up all of this and I just started." Once I started writing the blog it was like I was writing a discussion post just way longer. I believe that in having a class website, blog, or wiki students will enjoy being able to use the internet and interact with their peers online. Then they will apply themselves more into their work load instead of just blowing their school work off. Honestly, I was procrastinating to do this blog because I was so worried that it would be bad but like I had stated above it's wasn't that bad after I started. "Don't just help us teach the old stuff in new ways, conveying new concepts also helps to teach new things in new ways." (Klopfer et al., 2009a, p.4)
Using technology in school is exciting and yet scary at the same time. We all know that the world is become advanced more and more everyday. As we put new technology into our curriculum it allows students to engage into the work that they have at hand while before the technology students found it hard to concentrate on what is going on in class because the students tend to want to dose off in the middle of the lecture. I could ask my students a question via Facebook, Twitter, and SMS and then allow them all to answer and no feel so intimidated by the class then they may just be able to ask questions that they would like to ask that they wouldn't have asked if they were called out in front of 20 other students.
Resources:
Maloy, R., O'loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013) Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
