This week, we were exposed to the idea of connectivism, and social learning. Essentially, the basis of the theories is that we all learn by watching and interacting with others. They could be parents, peers, family members, or even strangers. Either way, we construct our meaning and learning through interaction.
The strategy from this weeks’ reading was that of cooperative learning. At its heart, it is grouping or pairing of students into cooperative learning groups in which the students interact in the learning. They help one another construct meaning, which is something they are doing already to learn social norms of their peer groups. And not only are the students assimilating information and taking part in the classroom learning, they are also working to develop those interpersonal skills that they will need in the future.
The strategy focused this cooperative learning experience on the construction of some sort of multimedia artifact to share with the others within the class. When the students create an online artifact, it makes the information more accessible to all of the students at their own pace. Simply having the students create and present is bound to leave some students asking questions. But when a learning group creates something like a web page, others in the classroom have the opportunity to browse the site and take in the information on their own, or work their way through it with a partner. Also, this opens up the artifact for discussion. It can foster new ideas and thinking.
Quite simply, this instructional strategy is embracing what connectivism and social learning are based upon, students learning with other students. When the student becomes a teacher themselves, they have more ownership of the learning that is happening in the classroom. They become reliant upon one another and it fosters an atmosphere with an emphasis on learning, including all of the students in the class.
I am loving the idea of using technology with collaborative learning. I recognize the need for students to take more time to analyze other projects, as opposed to one student presenting material one time and most of it getting forgotten. Having a multimedia project that can be viewed several times will improve knowledge retention and hopefully improve feedback.
ReplyDeleteI love how you connected discussions with fostering new ideas and thinking. As a special education teacher, I am inside the classrooms of other teachers for a good section of my day. It is amazing to see how many teachers are willing to give the correct answers and move on instead of waiting for the students to come up with their own ideas and answers. It's not ideal, but they say they have to move on or they'll fall behind in the curriculum. That is a good way to move on with both, fostering ideas and incorporating information. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe problem that you do run into with discovery learning is that the kids can take some twists and turns that may not get them a 100% correct conclusion. In the end you do still have to discuss things and point them to the right answers. But they will remember them more.
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