Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

The learning theory that we viewed this week was a social learning theory.  Dr. Michael Orey said that social constructionism is when students are actively engaged in constructing artifacts and actively engaged in conversing with others (Laureate Education, 2011).  I do feel that social learning plays a big role in student learning. We learned numerous instructional strategies this week that will nicely reflect social learning.

Cooperative learning is one of the instructional strategies that we were able to learn about this week. Many, if not all, teachers already use this strategy in their classrooms. Teachers have students work together to complete assignments, and share ideas with others. Cooperative learning is related to social learning because students have to work together with peers to complete a task or create something. This strategy is grounded in the theory that learning can be maximized through well-designed intentional social interaction with others (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, 2010).  One of my favorite ways to groups students is to put students together of different abilities. The higher achieving students will work hard to help the lower achieving students understand the topic. I also find that the lower achieving students will work really hard to impress the other students in the group.

Another strategy is collaboration tools. Collaboration tools reflect social learning because students are staying connected with one another even when they are separated by distance. Thanks to the advances in educational technology there are many tools that students and teachers may use to help keep students connected with one another. One of my favorite tools is a web 2.0 tool called Padlet. (www.padlet.com) This is a sort of online bulletin board where students can post thoughts, websites, and even word documents to the padlet page. The students can all reply and communicate through the site. The collaboration tool that we worked with this week was creating a voice thread. I can’t believe that I hadn’t heard of this tool before now. I loved it, it is such a fun way for kids to show their knowledge by creating something. I am definitely planning on using this within my classroom. I created a voice thread that my students will be using next week. Click the link to watch it. https://voicethread.com/share/5606921/

The last strategy that we learned about was social networking. I think the name pretty much makes the comparison for us; social networking is staying in touch with people through some type of online network. Within the classroom there are many choices of social networks that teachers can use to stay in contact with parents and students. I have two that I currently use. The first one is Facebook. I know that many schools do not allow teachers to have a page, but I have found it extremely useful within the classroom. I also use Edmodo, and it is used for more communication between the class. The students and I communicate assignments and questions, while the students are also sharing ideas and questions through our account.

Overall, I think social learning and the instructional strategies that compliment it are extremely useful in the classroom. They not only help keep the classroom running efficiently, but they also help the students stay engaged. When the students can learn from each other within the classroom, then they begin to figure out that they are things they can learn from other people outside of the classroom too. I feel that is a very important skill to learn for life.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program eight: Social learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.