Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Behaviorism in Practice
Behaviorism and technology defintitely have a correlation in regards to education. In order to help students appreciate the role that effort plays in achievement, Mr. Ekuban created a free survey at surveymonkey.com to collect date to then share with incoming freshmen. From this, students are able to see how achievement is reached with strong effort and good attitude, both qualities that are controllable by the individual. Furthermore, learning with multimedia can be more engaging and worthwhile than learning from multimedia. I have seen students do some amazing things when they are given the freedom to explore the software and use different features rather than be limited to just a select few. Reinforcing this type of exploratory learning and then allowing the students to demonstrate to the class how it was accomplished has been a positive and rewarding method within my classroom.
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I'd like to echo what you say about students learning better with multimedia rather than from multimedia. This year I have been working hard to turn my students loose and allowing them to choose the projects they want to do rather than me telling them what they have to do. I give a set of guidelines for projects, but they come up with the ideas all on their own, and I've had some excellent work this year because of that!
ReplyDeleteI like the points you've made in your post!
Guys,
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea, but I have a bit of a hard time doing so with the kind of class I teach - a developmental math class (Pre-Algebra).
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
James
Using surveys is a good tool to get students involved with their learning and take responsibility for their effort. James I think that one area of multimedia that you could start with is having your students complete surveys. This would be a great way to see what areas they need support with and what areas they feel confident in. By using rubrics or surveys it will help students see what needs to be accomplished, what we can do to help them overcome difficulties, and also to get students to achieve with a good attitude. My school just adapted a program called Study Island and students can work on this tutorial to reinforce basic skills. Practicing with multimedia allows students to shape the experience of their individual learning style and increase their level of understanding to mastery (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007, p.192). Another idea that you could use with your students is blogging. Create a blog and put up algebra questions that the students could discuss with one another. Hope these ideas help. Have fun, Michelle
ReplyDeleteI believe the same thing about giving students some choice and freedoms. As I have stated many times before, by giving them a few parameters and leaving things kind of wide open, the can chose something that interests them. Often times when I assign a project over a certain topic, I let them chose how they want to do it. (Powerpoint, skit, research paper, etc.) This is a good way to end up a unit instead of the same old standard test or exam. By asking them to incorporate in what they learned, they still feel a sense of ownership and pride. In the end, by letting them chose, based on their learning styles and abilities, they will retain more, which in the end leads to less remediation.
ReplyDeleteStudy Island and survey monkey are both great tools to use. Last year, I introduce my seventh graders to blackboard and they really liked it. As time went on not only did they answer discussion questions, but worked with students from their hour and other hours sharing ideas and thoughts. This was HUGE hit, it reminded them a lot of myspace and facebook, so they were completely engage. It is also a great place to start a unit with discussion questions and theories or ideas they may have, when checking for prior knowledge.
I currently implement a bulletin board forum in my classes and students are far more excited about carrying on an online discussion than they are a verbal discussion in the classroom. Students seem to prefer the use of technological tools over the "old-school" methods of education as they are exposed to it everyday. Also, surveys provide a great way to receive feedback from your students in areas they may need help or teaching strategies they dislike. What may be comfortable to us as a teaching style may not work for the majority of our students as a learning style. Thus, by allowing them to have a voice, we can reflect on our practices and enhance learning in our classroom.
ReplyDelete