This week has been marked with a whole new world opening for me. This world is a world I wanted to open but honestly just haven't made the time to explore and learn. Funny how taking a class forces you to make those steps--guess I will die owing college loans then!!
In Week One -I learned of the different learning theories--Constructivism theory, Connectivisim theory, and the Cyborg Learning theory.
I can see many parents who posess the competitive nature for their child to be the smartest in the class definitely implanting the chips into the children so that they may have the top scores on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. Honestly, I think this is a bit radical and the beginning of robotic students that I find a bit inhuman.
Connectivism theory is possibly what has been current models of instruction during the late 1900's of education. With learning a cloud outside a student's world, it is almost like a foreign planet that we go to visit every now and again. I truly see a more personal experience with models of kinesthetic learning much more effective and less of a foreign planet. When a student can hold it, see it, model it, is a root of education--yes connecting to it. That connection might be through a video game of Angry Birds to model a parabolic function, or a combat video game to model factorials, or simply algebra tiles, or integer disks for students to master the concepts. Whatever it might be, starting with the symbolic modality and working three or four problems is not the answer to learning.
Lastly, Constructivism, is my favorite, Knowledge is constructed in multiple ways, through a variety of tools, resources, experiences, and contexts. (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. As I read this week, I placed into practice. I have a class of 3 to 4 angels. They truly are angels. It was a casual conversation of jingles to commercials that spawned an example of an algebraic expression this week. 'Fishy, Fishy' was heard through out the hall of my school this past week. By simply counting, the word 'fishy' and 'mc' a simple expression was created and linked to student's learning to english and math from their 'world'. I thought to myself that wasn't in the lesson plan however, I sure had their attention and linked them to a different world of patterns and words though. Also, instead of talking about somebody they were singing "Fishy, Fishy".
Lastly, I found so affirming the Am I Doing My Job? article. I love my job--I really love practices where is says it is okay for children to be the commander of their learning, aka constructivism theory.
Can you say GOOGLE?
Loved the simple world of google. Google Docs and the Presentation site were fabulous. Also did some exploring into creating a video for the opening of the presentation.
Also explored into some research for the project, 'The Indelible Link', and another article, 'Simulation Technologies in Higher Education: Uses, Trends, and Implications.'
Lots of Happy, Happy Happy going on here. Happy Learning that is. Have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment