Module 6 Blog Post

What impact do you believe technology has on the way you learn?

Technology has a huge impact on the way I learn. Obviously, being a Walden student the past 2 years, technology is the way I learn. Technology enhances my understanding of topics by presenting the information in various ways. Many times during just one week of class I will learn through a variety of educational technology resources such as podcasts, scholarly eLibrary articles, wikis, blogs, and videos. Whenever I have questions regarding my newly gained knowledge, technology resources are the first thing I turn to. This year, instead of buying textbooks, I bought eBooks instead. Therefore the way I am gaining knowledge has been altered.

In what ways do you learn differently in an online environment from the way you learned in a face-to-face learning environment?

Before my Walden online learning experience, I had never used a resource like Skype to collaborate with my classmates. In a face-to-face learning environment, I was accustomed to dragging myself to long lectures, which did not work effectively with my ADHD. I took many notes in those hours of lectures and but didn’t have to apply much knowledge gained from them. I despised going to classes. However, since becoming a Walden student, I have fallen in love with school. The videos are engaging, and I’m able to pause them and repeat parts I didn’t understand. My Walden professors have also been a lot more available compared to my professors in my face-to-face learning experience. Now, I regularly Skype and email with my Walden professors who help me reach my fullest potential as a Walden student. While I do prefer collaborating face-to-face with a learning group, I am becoming more comfortable with Skype collaboration everyday.

Teaching Philosophy
It is my philosophy what putting learning in the center of all that you and your students do is essential. While students are ultimately responsible for their learning, it can be a very complex topic for them. Learning happens most effectively when teachers and students communicate effectively together while gaining knowledge and skills cooperatively together. These students learn in so many different ways, therefore it is a teacher’s job to make sure she is teaching in a variety of ways to address the individual learning needs in her classroom. The best teachers, are reflective learners. Reflective learning is imperative to a teacher’s success, which directly effects her students success. Teachers also must help their students connect their knowledge. My philosophy also includes the importance of connectivism. As Siemen’s states, “Connectivism is strongly focused on the linking to knowledge sources...not simply
trying to explain how knowledge is formed in our own heads (Siemens, 2006); and I  believe this is the best way for students to learn.

There are many non-negotiables in teaching and learning. The one I see the most frequently, which irritates me the most, is teachers making excuses for their students not learning. As a team leader I hear, “Well, he just can’t sit still long enough to learn what I am teaching him,” “She is too ADHD to focus on my instruction,” and “They’re too low for me to bring up to grade level.” Instead of pointing the finger at themselves, altering their instruction, and asking themselves, “What can I do differently for this child?”, I continue to hear these excuses and feel bad for the children that are being affected. Teachers need to be reminded to be self-reflective, and ask themselves what they could be doing differently, if their instruction is not being effective. Other non-negotiables include being clear and consistent about behavior expectations and discipline, creating opportunities for children to extend their learning, and creating a classroom environment that is stimulating, challenging, secure, and pleasant. Reigeluth (1993) states, “As identifying methods that will best provide the conditions under which learning goals will most likely be attained. An instructional theory must have three essential components: a stated desired outcome, required conditions and instructional methods.” These three components are imperative and non-negotiables in teaching and learning.

References:

Siemens, G. (2006, November 12) Connectivism: Learning Theory or Pastime of the

Self-Amused? e-Learning Space.org website. www.elearnspace.org/Articles/

connectivism_self-amused.htm

Reigeluth, C.M. (Ed.) (1993). Instructional-Design Theories and Models (vol 1).

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

I posted on Bradley Gogan and Christine Rand's blogs

New Technologies-To adopt or not to adopt?

As grade level chairperson/team leader of 2nd grade, I have been blessed to have the “platform” to introduce new technologies during the grade level meetings. However, as these new technologies have been introduced in our school, they are almost always met with some resistant. One of these technologies was the Mimio Interactive, which transformed all of our whiteboards into interactive technology tools. While initially there was a lot of excitement (during training) as week one and two of the adoption came to an end, teachers were resisting using the technology, and many were asked to return their unused equipment. Teachers acted like their teaching instruction was good enough, without the use of the Mimio, and acted like they did not want to be “bothered” with learning how to use it in the classroom. These teachers either left their Mimio Interactive in the box, or returned it. When it was introduced to my grade level, there were complaints of teachers always being given “new tools” to learn and use, and we’re already overwhelmed. Teachers stated they did not have enough time to learn how to manipulate something new. The negative attitudes were overwhelming, and initially, only a couple classrooms were using the Mimio Interactive. 

Now, Mimio Interactive is a very popular technology tool, with almost every teacher using it. After reading Keller’s ARCS model, it is easy to see why eventually the Mimio Interactive was eventually adopted effectively. Teachers attention was gained when the teachers who were effectively using the Mimios modeled how to use it, and invited teachers to actively participate. These presenters posed questions, and answered them, gave specific examples of how the Mimio Interactive can be used to help the teachers become more effective, and make learning more engaging. Next, these instructors showed how relevant it was to second grade by showing free Mimio Connect programs that directly supported our county’s AKS. As I stated above, the teachers modeled how to use the Mimio, which supports Keller’s, “be what you want them to do!” statement. 

Confidence was easily built up, once the Mimio Interactive “ball” started rolling, because the teachers who were using the Mimios offered their unwavering support and time in helping new adopters utilize the Mimio effectively. This helped teacher’s confidence in using the Mimio grow, and they were using it more and more. At team meetings we would discuss new programs we discovered to use with the Mimio Interactive, which encouraged people to use it more, which led to their confidence increasing. 

Satisfaction came from seeing the looks on our students faces, and excitement for learning, while using the Mimio. Students gave us the automatic feedback by begging teachers to please use it more, because learning was so fun! Teachers found that using the Mimio made teaching more rewarding and satisfying than ever before. Students were more motivated to learn, even choosing to learn with the Mimio over recess. Now, if that is not satisfaction, I don’t know what is. 

Reference: 

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

I posted on Bradley Gogan and Christine Rand's blogs

Connectivism

My network has changed the way I learn in so many ways, especially since becoming a Walden Educational Technology student. Walden has forced me to go outside my "comfort zone" and Skype for the first time in my life. It's a fun adventure learning differently by collaborating virtually vs. face-to-face which is what I was accustomed to before Walden. While I used to learn by reading and highlighting textbooks, and using Google to find all my reference materials, now I learn by watching podcasts and reading scholarly articles. Before Walden, I had never learned by reading blogs or wikis, which now I do regularly. My ways of learning have really changed immensely since becoming a Walden University student.

The digital tools that best facilitate learning for me are videos. I am a visual learner and need to "see" what is going on. I learned how to use my classroom Mimio tool through watching an instructional video. As a Walden student I also learn a lot from the resource videos that include real-life teacher experiences in them. In addition, this year I have begun using http://nsdl.org/resources_for/k12_teachers/ as a great digital tool for Science. Lastly, I have learned quite a bit from researching websites, like http://www.learningcommons.org/educators/tools/, that help guide educational technology teachers/students in their learning.

Learners learn new knowledge best when they ask critical thinking questions. When I have questions, the best way I learn new knowledge is by completing a web search for my answer. I am careful to read only trusted resources. In addition to completing web searches, I learn new knowledge by communicating with my instructors and Walden professionals. I frequent Walden's Live Chat frequently, inquiring on new information. This helps me get my answers quick and retain the learning for the next time the situation arises.  

Mod 3 Responses (Repost-Try #3)

I posted on Christine Moore's blog: http://learningtechtalk.blogspot.com/2011/04/collaboration.html?showComment=1303159520137#c1104459454187917436 and on Wanda Ardoin-Bailey's blog at http://educ-7105.blogspot.com/2011/04/collaboration.html#comments.

Mod 3 (Repost-Try #3)

Collaboration

As we heard in Rheingold’s discussion, I do believe humans have the basic instinct to “interact and work as a group.” As he pointed out humans have lived for much, much longer than the approximately 10,000 years of settled agricultural civilization. They had to interact and work as group in order to survive. He gave an example stating, “In small family groups, nomadic hunters bring down rabbits, gathering food.” Working in a preschool, I saw children as young as 1 year old, interacting and working with each other to build towers, and play house. These children were to young to understand the meaning behind their actions, so it shows how humans do have the basic instinct to interact and work as a group. I also definitely agree when Dr. Rheingold stated the mentality in collaborating with technology is now, instead of, "neither of us can trust each other so we have to make suboptimal moves," it's, "you prove to me that you are trustworthy, and I will cooperate” (Rheingold, 2008). People have realized that our day to day problems and extremely complex problems can now be easily and more quickly solved with using the internet. Humans can now collaborate with people across the country, and world with the blink of an eye.
Technology can facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles in many ways. First, technology can help in seeking and valuing students' points of view. There are many virtual classrooms around the world teachers can connect their students with to get other students points of views. In my classroom, my students are using technology as a research tool to help support their point of view on their topic. Some of my students have even been able to reach out to our penpals in Michigan via Skype and ask them their point of view on their persuasive topic. As Rheingold stated, “I think we need to begin developing maps of this territory so that we can talk about it across disciplines.” I agree with this statement, and think why not start with this generation of students.
Another way technology can facilitate collaboration among learners is through engaging, collaborative learning programs. These programs can easily adapt curriculum to address students' supposition, while making learning fun. Students can collaborate with each other to solve problem-based learning topics, and with the right technology problem facilitating this, suppositions can easily be addressed. 

Current Research Study Link:
http://elg.massey.ac.nz/index.php?title=A_Case_Study_in_Collaboration

References:
A Case Study in Collaboration. (2008). NZTC & University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As retrieved from http://elg.massey.ac.nz/index.php?title=A_Case_Study_in_Collaboration.

Rheingold, H. (2008, February). Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html