Behaviorism and Technology

As an educator, one is constantly searching for ways to get the most out of each student.  We want them to be the best mathematicians, historians, and writers.  One way that many teachers use to accomplish this is through the use of behaviorist principles.  In certain cases we use positive reinforcement and in others we use negative, but no matter what type of conditioning educators use, it is for the purpose of brining out positive behaviors and actions.

            This week’s learning resources provided the strategy of reinforcing effort.  Reinforcing effort is defined as an instructional strategy that “enhances students’ understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning” (Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K., 2007).   It is imperative that teachers do their best to use positive reinforcement.  Of the two forms, positive is the most powerful (Laureate, 2010).  When I tell a student that I am proud of their work, or call home to inform a parent that instead of their child being in trouble that they should commend them on an excellent job it has a profound impact on them.  It also does a great deal to highlight what behaviors are favored in the classroom.  As a high school teacher, I don’t do star charts or warning cards, but I will verbally praise students constantly.  I try to establish what I feel is acceptable behavior and practice and what isn’t. 

            Another strategy that I found helpful that connected to behaviorist principles was the text section on homework and practice. Homework and practice is an instructional strategy that “give(s) students a chance to review and apply what they have learned” (Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K., 2007).  When a student works toward gaining an understanding through practice, their effort is reinforced when the student comes up with the correct answer.  They take the skills given by the teacher at an earlier point and apply those skills over and over, with each correct answer their effort is reinforced and even incorrect answers reinforce that the behavior that contributed to the incorrect answer is not one the student should use again.  A number of possibilities exist for students to utilize technology in this strategy.  One that interested me was the use of multimedia software to provide engaging content and immediate feedback to help the student practice and master concepts (Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K., 2007).  I recently used icivics.org to teach important Supreme Court cases.  I thought it worked wonderfully.  Students were challenged to make decisions based on the evidence given and learning could take place at the learners pace.  I loved the fact that the games court judge rewarded good evidence and questioned shaky evidence.  I used this as an experiment with seniors and they all worked like 5^th graders trying to solve the problem.  I will definitely use the software again.

            Today’s educators have a wealth of resources at their disposal.  These resources not only provide content, but also help to reinforce those behaviors desirable to the teacher and to learning.  I cannot believe the amount of information I have gathered as a result of these courses.  We don’t have to do it all on our own, there are other educators out their who are fighting the same battle.

Behaviorism and Technology

As an educator, one is constantly searching for ways to get the most out of each student.  We want them to be the best mathematicians, historians, and writers.  One way that many teachers use to accomplish this is through the use of behaviorist principles.  In certain cases we use positive reinforcement and in others we use negative, but no matter what type of conditioning educators use, it is for the purpose of bringing out positive behaviors and actions.

            This week’s learning resources provided the strategy of reinforcing effort.  Reinforcing effort is defined as an instructional strategy that “enhances students’ understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning” (Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K., 2007).   It is imperative that teachers do their best to use positive reinforcement.  Of the two forms, positive is the most powerful (Laureate, 2010).  When I tell a student that I am proud of their work, or call home to inform a parent that instead of their child being in trouble that they should commend them on an excellent job it has a profound impact on them.  It also does a great deal to highlight what behaviors are favored in the classroom.  As a high school teacher, I don’t do star charts or warning cards, but I will verbally praise students constantly.  I try to establish what I feel is acceptable behavior and practice and what isn’t. 

            Another strategy that I found helpful that connected to behaviorist principles was the text section on homework and practice. Homework and practice is an instructional strategy that “give(s) students a chance to review and apply what they have learned” (Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K., 2007).  When a student works toward gaining an understanding through practice, their effort is reinforced when the student comes up with the correct answer.  They take the skills given by the teacher at an earlier point and apply those skills over and over, with each correct answer their effort is reinforced and even incorrect answers reinforce that the behavior that contributed to the incorrect answer is not one the student should use again.  A number of possibilities exist for students to utilize technology in this strategy.  One that interested me was the use of multimedia software to provide engaging content and immediate feedback to help the student practice and master concepts (Pitler, H., Hubble, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoskie, K., 2007).  I recently used icivics.org to teach important Supreme Court cases.  I thought it worked wonderfully.  Students were challenged to make decisions based on the evidence given and learning could take place at the learners pace.  I loved the fact that the games court judge rewarded good evidence and questioned shaky evidence.  I used this as an experiment with seniors and they all worked like 5^th graders trying to solve the problem.  I will definitely use the software again.

            Today’s educators have a wealth of resources at their disposal.  These resources not only provide content, but also help to reinforce those behaviors desirable to the teacher and to learning.  I cannot believe the amount of information I have gathered as a result of these courses.  We don’t have to do it all on our own, there are other educators out their who are fighting the same battle.

Reflection

It is amazing how fast time flew by the last eight weeks.  Understanding the impact of technology, work and society has been an enjoyable and challenging experience.  I am certain that I have gained insight and knowledge that will positively impact my teaching.

            This class has been a tremendous help for my development as a technology savvy professional.  Upon entering this class I would have never dreamed of creating a blog or podcast and now I have created both.  The process was not always easy, but I kept in mind the words of Dr. Thornburg and Dede, which stressed the importance of teachers and their classrooms being able to teach students the skills necessary for success in the 21^st Century. 

            Upon the conclusion of this class I find myself realizing the importance of keeping my instruction and methodology current.  I have only been out of school for eight years and so much has changed.  I realize that my instruction must be meaningful and connect to the boarder picture of life.  I now see that by making my instruction relevant to the skills needed in the real world that students will buy into the concepts as well as benefit from them.  Finally, I learned that teaching does not have to be a top down trickle of information.

            I am a very teacher centered instructor and this class has shown me that there are other and sometimes more beneficial methods.  Group discovery is not a bad thing, as students spend hours on the Internet and using other forms of technology, they have gained an expertise and affinity for technology.  By allowing them to navigate the web and find credible sources and help teach themselves and others, they are learning skills that will benefit them the rest of their lives.  I do not think I will completely eliminate teacher based instruction because as I have stated before, I truly love to tell the story that is history, but I realize now that learning can take place from sources other than my sometimes limited knowledge base.

            I aim to continue my acquisition of knowledge in the area of technology and education.  I really feel that as I move forward with this class I will continue to utilize technology in ways I never considered.  I will also frequent some of the technology PLCs that we investigated as a class.  It was so refreshing to see that there are other people out their with ideas and problems that I can talk to beyond those individuals in my department or district.

            Two long term goals that I plan to set for myself is to make my classroom and lessons roughly seventy percent teacher centered.  This may not seem like a lot, but for myself this is a great step forward.  I plan to develop activities, projects and methods of relaying information that go beyond traditional instruction.  I hope to use blogs and podcasts as tools for achieving these goals.  I really enjoyed blogging and would love to use it in my classroom.  The second goal that I have set for myself is to create a an up to date teacher website that gives students the opportunity to get missed course work, access the class blog, and maybe even an area for interesting facts about history that are just for fun.  Both of the goals face one problem, a lack of access to technology.  My district has roughly sixty-five computers for 600 students.  I think that I can plan around this by setting aside specific class days in the computer lab, but again that may not always be enough and in a diverse economic area such as my district, not every kid has the internet at home.  Technology is supposed to enhance learning and make learning easier, but if it is difficult to even get access, frustration and a feeling of embarrassment could occur.

            Upon review of my checklist, I have not too many of my answers change.  I look forward to the implementation of technology in my classroom.  I know this will not be easy but I understand the importance of my job and believe technology is a great tool for preparing kids with the skills needed to be competitive in a Global 21^st century job market.

My First Attempt at Podcasting!?!??!?!

Wow!  I am definitely not a digital native!  My first attempt at Podcasting was quite an experience.  It really challenged me as a student to learn this process, but after a number of failed attempts, a lost Podcast and a few phone calls to knowledgeable friends I completed the assignment.  Here is the Link to my very first podcast. 

 http://colewatterson.podbean.com/

Importance of 21st century Skills

As a teacher in New York State, I was surprised to find that New York was not one of the sixteen states that have begun the implementation of the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.  In the past the concern in New York has been performance on the standardized Regents exams.   This year there has been a major shift from Regents performance to the implementation of the Common Core.   Simply put, the Common Core is an emphasis throughout the subjects on literacy.   As the shape of education changes in New York, I cannot believe that until this week I had zero knowledge of the National initiative for 21^st Century Skills.   As educators, the job of preparing children for success beyond the classroom falls on our shoulders. 

This website provides a number of resources that can be referenced by educators and parents who are serious about producing students who are ready to compete and function at a high level in today’s globalized landscape.    This commitment to success is evidenced by those companies who work collaboratively with the partnership.  Businesses such as Apple, Dell, and the National Education Association work side by side to create learning environments that bridge the gap between skills and knowledge students learn in school and the skills they will use in the real world (http://www.p21.org/about-us/strategic-council-members).

In this week’s learning resources Dr. Thornburg discussed skills for the 21^st Century.   When the goals of the partnership are compared to the skills Dr. Thornburg believes are important for those entering the real world to have, the list is very similar, and both believe that critical thinking, creative problem solving, and communication are at the top of the list.  The partnership calls these skills part of the 4 C’s  and adds in collaboration (Laureate, 2010).   This week Dr. Dede talks about the importance of collaboration in the real world.  He believes that as cyber infrastructure gains popularity, collaboration will be one of the most highly desired skills for employees (Laureate 2010).  By combining the common course curriculum also known as the 3 R’s with these 4 C’s the partnership for 21^st Century aims to produce productive members of society.

I did not find anything on the site that I truly disagreed with.  I feel that all of the skills mentioned are important for students preparing for life.  I also understand that the nature of jobs in this country will continue to become more and more globalized and because of that how we prepare students must also adapt.  The one area that I might say the partnership left out is the family aspect of education.  My students come from varying home lives and unfortunately taking care of younger siblings, work, and lackadaisical attitudes toward education are becoming more and more prominent.  Roughly speaking I see my students 180 and 245 minutes of the 10,080 minutes that each week has.  That is not a lot of time.  Successful students in my opinion are willing or taught through a structured environment to develop and employ study habits outside of school.   There are just too many young children and teachers who are not getting the support needed from parents.  Please let me be clear, I am not trying to pass the blame here.  I would like to see this partnership start working with parents to instill the importance of education and what a commitment learning can be for our children.  Often times, a commitment beyond the classroom.

   Today’s students are no longer able to graduate from high school and get a job at the local factory.  The face of labor in America is changing almost as quickly as our technology.   By fusing the traditional 3 R’s with the 4 C’s U.S. students will contain the skills necessary for life beyond the classroom (http://www.p21.org/about-us/press-kit). As educators our goal should be to prepare every student for what lies ahead and through the incorporation of these 21^st century skills, students will be ready.  This may mean that we must stop outside of our comfort zone and away from the textbooks to provide our students with rich, real world learning experiences (Laureate, 2010). As lifelong learners we should be excited to test uncharted waters, there will be bumps and bruises along the way, but the idea that we have a major role in the success of our students as adults should be worth every bit of the struggle.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program eleven. Skills for the 21st century [Webcast]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2011.). A framework for 21st century learning. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework

Blogs: A Facilitator of Student Interaction

Upon the conclusion of this week’s learning resources I sat back and really tried to respond to William Richardson’s statement that basically said that teachers must use technology to push student learning and development (Richardson, 2010).  Admittedly, I struggled to come up with an idea on how a 10^th grade Global Studies teacher would be able to use a blog. 

Upon further reading Richardson states that blogs serve to connect people around the world (Richardson, 2010).  That is when the light bulb went off.  I have a friend who teaches 10^th grade Global Studies roughly three hours away.  If we were able to keep our curriculums closely aligned, we could have all each of our students create blogs in which they are given partners, similar to Internet pen pals.  We could create assignments where for one chapter his class creates individual reviews and my class is then responsible for signing on and completing the reviews to prepare for tests, each student will benefit and we can change roles from chapter to chapter.  Then the students would be using the information from class and communicating it to a new individual who benefits from the practice and the creator of the review gets to review further by grading the review.  These reviews could be short answer or a posted Microsoft Word document. 

This type of an activity gets the kids communicating with those people who exist outside their comfort zone, which helps to build character, they get to work with technology, and they are most importantly still working heavily with classroom content.  I fell as though this would have to be highly structured and clearly modeled, but how cool would it be for our kids to be responsible from someone else’s education.

Here Goes Nothing!

What an expirience it has been learning to blog!  I am not computer savy and it is for that reason that I choose this degree program.  I figured that in this program I could learn new methods of reaching my students.  However, I fear that my lack of general knowledge is going to make this process very difficult. I am going to click publish now and see if I have any clue of what I am doing.  Wish me luck!