Glogster

Keller's ARCS Model

In being a teacher I am consistently helping people learn new things. It is the nature of the position. Helping students learn the parts of speech and when to use a comma is slow going, but with enough persistence from both myself and the learner I can usually see the light bulb turn on. This year in my teaching position at Arvada High School in Arvada, Colorado I made the conscience decision to incorporate technology in every class that I teach. This would include two ninth grade English classes, one twelfth grade English class, journalism and yearbook. Not a problem in journalism and yearbook because the classes have already been set up to have an online component, but with my three English classes I really had to go searching and figure out how I was going to incorporate my field of interest of educational technology and incorporate it with the traditional aspects of teaching English. I began the first semester by having each of my students set up a blog and a wiki account. Step by step I watched my students begin interacting with the new technologies that I was introducing to them. I was actively taking them step by step through the process of how to organize and work each of the different sites. As long as I stayed with them step by step they seemed to do very well and were even excited about the technology they were learning; however, as the class went on I gave them many small tasks to do on their own and this is where I saw things beginning to crumble. Within a few minutes my students were getting frustrated and aggravated because they could not figure out the steps to do the task that I had asked them to complete. Students were no longer excited, rather they were shutting down. I realized the change in the room’s atmosphere and decided to take the reins once again. Looking back now I realize that what I was doing was using Keller’s ARCS model to regain control and raise the motivation of my students. I had to get their attention and show them how and why these new technologies will help them. Then I had to encourage them to try again and what I did this time that I had not done previously was be the force saying “C’mon you can do it!” “Perfect just like that!” I had to give my students the outer confidence that I had for them for my students to be able to begin doing things for themselves. And, once the students realized what the technologies could do for them and they had felt the rewards of success each student earned satisfaction and pride in themselves.

Social Networking Reflection

Social networking has completely changed the way I learn. While I am relatively young at only twenty eight the way I was taught to learn is no longer the way that I am learning. I was taught the act of learning through the lecture, write, and retain method which is just not what learning is today. Social networking has changed the very core what learning is. Social networking has provided a world that is connected through a click of a mouse. Gone are the days of wondering something, then going to the library to look it up; today all kids have to do is look at their cell phone or jump on the internet from the hundreds of available sources. Social networking has created an immediate world where information can be found in seconds or minutes rather than weeks and months.
Social networking has also provided a completely new platform and style of education. And while online learning is really just at the beginning of the diffusion of innovations it is rising in popularity. Face to face classrooms are not the only options any longer. Social networking is the reason that I am a Walden student, for after researching schools, programs, costs, credits and options (all on my instant access computer!) I found that Walden even located thousands of miles away from where I live had the program that best fit my needs.
The digital tools that I have found to be the most successful in facilitating my learning are the programs and databases that I can process my thoughts and gain scholarly information easily and quickly. Specific digital sites, tools, and resources that I have personally found to be most useful are sites such as myWebspiration, and databases such as Eric and ABClio. These are the sites that I have found that allow me to expand on the information that I am trying to process or that ultimately lead to my “ah ha” moment where everything sort of came together.
When I am looking to learn new knowledge I am much like my students; I require some instant gratification. I find my self using the internet as one of my main resources to gather information; while I am a bit more picky than my students with what information I choose to use and trust I still find it a valid source that offers a plethora of information on any topic that I could want to research. If for some reason I can not find exactly what I am looking for on the internet search engines I usually find myself going to databases or social forums where I can pose the question or topic that I am interested in learning. I enjoy the timeliness of the responses that I can gain from these sources.
Social networking has revolutionized how we all gather process information and for the younger generations social networking will be their main source of information.

Social Networking Mind Map

Rheingold’s Video: My Thoughts

Yes, I do believe that humans by their very nature are programmed to interact and work as a group. Even in the oldest of stories humans have always had a partner, someone they must work with or against in order to prosper. Much like Rheingold attested to at some point civilization had to realize that more can be done with more people. Rheingold used the metaphor of a family having too much mastodon meat to be able to eat before it went bad. I believe there was a basic human nature that took over in the minds of the people of that time that the people realized that if they did not share the meat the meat would go to waste and another family would still be starving. Now I cannot say for sure, but common sense as it has developed for human beings would lead me to believe that the people of the time of the mastodon realized that if they fed another family than in turn the other family would be indebted to them to where they could gain from the sharing of food.
A concept that Rheingold presented that I thought was extremely interesting and that reinforces the idea of debt was when Rheingold presented the concept of new forms of collaboration create new forms of wealth. The new idea of open sourcing allows for the enrichment of others while companies in turn enrich themselves. The examples that Rheingold used from Toyota and Wikipedia illustrate that through collaboration not only can more be accomplished, but also even better outcomes can occur. The possibilities for collaboration are endless.

Resources:
“Howard Rheingold: Way-New Collaboration” http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Cognitivism Conversations

Kassidy Hetzel’s Module 2 Blog Posting

After reading through the two blog postings, comments, and responses at the following addresses:

http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html

http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational.html

I felt validated, for my own opinion about all the –isms and learning theories is that no one theory is THE theory. Every person learns and processes information differently and after reading Kapp’s and Kerr’s blogs I realized that I was not alone in my opinions about the learning theories. As I began to process the information and ideas that were presented on the two respective blogs I began to agree with Kapp that we have to begin to think differently about the learning theories in order for the most effective learning to begin. When thinking differently I found myself agreeing with Kapp about taking the best things from each learning theory and combining them to become the strongest plan for learning, but what I think Kapp doesn’t mention is the fact that the “best” parts of each of the learning theories will be different for every person and that they will ultimately have to be involved in choosing each of the different aspects of the learning theories in order to give each learner maximum potential. For example, let’s think about Bloom’s Taxonomy for a moment, each learner will have a different method for learning at each of the different levels. Because something (or one learning theory) works for one person, but not the next does not mean that, that learning theory is flawed is just means that learners are individuals and just because cognitivism works best for most learners at the lower levels does not mean that it has to work for all learners; some learners may find the behaviorist point-of-view more feasible to comprehend at the early stages.
I found the back and forth nature of Bill Kerr’s blog with Stephen Downes very interesting because each of the men had such differing opinions that supported the same concept; the learning theories. And even though each of them have such differing opinions they are really both advocating for the use of learning theories.

How do people learn best?

We all know that everyone learns differently, but in my opinion we all learn best when we are truly engaged and interested in the topic being presented. Our challenge as educators is to find ways to make even the most boring of subjects interesting and exciting for our students. It is with the multiple intelligences and different learning theories that we educators are armed with the tools to meet the needs of all of our students. Currently in the world of education there is one concept that is completely dominating the concept of how students learn best and that is differentiation. Differentiation is the strategy where educators can structure learning environments that address the variety of learning styles, interests, and abilities found within a classroom. Differentiated instruction is based upon the belief that students learn best when they make connections between the curriculum and their diverse interests and experiences, and that the greatest learning occurs when students are pushed slightly beyond the point where they can work without assistance (Willoughby, 2005).
In order for advanced learning and comprehension I believe that a combination of the learning theories must be applied. Mastery learning requires more than one perspective of learning, just because a student can master a worksheet from the behaviorist point of view does not mean that they can use the skills in their own writing which I believe would be more of a Cognitivist perspective. The proper combination of learning theories and strategies for each students is needed for comprehension and retention.

Resources:

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

Willoughby, J. (2005). Differentiated instruction. New York, New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.