Reflective Essay: Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classrooom

As the course ends, it is interesting to look back on what I learned as a result. I found this course to be interesting and very practical for the upcoming school year. I liked the process of working through the unit plan and the process that needs to be used when researching information on the Internet.

The most striking revelation that I had about teaching new literacy skills to my students is that they need even more guidance when starting a research project. I have always had trouble when conducting inquiry projects because they just do not seem to find appropriate information. I realized that I need to be more purposeful in teaching my students skills for searching and decoding the information that they find.

The knowledge and experience that I gained through my course work will definitely have an impact on my teaching this year, and in years to come. I intend to follow the lessons that I put together for my lesson plan to ensure that, by the time my students leave my classroom, they are equipped with all the skills they need to conduct an inquiry project independently.

One professional development goal that I would like to pursue that will build on my learning in this course, and develop my own information literacy/technology skills is that I would like to develop information that I can pass on to my colleagues to teach their students the necessary skills. I will have to continue reading books like the texts of this course. I will have to figure out how I can share this information with my colleagues in a way that will be “user-friendly”, especially for those who are more technologically challenged. And I will have to continue to search the Internet for valuable resources that I can use towards this. I think that this goal is attainable, and as I work to further develop my own learning, that will reinforce it for me also.

Final Reflection

I really enjoyed the content of this course on learning theory and technology. While I found that there weren't many changes to my personal theory of learning, reflecting on the content of this course has given me a deeper insight to how I learn and how I teach.

I have already incorporated digital concept organizers in my class and would really like to try to use VoiceThread. I think that VoiceThread has a lot of potential for collaborative work and I would like to see how this could work in my classroom. Concept organizers are so important for how students construct their learning and I use these quite often.

I would like to find ways to incorporate technology better into the "teacher-directed" portions of my class in ways that would be engaging and interactive for students. I do many "student-directed" activities in my classroom and I would like to better integrate technology when I'm in front of the class as well.

I would also like to work at how I assess student learning when they are working collaboratively or individually with technology. Observations are very important to the learning process so that we can adjust our teaching to better meet the needs of our students.

VoiceThread

Click Here for my VoiceThread!

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Social learning theories state that people learn primarily through their interactions with others and their environment. Cooperative learning allows students to work together in order to achieve a deeper level of understanding.

There are many instructional resources available that assist in cooperative learning. It is almost overwhelming to look at the list of resources that are referenced in the course text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. However, there are so many social networking options, webQuests, web-site creation, wikis, blogs, etc. that all have a role to play in cooperative learning. Each of these resources puts the learning in the hands of the students. Whether in groups within the traditional classroom, or paired with students in a classroom across the world, students can work together to learn in ways that would not otherwise be possible.

Note: Most of the great resources that are available for cooperative learning are blocked by our technology administrators, and it is a very slow process in trying to convince them of the value of many of these sites.

Constructivism in Practice

Once again, I have to say that I am really enjoying this course text. Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works has so many practical applications for the classroom. In my school, we have replaced year end exams in grade eight with year-end assessments. These inquiry-based projects allow students to take the opportunity to come up with their own inquiry question to pursue and then they research, collect data, and analyze their finding.

In the Chapter entitled "Generating and Testing Hypotheses", the authors address this same process. There are so many ideas for how to proceed with this in the classroom, and I think that many of the web resources and other computer resources listed and explained in the chapter assist students in pursuing this. As students work to test and prove their work, it is essential that they understand the questions that they are researching. If they attempt to complete a project without fulling understanding their hypothesis, their learning is flawed and incomplete. It is essential that students have an understanding, so that they understand what they have learned through the process.

Cognitivism in Practice

I am really enjoying the suggestions in this course's text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works! I thought that the chapter on "Summarizing and Note Taking" especially timely since I'm looking for ways to teach my students how to take notes and summarize a text since that is a skill that is so vitally important to success in high school and university. I am looking forward to exploring the resources suggested at the end of the chapter and I hope that they will translate well into my classroom. I have used wikis as a means of presenting class notes and asked my students to each give other students feedback on how well they did at presenting the necessary information. I liked the interactivity of this exercise. I am also really enjoying the possibilities of the comments and tracking changes in Word. It is such a diverse resource!

The chapter on "Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers" was also very interesting, although not new to me. I have used various types of concept organizers in my class, depending on the topic and subject area. I find that they are a great way to get students to break down a chunk of information so that they can actually use it to complete an assignment. I have also been working with a former student of mine to improve his comprehension strategies. In this time, we have been exploring how using a graphic organizer can assist in how he can answer later comprehension strategies. And in our discussions together, he has told me that he found it much easier to answer the questions because he thought through the information first.

Virtual Field Trips are so interesting, and there are so many good resources available! I like that students can explore a concept on their own, asking for direction when necessary. Whether it is in the form of a virtual field trip, or note-taking, or concept organizers, students are given the opportunity to take in new knowledge and develop their own learning. I think that these technological tools can help the teacher move more freely into the role of facilitator.

Behaviourism in Practice

I am actually enjoying Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works! I really like the 'Effort Rubric' in the chapter on "Reinforcing Effort". This rubric allows students to gauge their own behaviour and I really like that. I think that giving students the opportunity to reflect on their own learning and effort can be very helpful in reminding students about how their own effort can help them achieve success. I have never thought to use spreadsheet software in order to allow students to gauge their own progress. It is an interesting notion, but our time in the computer lab is so limited as it is that I don't think that I will use this in my classroom. I have used survey monkey to poll my other university peers, but have not used it in my own classroom yet. I have done informal 'effort' surveys in my classroom before (without technology).

While I try not to assign much homework in my class, I did find the web suggestions in the "Homework and Practice" chapter very interesting and it almost makes me want to assign more homework just to try them!

I do think that showing students their progress and how that relates to the effort that they put in can be helpful in getting students to realize how they can have a role in the marks that they get.