Constructionism with Technology

Dr. Orey talks about using Power Point as an instructional strategy by letting the students construct a Power Point presentation. Students build this artifact and also build their own schema about the idea they are dealing with in the presentation. We use Power Point in the lab to do similar projects. With the younger students you show them the basics of putting together a few slides so they become familiar with the program. It isn't until you let them explore on their own through trial and error that they really become open to the possibilities that this tool offers. Another technology tool that lets children loose with a constructionist instructional strategy is MOOVL. It is an animation program that lets the students create objects that have a wide range of properties like heavy/light, soft/hard, sticky/slippery etc., that they can then manipulate on screen. It allows them to explore how things will interact with each other based on these properties. You could make predictions on how the objects will react and then have them create them to test the hypothesis.


Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

http://mywebspiration.com/go/311091
Here's the link to my Concept Map.

Cognitivism in Practice

This week, we explored two instructional strategies,“Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” and “Summarizing and Note Taking.” The concept mapping with the use of Inspiration and Kidspiration really help the students see how the ideas are connected. They can literally follow the arrows follow the flow chart. Having this sort of visual reference, instead of just reading text. "Instruction should be well-organized. Well-organized materials easier to learn and to remember." Smith, M. K. (1999) Having the materials organized in such a manner that the students can be lead through the lesson is a must when dealing with 8 and 9 year old children. The idea of combination notes, providing a visual image to correspond to and cue a written concept allows the brain to process the information in multiple ways to help trigger recall of the information. I am surely going to use this when introducing my 2nd and 3rd graders to Powerpoint. I think that these are skills they will build on as they progress to the middle grades.

Smith, M. K. (1999) 'The cognitive orientation to learning', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive, Last update: September 03, 2009.

In this week's resources, behaviorist theory is explored in two areas. Reinforcing effort is discussed as way to show the students there is a “connection between effort and achievement” (Pitler, 2007, p.156)that can be tracked with a spreadsheet. The program we use in the computer lab called Education City, automatically tracks the effort, progress and outcomes for each class. These can be downloaded to an Exel spreadsheet to give to the classroom teacher. They can see the students’ progress or lack of progress, which can be used to keep a record for remediation plans for school based problem solving and potential student referrals. I automatically reward my students with stickers for achieving 100% correct in any given Education City activity. I also give them stickers for effort based on these spreadsheets that show improvement over time.
As far as the other aspect discussed in the text, homework and practice, I only use practice since not all of my students have computer access outside of my lab. We also use www.starfall.com to practice vowel sounds and reading, like Mrs. Metz’s class (Pitler, 2007, p.196) does in the example from the text. After practicing with their vowel sounds in the Learn to Read section, they also practice using the Key Skills program which rewards positive outcomes with virtual stickers that the students accumulate throughout the year. This can be printed up and given to them at the end of the year. The little ones really enjoy getting these rewards and counting them each time we use the software. This program also tracks their progress over time and shows their percentages for each skill set.
I feel that using these aspects of behaviorist theory helps build a foundation for the Primary grade student use in more creative projects in the Computer Lab.

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

2010

2010 is off to a flying start. I am not quite sure if the flight will arrive on schedule or not, it's hard to tell these days, but I am optimistic. We started a writing project today just to get used to using Microsoft Word, a chat room and moving between applications. It is a bit ambitious, but it will give me a good sense of the students who will take this to the next level and the ones that need a bit more help, encouragement and mentoring.