My First Voice Thread Experience...

...was a disaster! I suppose computers that had working microphone jacks might have helped just a bit. Since our school uses Rosetta Stone during our Spanish classes, I assumed they worked properly. I found out the hard way, this isn't the case. I ended up having to scrap the Voice Thread idea and have them group together to use Audacity and create a podcast on the 7 computers with working mic jacks. (They got a real kick out of manipulating their voices in Audacity, so it really isn't all that bad.)

APP 5: Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

This week’s resources explored cooperative learning, which “focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 139). Cooperative learning strategies directly relate to the principles of social learning theories. In a nutshell, social learning theory suggests “meaningful learning occurs when individuals are engaged in social activities” (Orey, 2001). During cooperative learning activities, students are interacting and learning from and with each other, while engaged in purposeful and meaningful lessons. The two ideas, cooperative learning and social learning theory, go hand-in-hand.

Pitler et al. suggest several technological enhancements to the traditional cooperative learning activity. Student-created multimedia projects, web collaboration, keypals (the 21st century version of pen pals), WebQuests, and web site design are several examples of technology enhanced activities that are designed to think, learn, and share together. The “together” piece of the puzzle ties these activities to the social learning theory.

One caveat I would throw out there is to not rely solely on cooperative learning. It is important to remember that every child learns in a unique way and to ignore this fact, based on theory, would do our students a great disservice. To prevent this disservice from happening, Pitler et. al. (2007) recommend cooperative learning to “be used consistently and systematically, but [it] should not be over used” (Pitler et al., 2007, p. 139).

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

APP 5: VoiceThread