Technology Tools and Learning Theories

When thinking about education and how students learn, one of the biggest theories of learning that come to my mind is constructivism. I have always felt strongly that students learn best when they are able to interact with content and material and have hands-on experiences. These types of experiences help students to build cognitive models which results in long-term memory and recall of information.

Based on research and my own experiences in the classroom I also feel that social learning theory is very important as well. Students learn from their peers and are often able to work together to create projects which may only be possible in a group setting. Students learn social norms and behaviors from their classmates and equally important, they can also learn content as well. When students are able to work in a group and share their knowledge and experiences all members of the group benefit. Students learn to rely on one another and work to their strengths and weaknesses to learn.

Technology plays an important role in the classroom and one thing I would like to do is to evaluate the tools I am using to ensure that they are student learning tools, not just teacher tools. The difference between the two makes a big difference for our students. I would like to start using more concept maps within the classroom. Concept mapping helps students to visually see how related topics go together. Showing students these types of maps and then having them create their own promotes higher order thinking skills within our students as they begin to think about content and how it relates to other subject areas.

Voice Thread is another technology tool that I would love to utilize in the classroom. Voice Thread allows students to collaborate together and then reflect upon the projects of others to add their own knowledge or content. This type of tool also encourages parental involvement as the account can be set up for parents to access and hear and see what their child is working on in the classroom. Home-school connection is very important for all students and allows the students to take pride in their work.

One goal that I have for my own classroom is to work with the school district to unblock some of the websites that have benefits for my students. All personal pages are banned, but I would like to sit down with my principal and technology coordinator to discuss the importance of using podcasts, Voice Thread, blogs and wikis within the classroom. It is my hope that administrators will begin to see the educational value of such tools and allow their usage within the classroom.

One other area in which I would like to make changes within the classroom is to develop more hands-on projects which encourage the students to use the computer to create projects and complete research in the classroom. I would like to carefully assess the technology that I utilize to ensure that it is enhancing my instruction, not taking the place of worn-out methodology.

Technology can play a huge role in the classroom and effectively teach when used correctly. It is important for teachers to carefully evaluate their own usage so that students are learning with the technology that we present in our classrooms.