The TREE Project

The Totally Remarkable Educational Exchange (TREE) Project is officially named and planned! I met with first grade teachers in my building this week, and we collaboratively planned monthly learning activities for classrooms to do and share with one another.

While some type of technology is present in nearly every classroom in the country, it is rarely used to its fullest potential (Royer, 2002). Some of this discrepancy is due to the teachers' lack of comfort with using technology for teaching and learning. Even teachers who report a high degree of comfort with technology tend to use it in fairly rigid ways, such as searching for activities to use with students, communicating with other teachers, and word processing (Price, Cates, & Bodzin, 2002). Although students frequently use computers in the classroom, often the use is limited to information gathering and word processing rather than using multimedia tools and digital content to design and create products, communicate or collaborate with other learners.

For these reasons, one of my main objectives is for this project is to keep the activities simple enough so that any teacher, despite their level of technology confidence, would be comfortable joining this project. Another objective is to connect classrooms to share and exchange educational experiences. We aligned the monthly activities with common educational standards from the Iowa Core in the areas of writing, math, science and 21st Century/technology skills.

This week I am working on creating a wiki with a detailed explanation of the project goals, information for teachers and monthly classroom activities. Our first grade teachers are working on completing the first month's activities so that we can post them on the wiki as an example of what to do. If there are any first grade teachers who would like to join us on this adventure - stay tuned! I will share the wiki and more detailed information in my next post!

Resources:
Price, B., Cates, W. M., & Bodzin, A. (2002 June). Challenges in implementing technology-rich curricular high school biology materials: First year findings from the “Exploring Life” project . Paper presented at the 23rd National Educational Computing Conference, San Antonio, TX.

Royer, R. (2002). Supporting technology integration through action research. The Clearing House , 75(5), 233-237.

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

ISTE's National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) help promote continuous learning and effective integration of technology in the classroom.  As a technology teacher I have had the opportunity to focus on broadening my knowledge of the standards, but two NETS indicators that I would like to strengthen my proficiency of are:

Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

Teachers: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Teachers: develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

My GAME plan for developing NETS-T standards is as follows:

Goals:  I would like to develop and coordinate a globally collaborative internet-based learning project for first grade students.  Teachers and students can communicate and share information about weather, climate, plants, animals and insects found in their schoolyard environment with other students from different regions of the United States and around the world. Students can compare and contrast similarities and differences, which will promote further questioning and communication with students of other cultures.

Action:  I will collaboratively plan with the first grade teachers in my building.  We will develop a specific timeline of activities.  I will create a wiki which will describe the project and also provide a platform to share the information collected from each classroom.  I will reach out to my professional learning community on Twitter to begin connecting with other first or second grade classrooms.  

Monitor:  The first grade teachers and I will teach and engage our first grade students in the learning activities planned.  Students will collect, describe and illustrate information about our schoolyard environment.  Students will complete a KWHL chart to demonstrate understanding of environments in different regions.  The wiki with collected information will be shared by linking to my classroom website for students, parents and community members to view and leave comments on.

Evaluate:  I will evaluate and assess the success of the project by the active participation of our students and other classrooms.  Formative assessments of students’ observations, questions and communication throughout the project will help guide instructional practices.  Self-assessment and reflection will help to guide my plan in developing my own knowledge of using communication and collaborative tools in order to connect students to a global community.

Final Reflection

As I reflect on the personal learning theory that I wrote in week one of this course, I realize that many of the practices that I believed to be effective with my students are supported by effective research-based learning theories that were outlined in this class. I feel fortunate to have taught in a district which provides current and ongoing staff development, which is based upon these effective practices. I have had the opportunity to incorporate many of these instructional strategies, and have seen the benefits to the learner.

I believe that students need to be actively participating, working collaboratively and involved in creating meaningful projects.  This can look different depending upon the specific learning objective, but regardless of the lesson, students are active participants and engaged in their learning outcomes. Personal connections help to solidify and validate the essential learning for each student. Dr. Pat Wolfe described the four major findings from brain research, one being that the brain seeks meaningful patterns (Laureate Education, 2010).  When learning has personal meaning, students become stake-holders and are more engaged. 

This course deepened my knowledge and understanding of the nine research based instructional strategies: identifying similarities and differences; summarizing and note taking; using cooperative learning; setting objectives and providing feedback; generating and testing hypothesis; using cues, questions and advanced organizers; creating non-linguistic representations; reinforcing effort and providing recognition and assigning homework and practice.  According to Dr. Debra Pickering, the effective teacher has mastered all of these strategies, yet she suggests that teachers choose one or two and work on refining until they are effective (Laureate, 2008).

As a result of my learning in this course, I have taken Dr. Pickering’s suggestion to heart.  I have listed the nine research based instructional strategies, and placed them in the front of my plan book as a reminder to incorporate them in my instructional planning on an ongoing basis. I also have made it a point to explicitly teach the strategies to my students as they are introduced.  For instance through modeling, guided practice and independent practice I have incorporated the use of advanced organizers and taught students how to use them effectively.  Often we as educators overlook the importance of   taking the time teach students how to use learning strategies effectively.  Doing so will enhance their learning experiences and empower them to become lifelong learners.

Two technology tools that I would like to use immediately with my students are virtual field trips and Voicethread.  Virtual field trips create episodes for students and provide rich experiences that help students connect information to. This will support my 3rd graders' learning as they study United States symbols and monuments. Voicethreads will enhance student learning by incorporating the use of multiple senses to their presentations.  I have found that by having students use Voicethreads to create a project to showcase their learning, I am able to easily differentiate instruction and students with a wide range of proficiencies are able to be successful.  I also like how students are able to share, give and receive feedback on their Voicethread projects.   Another goal I have is to incorporate more cooperative learning projects. With well planned learning structures such as cooperative learning, there are many benefits to the learner.  Cooperative learning actively involves students in the learning process and also promotes collaborative skills in a social setting. Students must think critically to accomplish the group task.  Cooperative learning also promotes social interaction skills such as leadership, decision making, trust building, effective communication and conflict management.

This course has broadened my repertoire of instructional skills and also helped to validate the effectiveness of strategies that I already had in place.  I have learned from current brain-research how to help my students retain information in their long-term memory for lasting learning.  I look forward to continuing my practice of incorporating effective learning strategies and the new technologies that I have learned in this class in order to help create actively engaged learners.

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program Number 2: Brain Research and Learning [Webcast]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Baltimore, MD: Author. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program eleven. Instructional Strategies, Part One [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Social Learning Theories

Social Learning theory states that context and culture are critical in constructing knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Instructional models based on social constructivism stress collaboration among learners. Project based learning can help students to both learn content and apply their knowledge in a real-life situation.  Other instructional models that promote social learning theories are reciprocal teaching, peer collaboration, cognitive apprenticeship and cooperative learning (Orey, 2001).

In addition to learning content, Cooperative Learning and Project-Based learning can also promote social interaction skills such as leadership, decision making, trust building, effective communication and conflict management. Instructional models based on social constructivism actively involve students in the learning process and also promote collaborative skills in a social setting.

Students in my classes have become avid bird watchers and eagle experts as they have been watching a live video feed of a nesting pair of bald eagles in Decorah, Iowa.  The students’ engagement and enthusiasm has sparked interest in eagle research and the preservation efforts of raptorresource.org. They have witnessed first hand how the collaborative efforts of the Raptor Resource Project and community donors have helped to preserve raptors and strengthen the breeding populations.  Students have also been able to make the connection that passion, learning, teaching and sharing can create positive social change.

As an extension to this learning and in honor of Earth Day, my students will be able to work in cooperative groups to research, teach and promote their own topic of interest which promotes positive change in our world. Below is a Voicethread which introduces the project to my students.  

Direct link to voicethread: http://voicethread.com/?#q.b1895981.i9991272

Resources:

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Constructivism and Constructionism in the Classroom

Dr. Michael Orey states that constructivism is a theory of knowledge stating that each individual actively constructs his or her own meaning (Laureate, 2010).  This is the unique, personal meaning that one creates for his or her ideas.  Constructionism is a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an artifact or something they can share with others.  Build. Create. Discover. Share. Isn’t this how we all really like to learn?  

By using approaches that support constructionist learning theories, teachers can use technology tools to help students develop artifacts that develop knowledge and demonstrate understanding. Presentation tools such as Powerpoint, Prezi, Glogster and Voicethread provide an engaging way for students to build and share artifacts of knowledge.  

Another powerful and analytical cognitive operation is generating and testing hypotheses.  In order to generate and test hypotheses, students must apply knowledge. My second grade students are learning about the laws of balance and motion.  They use deductive thinking in order to make predictions about the effects of weight, friction, acceleration and gravity.  This week they used an online roller coaster simulation in order to build and test their knowledge.  After building a roller coaster which was both exciting to the passengers, yet safe, the students were able to test their predictions and knowledge.  

Students were then asked to share their knowledge, the hypotheses they generated and why their hypotheses made sense to them.  They took a screen shot of the roller coaster that they built and inserted it into a Word document, where they explained their thinking in writing. Watching the students construct, test and then rebuild their roller coasters gave me first hand testimony to the constructionism learning theory and its effectiveness in the classroom.


Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Program Number 7: Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories [Webcast]. Baltimore: Author.

Image: iclipart.com

Using Cognitive Tools in the Classroom

Cognitive learning theories indicate that integrating multiple senses in presentations improves learning.  Long term memories are stored in networks of information, and information is often stored as images and text.  There are several structures that can be used in the classroom which support cognitive learning theories.

Virtual field trips create episodes for students.  They provide students an opportunity to "go" where they physically cannot.   They support the idea that by being immersed into an experience the use of multiple senses occurs, which in turn provides a more likely chance for true learning.  By creating this experience, the students also create meaningful knowledge in which to tie other information to.

Concept mapping tools replicate the network model of memory.  Concept maps help the learner organize information and also provide a visual representation which supports Piavio's dual-coding of information (Laureate, 2010). Concept mapping not only helps the learner visualize information, but also the connections between ideas.

Cues and questions are another strategy which supports cognitive learning theories.  Cues are explicit hints about what students are about to experience, and questions trigger memories which help them to access prior knowledge (Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).  When higher level questioning takes place, students demonstrate critical thinking and meaningful learning can occur.

Summarizing and note taking help students separate important information from extraneous information and then state the information in their own words. Summary frames help students to highlight important information and help to create organization and meaning.

As I think about the benefits of using these tools and strategies in the classroom, it seems logical that not only would these structures help students learn - but also provide tremendous opportunities for evaluation and assessment.  Having students create a concept map of their knowledge of a unit of study gives a visual of their understanding.

Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Cognitive learning theories [DVD]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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

Behaviorism in the Classroom

This week in my master's class "Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction and Technology" we have been exploring Behaviorism as it relates to instructional strategies in the classroom.  One instructional strategy is "reinforcing effort".  Effort is the most important factor in achievement (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007), yet we don't always take the time to explicitly teach students about the importance of effort.  By having students keep track of their effort and achievement, they can then see documentation which shows the benefits of their efforts.  Technology can make it easy for students and teachers to keep track of such information.  Third grade students may find that learning and practicing the skills of keyboarding is sometimes a daunting task.  Receiving immediate feedback on WPM and accuracy and then recording this progress in a spreadsheet helps students see the relationship between effort and achievement, and therefore makes the entire concept of building keyboarding skills more meaningful, relevant and motivating.  There are many "skill and drill" style online learning opportunities that students may find useful in helping them to learn math facts, states & capitals, spelling words, etc.  Once the conceptual understanding of skills and processes are taught, these online tools can be beneficial especially when the connection of effort and achievement is made.


Another instructional strategy is "homework and practice".  Research indicates that mastering a skill or process requires a fair amount of focused practice (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).  Technology can facilitate homework and practice by providing many additional resources for learning at home.  Students can use Web 2.0 tools to help reinforce or extend skills or processes.  Technology allows for differentiation to assist students in the specific areas that they need more practice or enrichment.  Online tutorials and podcasts can provide endless opportunities for students to revisit concepts from anywhere and at any time.  


Although technology provides opportunities for students to use and develop higher level thinking skills by creating, collaborating and communicating - I believe that the use of "drill and skill" type activities, while well supported with deeper learning, can be used appropriately and effectively in the classroom.


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