Reflection

At the beginning of this course, my personal theory of learning based on my current situation was the behaviorist theory. Although I also felt that I incorporated the constructivist theory as well. I teach in a Title I school, therefore I felt focusing on behavior was very important. . I feel that my students can “construct mental maps as they encounter information” (Duffy & McDonald, 2008, p. 17). I still feel that these two theories are very important in my current situation and classroom. I think that this can change depending on the group of students you are teaching. I do feel that students learn best when they are constructing something or building something.

The immediate adjustments I would like to make to my instructional practice is to make sure I am not only using technology as I teach, but also to use it for students to learn independently. The lesson should be centered on the student and the learning process using technology to guide this. My main goal is for students to be engaged, without doing this; they will not be engaged in the lesson.

Two long term goal changes I would like to make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration is to use a Voice Thread in the classroom and also a blog. I have already started a classroom blog where we are actually competing with another school as we review fourth grade skills from this year. Students log on daily to answer the blog question of the day. The students are really enjoying this and I find that they are looking forward to blogging daily. I hope to continue this in the future and make it more in depth based on the skills we are learning. As far as the Voice Thread goes, I think this would be great for students to learn independently and at their own pace. I hope to use technology in some way in every lesson I teach.



References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). 2009. Instructional Theory vs. Learning Theory [Motion picture]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Baltimore: Author.

Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008) Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.