Course Reflection: Personal Learning Theory

After completing the course on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology, my teaching style has been altered noticeably. By blending cognitive and behaviorist approaches into my lesson preparation, and more consciously integrating the constructivist theory in my lesson planning, my objectives are more effectively applied. In the past I have always tried to develop lessons from back to front, asking myself the question, “What do I want my students to get from this?” After several articles, videos, and reading the text, I began to see where the question I was asking was fine, but needed altered to, “What do I want my students to produce, make, or do?” That simple adjustment places the lesson squarely in the constructivist zone while I can apply other theories of learning to support the student efforts. Passing a “Nerf” football around the room during football season permits me to use a behaviorist strategy to review vocabulary terms and also provides that kinesthetic element I also seek when possible. One long term goal would be to be able to create a project for each module I teach, in other words one for the Middle East, one for Africa, one when studying India, one that while covering Russia and finally China. The second goal is to have a new technical application for each of those projects. Maybe the first project would implement a VoiceThread as the central focus to convey the objectives, and then the next project would implement a cooperative learning tool like a group wiki to focus on the objectives. By doing so, I can create lessons that are dynamic, authentic, and implement the three theories studied in this course with a pronounced focus on constructivism. It permits me to create a paradigm to create the type of lessons that I want to teach. I also believe there is plenty of room for implementation of other elements from learning theories and build lessons around the units created in each module. Different strategies such as blog use would be implemented early on, and repeated use would hone their skills in writing areas such as editorializing, persuasive, and informatory and serve a dual approach because of the use of technology. Applying word webs through applications such as Webspiration, provide visual organization and conceptual mapping to further develop student growth. Technology plays an integral role in my personal learning philosophy and hopefully will improve my teaching skills with the residual effect on my students learning.