Group work

Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia?
How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles?


I most definitely believe that we have the basic instinct to work as a group. I observed ants completely devour a snail in a matter of minutes through team work. We are failing our students by not teaching them the very skill they need to be successful in a work environment. The benefit of goal setting to see how small steps can help you reach the big goal. If teachers were to model this behavior in the classroom, students will get it through practice. Allowing students to work in teams is a bigger extension of that. Everyone breaking the product down into smaller achievable goals. Googledocs is a great collaboration tool that I have used that promotes teamwork. My students used it responsibly and was able to work at their own pace. The book says, "the constructivist approach is to identifying learning goals emphasizes learning in context and learners identifying and pursuing personal goals" (Driscoll, p. 390-391). The conditions for constructivist learning also support the fact we must incorporate technology to make school realistic and relevant. The five conditions for learning are, "1. embed learning in complex, realistic, and relevant environments, 2. provide the social negotiation, 3. support multiple perspective, 4. encourage ownership in learning, and 5. nurture self-awareness of knowledge construction process" (Driscoll, p. 393-394). These conditions can be our goal as educators and we have to come up with different concepts that will use technology.

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc

LaToya Gallimore

Kerr, Downes, Kapp

Karl Kapp says, "The issue many forget is that “learning” is not one thing…it is a multi-layered word that tends to get treated as if it were just one thing…and it’s not. It is multi-facetted and that is why developing new models for “learning” is so difficult…there are too many levels for one school of thought or one model to do it all. "I believe this is the best statement from what we had to read from the blogs. What I am starting to realize is that it may not be the teachers responsibility to create this learning environment. I am thinking this burden is on the administration and county education administrators. I have a master's in education and I have not been introduced to these theories and ways of learning. I have been taught how to teach my discipline, not necessarily individual students. Why does it take this long in my educational journey to learn these things? I then begin to think about how each classroom at my old school was like their own world with different practices, rules, expectations, learning styles, and discipline. We all know that students learn differently but who is preparing teachers to meet these needs.I am loving learning about the different theories and I know there needs to be a balance. I will be able to look at my students individually and know which theory would benefit them the most, so I have an advantage. I just think things are currently done backwards. We have all these state rules telling us to meet every students needs but the big question is HOW.I personally think schools or classrooms should be set up for the different learning styles. And then the other theories can be incorporated to promote balance. Teachers just are not trained on these theories and therefore they are kinda doing what is best for them in the classrooms. These reads are showing me how unprepared teachers are to meet our students needs these days.



http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html
http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational.html

Module 1 Blog Post-

What are your beliefs about how people learn best? What is the purpose of learning theory in educational technology?





The metaphor I would use for education is a business. We deal with supply, demand, marketing, management, leadership, problem solving skills, and so much more. The educational system is like a business from the top down. If the employees are happy then it transfers to the customers, so if teachers are happy then they will want to make students happy. As educators we should be looking at the common trends in the workplace, which would be the demand. It is our job to prepare students to be employable, which would be the supply the jobs need. Being prepared will allow students be marketable. Students will be eventually trying to promote themselves and their knowledge. Any manger, supervisor, CEO, or any other head of a business will want employees to have problem solving skills. That is something I feel students are lacking these days. Technology can be used to enhance these skills. In the classrooms we can help students set goals and ways to achieve them so they will be productive members of society as adults.