Do you remember having to study for a test and the morning of it you walk into the classroom and sit down next to your desk partner....what did you say? My mind would always be racing with everything I read over the night before and I would say something like, "Social Learning is where students communicate with each other and create things, right?" Looking for that validation, that confirmation of knowing I knew what I was talking about and wasn't a complete moron. And then you would proceed to go back and forth asking each other about this topic and that topic, until the teacher came in and said it was time to put everything away except for a pencil, while secretly hoping and praying that the teacher would say you could use your notes or textbook...Oh yes those were the days.
Cooperative Learning has students interacting together that allows for learning to be enhanced (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). Wow that sounds a lot like social learning: students actively engaged in constructing artifacts and communicating with each other (Laureate Education, 2008). So how do these two correlate with one another? Social Learning is a theory and Cooperative Learning is a strategy that can be used for the purpose of social learning.
Above is a picture of examples that technology has provided for us to use for social learning. WOW, that is quite a list! Some of those I have not heard of and am definitely going to have to look into. Look at all of the resources that educators have available to use in their classrooms, and we know that this is no where near all of them or even the ones that have been developed. Technology continues to unveil new things to us. We should be looking at what is available because before you know it, our students are going to be looking for confirmation and validation through these resources.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). “Social Learning Theories” [Educational video].
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteThose are a lot of resources for teachers to use to enhance social learning. Teachers are reluctant to use many of the technology resources available to them because they know most of their students are more knowledgeable about the resources than the teacher. Research shows that when student are able to elaborate on subject matter and serve as the teacher, explaining and demonstrating their knowledge, it facilitates a deeper comprehension of the subject matter. For this reason, teachers should embrace their student's knowlegde of technology and allow them to share their knowledge with the teacher and students as it relates to the subject matter being studied in class.
Laura--that is an amazing amount of resources for social learning. Unfortunately in my school district, neary half of the sites are blocked (I guess they are afraid a student will post on Facebook that they are bored in school!) Loved your VoiceThread!!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes feel overwhelmed with everything that is available. Then when you get comfortable using one resource there is an updated version or something new so files need to be redone or converted to the new format. I had a student today who did a Movie Maker presentation for electronics. We could see the file but the version I had on my school computer was an earlier version than what he used so we could not view it. How disappointing.
ReplyDeleteDo you find yourself getting frustrated or overwhelmed?
I absolutely find myself being overwhelmed. With technology advancing on a daily basis it is hard to keep up with the constant changes. But I also realize that if I do not keep up with the changes, then my students will not have the same learning opportunities as other studets might. So I bravely face the storm and fight through it to keep up.
ReplyDelete