Thomas Harris Learning theory

trial

2010-10-07T11:52:00.001-07:00

Test

2010-10-03T13:55:00.001-07:00

Module 5 responses

2010-08-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

I commented on Kiana Thompson's blog
and to Krista Crawford

Module 5 blog

2010-08-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

While teaching in the high school setting I was one of the first teachers to receive an interwrite pad and clicker set. This technology is a lot like a smart board, but cost considerably less money. The pad is carried around by the teacher so that you are never in the way of the students seeing what is going on, on the screen. Anything you write on the pad shows up on the screen.

Anyway, I was the first science teacher in my school to get this technology. This meant that I was also the first science teacher to get a media projector in my room. I looked around at other teachers and I was sure that they would want this technology. I asked people if they wanted to come see it, did they want to swap rooms for the day so they could try it? I begged people to let me show them the power of the immediate feedback that my clickers gave me and the power of the internet and video in my classes.

After one semester the new started to get out through my students that Coach Harris was doing this or that in his class. I finally had a hook, the district was giving out more of these setups and they asked me to be the trainer for my school. I was working on my practicum for my masters degree and had to log 100 hours of instructional technology service for the class so I agreed to be the trainer for the entire county. I have so many stories of technology reticence that I could not begin to give them all here, so I'll share the best one.

Here I sit with a group of fired up middle school teachers and HIM, you know the guy, he's a coach he thinks he has it all figured out. You can almost hear him say "I lecture to my students and if they don't get it, then its their fault, I'm not using this CRAP".

I finish my presentation and 10 middle school teachers start peppering me with questions and ideas about how to use interwrite in their classroom. I keep looking at the coach, he is actively playing with the technology while he thinks no one is looking. He's not thinking about teaching yet, but he is using the pad to check baseball scores and he's drawing up plays. I can see the hamster running, but that hamster is Old and the wheel is sticky!!

I don't hear a thing for about a month and then out of no where I get an email from old coach asking me to come and show him how to use his clickers. I was floored, not only had he started using his pad, but now he was ready to move forward with some authentic real time assessment to help his students learn. It was a really cool break through and the coach came back later to tell me that he was glad I left him alone to figure out that he could use this on his own. He thought that this was just another thing that teachers were going to have to do a bunch of work to develop and then the BOE was going to pull the rug from under the whole program.

What could I have done to helped this go better:

I needed more input from the teachers I was training about what their goals were for the technology. (I had a real discrepency here, some teachers I trained had been required to write essays in order to receive the technology while others had had it put in their hands and been told to use it!)

I needed a pre-skills inventory, does the teacher know how to use united streaming to get videos to their projector, do they know how to work with multiple screens?

Both of these areas deal with Keller's Relevance and attention heading.

I could have helped to generate more confidence by developing a simple mini lesson that each content area could use to have some immediate success using the technology.

The idea of satisfaction was present when the teachers got to see the technology being used. I used the technology to teach the teachers so they could not argue that it was helpful. I passed the pad around the room and had the teachers doing the posting to the screen while I just talked. They were already successful and satisfied to some degree before they left the training.

Response Mod 4

2010-07-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

I responded to Kiana Thompson
I also responded to Margaret McCullough

Mod 4: Reflection

2010-07-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

This information has caused my life to be affected in a drastic way. I have never been much of a traditional news follower. However with the power of Igoogle and RSS feeds I now get the news that matters to me without the hassle of the rest of it. I keep a basic knowledge of other events by quickly scanning the "digital Headlines" but I get my focused news only on topics that interest me.
I am a big believer in the google suite of tools. I utilize the add-ons of Mozilla's Firefox with igoogle to keep the many facets of my life in one spot. My Igoogle has the three different calendars that I keep in one spot. RSS feeds and google reader keep me constantly getting information as it is generated. When questions develop the google search option is fully operational in all of the google suite that I use. I quick hit to wikipedia gives me more search terms for more specific searches.
My job itself is made easier by my network. I have access to 90% of the air conditioners in my school system through the internet and our Ivu control system. This means that I can turn on, off, or change the temperature in any classroom in the county with out leaving my couch!!

Mod 4: Personal Info network

2010-07-25T14:41:00.001-07:00

Response Mod. 3

2010-07-10T13:12:00.001-07:00

I posted a response Jadasi (Duane Coleman) and Kiana Thompson

Mod. 3: Howard Rheingold

2010-07-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Rheingold has some very interesting ideas about the coming development of collaborative technologies in our global economy. The concepts that he analyzes concerning the development of social collaboration in biology were especially meaningful to me as a biology teacher. When Rheingold says "collaboration has moved from the relative peripery to a central role from the cellular to ecological level" (2005), he brings a very important part of biological theories to light. Many biologist at every level of development are studying the relationships between animals of the same species and consistently finding out that they involved in symbiosis or cooperatively working with each other.

I do not believe that humans have a basic instinct to work as a group. With that said, I am taking a very clinical look at the word instinct. Instincts are not taught to offspring they are simply known and followed. I have watched parents on numerous occasions teach their children to share and cooperate. The very fact that this skill must be practiced and taught implies that it is not an instinct.
I do believe that people must act to become more and more willing to cooperate in order to solve more difficult problems in todays society. The global community has become very aware of this pressing need to work together to develop knew answers to novel problems and situations. Technology plays an important role in the development of cooperation by allowing the global community to effectively communicate. This improved communication allows experts from all corners of the globe to be involved in the decision making. Like minded scholars and developers can converse with each other to create meaningful solutions to today's problems.

Rheingold, H. (2005). Way-New Collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Mod 2 comments

2010-06-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

I responded to Amy Cravey and Kc Davis

Thomas Eric Harris Mod. 2

2010-06-29T15:52:00.000-07:00

Bill Has it Right
I think that after reading both of the post provided, that the 3 authors all begin to agree that all the isms have merits that should be taught and brought to light.
Bill Kerr says "I've also noticed that learning theorists, who have a different favourite _ism to mine, might still come up with significant findings in their empirical studies that I find hard to reject or ignore. So, although it is possible to make perfectly valid criticisms of Skinner's behaviourism or the theoretical foundation of cognitivism that is not the end of the story" (2007).
I think that this idea that all of the learning theory isms have some merit is the most logical and relevant to our discussion. The idea that learning theories should guide our teaching of specific concepts and constructs makes sense to what we as teachers see in our classrooms everyday. The closing idea that we use these isms "as a filter, and not a blinker" (Kerr, 2007) is very important. We should filter our instruction through all of the various learning theories and not switch between them all as our only option.

Kerr, B. (2007, Jan 1). Isms as filter, not blinker [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html

Mod 1 comments

2010-06-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

I commented on Amy Cravey's blog: http://learningtheoryamy.blogspot.com/2010/06/metaphors-of-educators.html

And
Sgudjonis @ http://sgudjonis.blogspot.com/2010/06/module1.html

Thomas Eric Harris Mod. 1

2010-06-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

1. I think that people learn best in the most authentic way possible. Learners need to see some relevance to the real world in their own learning. I can remember trying to learn synthetic division in school. This was truly the first time that I remember saying "What is this and why would I ever use it?" I never really found the answer. That little lesson has been brought home more times as my education continued through high school and college. People learn content in a variety of ways and educational theories are helpful in showing teachers how to deliver content in the most efficient way.

Thomas Eric Harris

2010-06-11T11:03:00.001-07:00

I had to start some new blogs to keep these classes seperate.