Course Reflection: Changes to my Personal Theory of Learning

I think that a big change to my personal learning theory is on motivation. I still believe that students need to have a sense of self responsibility, but I also think that the students also needed to be motivated out of curiosity. Using the material and constructionist strategies, I want the students to have the curiosity to move further on their own. I want the students to ask questions that will most likely not be on the quiz or test. If the students are motivated to do this, then they will attempt to grasp the basic concepts better, so they may have the chance to explore the material for their own questions.
To change my use of technology, I will focus more on learning technology tools instead of instructional technology tools. I will try to use resources like voice thread, so the students may develop materials to explain the concepts through various types of multimedia, and I plan on using concept maps, so the students can not only develop connections with the material, but they may also see their connections and revise them for better understanding.
One long term goal changes that I have is to incorporate learning technology tools at least once a unit. This would more likely be an ongoing project that will start at the beginning of a unit and be finished at the end prior to the test. I think that I will have students add to the project every week, so it would not be too time consuming, and the students will have a chance to put their own style and thoughts into the project. Another long term goal change would be to have students use technology to create learning tools. I think that while the students are developing tools they will be relearning the material, thinking critically of the concepts, and probably be more creative than I am. To do this, I may start a project at the beginning of a quarter that would be due near the end of that quarter. The tools that the students need to develop should attempt to enhance learning of past material, and the class will use these tools to review that material. I think this would be helpful for students who are studying for an exam, or at least provide ideas for other students to study for later material.

Voicethread Address

http://voicethread.com/share/889955/

Collaborative Learning and Social Learning Theories

The strategies that I read about this week are directly related to social learning theories. Each strategy involved students working together to accomplish a goal. Using multimedia to develop a project can be done alone, but with a group of students, there tends to be more creativity, more support, and more fun. Also, since the work is being shared, the group has a chance to incorporate more than one source to display their ideas. I thought that most of the web resources that were discussed were mediocre for social learning because they seemed unnecessary, but I do think that the communication abilities that the web offers allows students to stay interacted with each other regardless of their location. Now students can work on a project and simultaneously communicate while each person is at their own home. I was surprised that the text did not mention skype because I think that resource will allow students the visual communication that they are used to. In addition, most of the communication sources that use the net allow people to share files. This is nice because the students can send each other their work, get their opinions, and get it back to edit. This allows for constant collaboration and constant support for the learning.