Reflection

My learning theory has not changed much during this class. If anything this class reinforced my beliefs and helped give me the knowledge and information to backup my beliefs. This class was very useful for that. I also think that I came out with a clearer definition of what I am trying to do with technology in the classroom. Technology is not to make my job easier as a teacher but for the student to gain deeper understanding because of the technology.
The first tool that I will incorporate is the Voice Thread. I feel that it is a great multimedia tool that allows collaboration in ways that traditional classrooms cannot provide. The second tool is the blog. I tried using blogs a few years ago and failed miserably. I saw the potential but had no way of reaching that goal. After using it a few times in a couple of different classes I feel better prepared to try again when school starts up.
My long term goals for my teaching as it relates to technology are to take myself further from the stage and keep infusing student directed learning strategies. I want my class to be fun and innovative, students bring that to the table and I need to just point them in the right direction. I also feel I do not spend enough time reinforcing the basics. Class time is usually spent moving forward but after learning about behaviorists I feel the weekly quiz on basic material has its time and place. I look forward to trying them out next fall.

Collaboration in School

I feel that collaboration is a very neccessary part of schooling that is often over looked. I just attended a high school graduation and every speaker talked about how it was not just the course materials that were learned but life lessons that went along with learning. In "the real world" people are forced to work together and for other people all the time. If we as teachers do not teach these lessons, not to mention the deeper learning of course materials, then we are not doing an adaquate job preparing our students for the future.

Voice Thread

http://voicethread.com/share/531009/

Constructionist Thoery of Learning

I totally agree with this theory. When stduents make thier own personal meaning and connections the learning becomes long term. I also believe that a lot of teachers jump to this thoery to fast and forget to include the building blocks of the behaviorist and coginitve theories. There is a time and place for all theories and I beleive this theory belongs in the advanced classes or as review or final projects. If you give students some guidelines to work with it is up to them to apply what they have learned and take it to the next level.

Cognitive Theory

The cognitive theory is all about taking the new information and creating a relationship with it and something int he students past to make it transfer into long term memory. We as teachers tryto cram learning sown students throats and that is not what lasts long term. In a business communications class I teach we talk about how to make connections to buyers and to the audience during a presentation. We use storytelling to create an emotional connection to audience. These stories make people feel your point instead of just hear a random fact. It places the facts inot a meaningful thought. As a teacher it is my job to sell the information not just present it. We get so caught up in standards and preping for tests that we forget the connections that occur through story telling.

Behaviorist Thoery and Technology

The instructional strategies inthis weeks resources promote my beleifs on behaviorist learning theory. I may have been viewing the resources without an open mind but I do feel that it demonstarted a time and place for behaviorism in the classroom. If we ignore the nuts and bolts in learning and jump right to the final project we lose a lot of the details that make the project great.

Reflection

This course has helped me to develop a few technology skills. The first being hosting my own blog along with understanding why blogs are so being used so much by the consumers of the 21st century. It is a great way to voice your opinions. In an environment of fast paced change in knowledge it allows a person to have a voice and to create their own views. This is where I believe the learner-centered instruction becomes so important. If I as an educator continue to just spill out information to my students most of it will be outdated by the time the student goes to apply it. I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process by being exposed to an environment where learning is more than just listening but it is also interacting with each other and creating new knowledge. The second way I have expanded is by trying out Podcasts and wikis. I really enjoyed the podcasts and found it very simple to use after I got it all setup. I am looking for ways to incorporate these into my classroom.
The two long-term goals I have set to transform my classroom environment into a learning environment of the 21st century are to take old lessons that I have taught in the past and process them for changes that need to be made. To often teachers don’t evaluate their lessons after the first run through. I plan on looking for ways to force students to use more technology. Second goal is to get my room up to date with the latest technology. I want students to have the option of doing and turning in their assignments from home as well as being able to access their student files they created at school. This is going to take a lot of work to overcome the district technology committee who believe technology just means having a computer for each teacher. I will have to convince it is worth time and money to make our intranet available elsewhere.
We live in an exciting time and we must embrace the changes and realize our students are counting on us to prepare them for their future not what our future looked like.