Three Concepts to Reflect
After a week of new experiences at work, I came home to read Chapter 3, "Transforming Learning with Unique, Powerful Technology". Behaviorism is a word that I have constantly heard in other college classes such as Psychology and I found it interesting to see how it appealed to technology. As defined by the textbook, behaviorism "maintains that learning is a set of changes in human behavior created as a response to events in the environment" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). The paragraph suggests that primary learning strategies are based on memory and recall. I think what is best about having updated computers or any sort of technology in the classroom is that it can address and help all types of learning styles. For example, a linguistic learner like myself could use audio presentations to help me excel in the class.
Student-centered approaches, a term mentioned on page 51 of the book refers to as "classroom learning as extending from the active engagement of students with academic material and real-life situations" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). Instead of answering the questions of the real world for the students, it is allowing the students to answer it themselves. I find this progressive type of approach very useful because it helps prepare students for real-life situations. As a teacher, I would hope I could better my students in any way useful. The use of technology comes into play with this because better technology can provide better understanding of the technology that is used.
Along with learning real-life situations comes information literacy. The final term I am sharing with you that caught my attention was information literacy which allows students to know how to "identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information" (University of Idaho, 2012). I believe that all three topics I chose really relate because behaviorism suggested that memory is a key part in learning. With practice and technological materials, students can become information literate and be able to know the best way to receive information.
Chapter three I thought was a very great chapter. I found it interesting to recognize certain terms and be familiar with topics. The terms I mentioned in this blog post are similar to the way I want to teach my future students. I hope to keep in mind ideas like behaviorism and cognitivism. I also am able to differentiate teacher-centered and student-centered approaches. I will be definitely be practicing these ideas this week at work!
And here is a Bitstrip comic, just showing how useful technology in the classroom can be!
References
Hunt, Alaina. (2015, September 20). "Technology for Students" Bitstrip. Retrieved September, 20, 2015, from https://www.bitstrips.com/user/JJ784S/read.php?comic_id=QQVM3&subsection=1.
Your BitStrips comic creation is very fitting! :) As teachers, we sometimes want to do it all and eventually they can lead to burn-out for both the student and the teacher. But having as much as you can in your 'toolbox' will allow you to choose the right one(s) in any circumstance. :) I do think you will find the interrelationships more and more as you build on your educational experiences - and hopefully you will find a way to include applicable tech, too.
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