References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Social learning theories [Motion picture]. Bridging
learning theory, instruction, and technology . Baltimore : Orey.
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8 years ago
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice
Dr. Orey (Laureate Education, 2008), speaks about jigsaws as great way for classes to work collaboratively. I wholeheartedly agree that jigsaws can be beneficial in teaching students the topic at hand by making them experts and teachers themselves. As Dr. Orey explains, teaching another person is one of the best ways to solidifying knowledge (Laureate Education, 2008), so this learning theory capitalizes on that idea. In my classroom, while we are studying explorers, I have my students create a Help Wanted Poster as one of our culminating activities. We start by having students talk about what they have learned about explorers in general, and why most explorers ventured out. I then break the students in 4-6 groups and assign them an explorer they might not have heard of (ex: NOT Columbus!). Students research in their groups using books, newspaper articles, and their textbook to find out basic information about their explorer. Next year, I would like to add in a technological component and ask my students to research their explorer online as well. After the groups become experts, students go back to their original groups and share their newfound knowledge with the others and they all use their knowledge to create a generic Help Wanted poster for an explorer. I would like to alter this as well, and give groups the choice of creating a paper and pen poster, or a virtual one using Publisher or PowerPoint. Everyone would have to do the same project, but this would give them the choice of medium.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Social learning theories [Motion picture]. Bridging
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Social learning theories [Motion picture]. Bridging
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Having the students create a powerpoint of their explorer is a great experience. I had my second graders make a powerpoint on their animal reports. It was amazing what they wanted to do and how much they go into the project. With my experience all of the groups wanted to make a powerpoint so I had to spend a few days teaching them the functions of powerpoint then they took off with it and started adding video and animations. It was well worthe the time to show them how it worded.
ReplyDeleteYour explorer project sounds like a wonderful constructivist activity. When I think of explorers, I think of our current astronauts. Have you considered incorporating the NASA website and have students watch the astronauts on the International Space Station? You might also ask them to prepare an exploration packing list for a trip to Mars. Consider using a wiki for this. It would be fascinating to see what the students would take with them and why they choose the articles. If the packing list were limited with a weight restriction; you could add in a math element.
ReplyDeleteOne of my frustrations as a high school teachers is the short period of time each class meets for. Constructivist activities are very effective though, when well planned.
http://estianchi.blogspot.com/2009/07/connectivism-and-social-learning-in.html
ReplyDeleteYour ideas to expand the activities for the explorers unit are great! Another idea you might try is to have the students use power point to make presentations. Using this program it is easy to record their voices and add the clips to the slides. Then you could have the slide shows which include their voices ready to show to parents at conferences!
Erica,
ReplyDeleteI love your ideas for the explorer project. Adding components in technology will help engage your students. Giving them choices will, also, help them feel in control of their learning. Jigsawing is a positive way to use collaborative learning and help students retain the information. It, also, makes the students feel important to teach their peers.
-Carrie Young