Hey everyone,
Week 5 huh? Where is the summer going? Well I hope everyone is having a good one.
I also hope that my students never read this blog because if they see me say that socializing leads to learning, I will never get them to shut up! Ha!
All jokes aside though, lets get down to brass tacks on this week's prompt. How do the learning resources this week match up with the idea of social learning? Pretty well I feel.
Social learning boils down to the idea of all students being an apprentice. I always think about how in my summer job, I learned how to pour concrete while working construction. I never read a book about it or took a test, I just followed around the guys who knew (or who looked like they knew) what they were doing and they helped me by answering questions and yelling at me when I screwed up. They were the "more knowledgeable others" and I learned.
I feel that the Voice threads definitely have the potential to follow this concept. I love the idea of posting difficult math problems and having student get on and leave comments about how to start the problem, difficulties with the problem, or potentially becoming a source of help for others. They can take turns being the experts that help each other move through the zones of proximal development.
Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) have a lot of ideas that seem to really jive with social learning because they allow students to work with each other as they create. If I had a science classroom and we were growing plants, I would definitely find (online) a classroom in another climate and try to compare data about how certain plants grow. I love the idea of collaborating on ePALS!
These authors also bring up awesome ideas about collaborative calendars and collaborative website creation that are all about learning socially. When Dr. Orey discussed the idea of a Jigsaw method in the DVD this week, I thought about how much fun it would be to take the information discovered by the students in Jigsaw groups and have them build a wiki or website together to share with others.
These resources this week are right on. I am starting to write down ideas for the school year already and I still have 5 weeks till the year starts!
Tyler
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteLove the example of working construction and being an apprentice. Many times we look at book knowledge, but if you cannot apply what is learned, what good is it? I still remember my first year teaching…. Yeah, I know it was a long time ago. I had taken all of those education classes, even did student teaching, but until I was standing in front of MY classroom with MY students, I did not truly understand. I did not go to my expensive college books when I needed help, instead I found myself seeking wisdom from teachers on my hallway! These teachers were my MKO’s!
~Leilani
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. As adults we learn from working with others and either receiving encouragement or correction from them. We don't usually read through something to find answers unless we need to. The same would be true of our students. Not to say by any means that reading for information is unimportant but sometimes it is far more practical to simply speak with someone more knowledge than us on a specific topic, or who can offer another perspective.
I too really liked the suggestions offered for social learning in this weeks' resources. Sometimes it is easy for me to have the kids work in collaborative groups and not incorporate other effective methods as we learned about this week.
~Rachel