Thursday, December 3, 2009
Social Learning Theory
The instructional strategies described in the resources I explored this week correlate with the principles of social learning theories, because they focused on social networking and using others to gain information and skills. The resources talk about using different software and programs the enable many people to work on the same project at the same time, and where the participants are located does not affect their ability to work on the project. Social learning theorists believe that the primary way that people learn is by interacting with people and their environment. They believe that children should be involved in cooperative learning groups and should connect new knowledge and skills to old knowledge while they work in their groups to complete a common task. These cooperative learning groups are a great place to integrated technology using social networking. Group members can not only work on the same project, but they each other feedback and answer each other’s questions
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I love the fact that students can work on a project from many different locations. I agree that people do learn from others and this theory is relevant in education. Who does not social network these days? That is the key to being able to feed off each other. We as teacher model this theory on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are unlimited possibilities with the emerging technologies that can help to enhance students learning in social learning theories, we all have to acknowledge that these technologies can only be powerful tools if all students have access to them, which means that they must be used in school at computer labs. Until school systems wise up and reallocate funds from instructional materials such as text books, work sheets, copiers, toner, to low-cost laptops for student use and tech support, then we cannot expect for technology to be used inside AND outside the classroom. Several schools through the state of Georgia have taken the technological initiative and provided computers to each of their students with promising results.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need greater access to technology in order to incorporate it in and outside of the classroom. I would like to incorporate more technology in my classroom but I find that the technology is often limited. Sometimes the limits are for the physical technology and sometimes they are for blocks/filters on programs that limit how technology can be used in the classroom. What types of technolgy to you have access to in your classroom?
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