As a result of being actively involved in this course, my personal theory of learning has remained the same. I entered this course under the premise that cooperative learning and project building best serve a child’s educational development. After being in this class for eight weeks my hypothesis was supported under the theory of social constructionism. Studies have proven that students do, in fact, learn better when they are working with their peers in a joint effort to produce a representation of their knowledge.
This class has also brightened my knowledge about technology tools that can be easily implemented into a lesson plan for student use. Take for example Wiki. Wiki is a collaborative tool that would allow students to break down a project into smaller parts in the effort of creating a great and presentable whole. Another technology tool that I plan to implement into my classroom is Voice Thread. I thought that this was one of the coolest ways for students to present information and also a cool way for them to take a virtual field trip someplace that might not be cost efficient. The introduction of Voice Thread made me feel like my past students have missed out on many experiences because I was not able to bring the trip to them. However, now that this class has given me a great understanding of the tech tool I no longer have to feel uneasy about issues like that.
In my classroom this year I plan to use more technology when at all possible. When I was being introduced to Voice Thread I promised myself that I would use it in the near future with my English classes. The near future is this coming week so I hope that it goes well! Another goal that I have after this class is to recognize that students learn best from each other and to not be afraid to let them talk freely about concepts, as I always worry that their conversations will drift off topic.
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