Philosophy of Learning

Mod 6 Blog 7105 

      As an educator, I believe we should not follow one theorist but use a mixing pot of the theorist ideas to meet the student’s needs. I believe in being active or involved verses lectures. The designer and learner should have an active role in what the content is and how it is delivered. Learning should be fun and interactive (not static) and students should have a voice.   In this digital era, students have been accustomed to the use of technical devices inside and outside of the school setting. Technology in Education (2011) states, “The opportunities include greater access to rich, multimedia content, the increasing use of online course taking to offer classes not otherwise available, the widespread availability of mobile computing devices that can access the Internet, the expanding role of social networking tools for learning and professional development, and the growing interest in the power of digital games for more personalized learning”.

     This course has provided many readings and exercises on learning theories and their perspective methods. All the theorist we have learned about provide valid content to back their theory up. All people learn differently as well as educators teaching methods. With that said, Gardner’s multiple intelligences comes to my mind. Gardner states, “Multiple intelligences theory can be used for curriculum development, planning instruction, selection of course activities, and related assessment strategies” and “students’ multiple learning preferences can be addressed when instruction includes a range of meaningful and appropriate methods, activities, and assessments”. Using Gardner’s intelligences, students will be able to understand their strengths and weaknesses and educators can build upon their abilities to develop confidence and self-esteem. In my own school setting (special education), we use the behaviorist approach based on human behavior. We offer rewards, reinforcement and behavior modification-just to name a few.

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.  Retrieved from:    http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/learning/howard_gardner_theory_multiple_intelligences.pdf

Technology in Education. (2011). Education Week. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/technology-in-education/

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Jannotta   https://akajay93.blogspot.com/

 Joy https://avery7105.wordpress.com/


Heather  http://edtechist.blogspot.com/

New Technologies

Blog post module 5    7105

I will start off by saying I have not had the opportunity myself, to introduce new technology into our workplace but our tech liaisons have. They introduced a program called BCPS One. BCPS One is a system wide gradebook. “Through the BCPS One system, all the district's programs and initiatives around student data, assessments, curriculum, instruction, reporting, and analysis are being fully integrated into a single, user-friendly, platform. For the 2014-2015 school year, phase one of BCPS One has been implemented to provide a Web-based communication and collaboration set of tools which provide a single, unified presence to distribute information and actively engage the community in the instructional process. Through BCPS One, educators are also able to communicate classroom level information with colleagues, leadership, parents, and students” (BCPS One). This was and still is a fairly new program to our school and we are still going through training.

Prior to the introduction of this program, a few rumbles of negative remarks were surfacing. The problem is this new program is excellent for regular school classes and teachers, not for special education-we do not do grades. I see the need and the programming for regular schools and the benefits that will accompany them using the BCPS One program. However, some of our teachers were not inclined to accept this program open heartedly. I did notice the teachers who were not accepting of this program, are the older generation, teachers who have been at the school over 15 years.

After reading John M. Keller’s ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) model, I would try to utilize some aspects of the model by capturing the (older) teacher’s attention and stimulating their curiosity. I believe that these older teachers are pretty much set in their ways and new programs/technology is a challenge and they lack motivational skills. Listed below is a video that I would present to the teachers, it was created to inspire teachers today to use technology in their teachings.

https://youtu.be/_A-ZVCjfWf8  

Driscoll (2005) talks about Keller’s ARCS model by saying in order for these to work, “students must believe that it is related to their personal goals and will meet their specific needs”. I would transfer this statement to the teachers. I would further more tell them that they already have the skills within them but just need to build upon them. I think the teachers would be surprised how easily it might come to them once they practice. Again, this program doesn’t benefit our school but it is required by Baltimore County. The County is trying to revamp the program for next year to include special education schools. This is a perfect opportunity to play with the program before we really have to use it. I believe once the teachers become comfortable with the program, it won’t be so bad. Modeling is a good way to teach and I think if our liaisons took the time and demonstrated the ability of the program, we all would get a better understanding of what is expected and the user rate would increase.

Finally, after building confidence and seeing how this program is beneficial to the school system, I would praise them with positive reinforcement and feedback. Most people feel the need of recognition for their hard work, I would have other teachers compliment them on their usage of the new technology. Everybody likes the feeling of acknowledgement!

 

 

References

A Vision of k-12 Students Today. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/_A-ZVCjfWf8

BCPS One. Retrieved from:  http://www.bcps.org/academics/BCPSOne/

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

 

I responded to: Joy https://avery7105.wordpress.com
                         Jannotta   https://akajay93.blogspot.com/