Reflection

As the course comes to a close, my personal learning theory has not changed. I still want students to learn how to adapt to society. This class has helped my to create better instructional and learning tools through constructivist strategies.

The immediate adjustments that I have made to my classes is to create instructional strategies that help the students learn using technology. I loved the different way to use tools such as VoiceThread and Webinspiration. These tools allow for students to become more motivated to learn.

Some long-term goal changes that I would make is to increase more technology in my curriculum and to create more project based learning using constructivist strategies. A more project based curriculum would allow for students to be able to work together and allow them to use their critical thinking techniques.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

This is my Voice Thread link:

http://voicethread.com/#q.b1192126.i0.k0

This week's reading was about cooperative learning in the classroom. I have found that with 9th grade that learning in groups is very effective if done with certain structure. When students work in cooperative groups, they make sense of, or construct meaning for, new knowledge by interacting with others (Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000.)

It is important for students to use all resources, including their peers to retain information. Collaboration of ideas are the best strategy for the long term knowledge of a certain topic. Social learning allows for students to see the big picture of the project or topic. It is best retained when students do not need to learn all the pieces and have to put them back together to understand the world around you.