Is this Behaviorism?

For the course I’m currently taking with Walden, I was asked to evaluate several resources we were given this week, and how they fit with the behaviorist learning theory.  The sources included instructional strategies and website resources.

The first set of resources I’ll discuss came from the chapter, “Reinforcing Effort,” from the book Using technology with Classroom Instruction that Works.  The methods they discussed involved having the students complete various forms of surveys and rating systems created with programs like Excel and Survey Monkey in order to evaluate themselves and rate the amount of effort they were putting forth.  They would then be able to see how they rated and chart their progress from earlier weeks.  The teacher would also be able to see the results, which would give him/her insight on the effort the class was making.  It is assumed that the results from these graphs and charts would motivate students to try harder if they found their score going down, or feel some level of gratification when they see their scores go up.  I don’t think this instructional strategy quite fits with a behaviorist model, but rather, it fits better with a humanist model.  It makes the desire to do well an intrinsic motivation because they are scoring themselves, then see their overall score get processed based on their own input.  If they didn’t do well, they’ll go back to see which scores brought them down, and know where they need to improve.  They’ll then feel the desire to work on that weakness to bring their score up for the following week.

I then explored the many computer resources supplied in our resources and in chapter 10 of the same book as above.  I found the majority of these to be of behaviorist instructional strategies.  Using a behaviorist model of teaching, we would create a system of rewards and, to some degree, punishments, to shape the behavior of a child.  If it’s a desired behavior, we reward it so that behavior is repeated.  If it’s not desirable, we’ll hold back from rewarding it, or punish it so the likelihood of it occurring again is less likely (Laureate Education, Inc, 2011).  Most of these websites do just that.  When playing some of these online games, particularly from the wealth of links on Internet4Classrooms, you get rewarded for correct responses.  The reward was that you got to continue the game.  If you are wrong, you are often punished by losing life, causing your game to come a little closer to ending.  These resources pointed us to tutorials, which I’m not sure how they relate to behaviorism, but in exploring these sites, I did find many resources that strongly use the behaviorist philosophy of learning.  Another way these sites supported behaviorism is that they had you practicing skills over and over again.  This idea assumes that, if you keep doing a skill through rote, you will eventually begin to memorize and perfect that skill.

I’ve seen success in using both strategies to teaching and feel that a good classroom will use both systems.  Both will teach accountability and will give opportunity for self improvement.  On a side note, I will be adding some of these links to my school’s website to enable further opportunity for my students to practice skills in their classroom and at home while having a little fun doing it.  

Resources

Pitler, Howard. "Reinforcing Effort." Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ;, 2007. 155-165. Print.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program four: Behaviorist learning theory [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

Walking Away with Something I Can Use

Now that my course, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society is coming to a close, I’ll take time to reflect on how this course has shaped me as the computer/technology teacher in my school.  I don’t know what made me believe this, but prior to taking this course, I thought my focus should be on teaching my students how to use programs on the computer that can be used to prepare projects and reports for their classroom teacher.  This kept my focus mainly on Microsoft Office.  My focus has completely changed.

By me designing projects using Microsoft Office applications that followed a specific set of guidelines, I was limiting my students to learning very specific skills and was closing the door to any type of feedback from them that might change the direction of future lessons.  My focus up to this point this year has been how to use different web 2.0 tools.  My students seem to be more involved in this process, and the guidelines aren’t as constraining as they were last year.  If I give a topic, they are freer to take it in a direction that makes sense to them.  They are also able to communicate with each other and share ideas.  I’m also able to give them regular feedback that not only helps them, but also helps others who read the suggestions I may leave a classmate.  While teaching things like Microsoft Office are important, I now think I’d better serve my students by exposing them to a variety of software and online activities rather than teach them to master just a few.  I only need to think back to my early years of learning how to use a computer to realize that this was the method used for me and this method is why I’ve had success in this field.  I was given enough information from my professors to master certain applications on my own.

My long term goal over the next couple of years is to continue to what I’ve started this year, to expose my students to a wide array of programs and technology.  I would also like to put myself into a leadership position so that I may guide other schools and teachers toward effective uses of their technology.  Presently, I think my school district wants to see a higher level of use of technology, but their policies are outdated and a hindrance to this goal.  I would like to be part of a team that could help the school district update their policies so that our children can do more and the parents of our students can do more.  Ultimately, my goal down the road, past the 2 year point, would be to become some type of technology consultant/staff developer for my district.  I enjoy teaching the students, but if this direction takes me out of the classroom, then I will have to do that in order to give direction on the district level where very little direction regarding technology exists.

Upon evaluating my practices to support 21^st Century learning, I can now say I’m almost always doing everything outlined by ist.org.  My greatest weakness was in having my students work collaboratively.  All of my projects this year have had opportunities to collaborate.  Most of these projects have an online communication component that allows my students to share and discuss ideas.  What I have had trouble with, up until this point, was to find other professionals who teach in my content area to share ideas with.  Online communities have given me some assistance, but communication is slow, and in some cases, my reaching out doesn’t yield results at all.  At a recent workshop for technology teachers, I touched base with a few teachers who are very enthusiastic about technology and have also been seeking out others to share ideas with.   The information we’ve shared with each other has been very valuable.  I also have the wiki I worked on with several of my classmates form this course.  We can continue to share ideas there and other possible contacts.

Overall, this course has moved me back on the right track, the one that will best help prepare my students for the 21^st century.  Prior to beginning graduate school, I stated that working on this degree wasn’t just about getting a raise or fulfilling a requirement, I wasn’t to walk away with something I can use.  So far, I’ve been walking away with a lot I can use.

Student Technology Interviews

My apologies for the low volume.  I only realized how low the volume was set after I went through the videos when I got home for the weekend.  Basically, I asked my students about how they used technology at home.  I asked them if they had a game system or not, and if they had a computer or not.  I also asked what they do or play on their computer and/or game systems.  So many wanted to do the interviews, which is why I had more than I needed. I actually didn't use all of my videos.   I also had around sixty or so students take a more detailed survey online about their use of technology.  The survey results are linked below.  What I didn't include in the survey was that I teach in a 100% African-American student population.  My school is a Title 1 school with a high rate of poverty. I did not give my students any rehearsed answers, and felt that they were trying please me with their answer rather than be candid.  I quietly urged them to tell me more.  The only thing I edited out of this were the constant interruptions over the loud speaker that is probably common in most schools at the end of the day.  Permissions for video are taken care of at the beginning of the year and at enrollment.  We have a lot of TV people in our building so we cover this issue right away.

Most of what surprised me didn't come from what I learned from the interviews, but rather from the surveys.  I was surprised by the number of students who claimed they had a computer at home, though a large number of them don't have internet.  I pointed out that there was no way for me to see who took the survey, nor could other students see how they answered, so I'll assume that these answers were honest.  I wouldn't mind finding time to survey the parents of these students next.  I was most surprised by the large number of students who'd rather create a project by writing it out or putting it together with paper and other materials.  I was also surprised by the number of students who'd like to orally present to their class.  This indicates to me that they don't have the highest comfort level on working with the computer yet.  This is something I can work on with them.  I'm going to share this information with the faculty at our staff meeting in two weeks.  This might give them a little insight about our children.

 Survey Results

Vodcast of Me Discussing My Previous Post

Evaluation of Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website and Organization

This week, I was asked to evaluate the website, www.p21.org and principals of the creators of it, the  Partnership for the 21^st Century Skills.  I’ll start by saying, as a computer teacher, of course I agree with the initiative.  They push for teachers to teach 21^st century readiness skills to their students so they will be ready for the world they have to face.  I love the initiative, but wasn’t crazy about the site.  Focusing has always been an issue for me, and teaching the students that I teach, I know I’m not alone.  That is what made this site difficult for me to spend long periods of time on.

I was very unimpressed with their graph.  I love graphs, maps, scales, and other graphic representations of data, but this graph was a little too much for me.  I went to the interactive graph to try and understand it better, and once I did, I had to ask myself if this was the best way they could represent their information, or was this more for show, “bells and whistles.”  I prefer things to be straight forward, practical, and helpful at all times.  These preferences of mine also lead me to dislike the rest of the site.  I just felt that there might have been a lot repetition that could have been condensed so that my interest wouldn’t have been lost so easily in the many sessions I tried to devote to studying this site.  Lastly, the online resources seemed to be nothing more than an elaboration of the information the site was already explaining, paragraphs and paragraphs of the same thing.  I thought that section was going to point me to activities, videos and collaborative sites of schools already using these principals, lessons.  I am already doing much of what was pushed on this site, now, like they said, I need to sell the idea to the rest of the staff at my school; this is my challenge. 

I love the initiative, however, and hope it succeeds.  I know I’ll continue to teach by this model.  Teaching these skills is the direction all schools need to go if our students are going to be prepared for the real world.  I found it a little ironic that they based some of the skills on the core curriculum and 8^th grade technology literacy skills of No Child Left behind (NCLB), considering how badly that legislation failed our students.  P21 encourages critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation, as outlined by the 3Rs and 4Cs, something NCLB inadvertently deprived of our students and teachers.  Without mastery of these skills, how will our children succeed in the workplace, especially since so much of this will be done online?  We must prepare our students to not only be familiar with this style of work, but to also be so fluent at it that it becomes second nature.

I also found the videos very inspiring.  These were very straight forward and made very powerful points.  The video, Above and Beyond, was the perfect video to sum up the entire website.  It especially demonstrated the power of cooperation and creativity.  To me, the boy represented the present situation of the students following a very specific set of directions, and not being able to see beyond that.  The girl represented the drive to think critically about a situation and possible solutions.  Of course, in the end, this all comes together because they can collaborate the two ways of approaching the problem; one of the goals of The Partnership of the 21^st Century Skills.

Overall, I will teach to the principals discussed on this site and their pamphlets.  Whether an initiative tells me to do so or not, I will continue to push my students to understand and use the skills in my lab that they will need for the 21^st Century.  I just wish this site was less repetitious and more informative on exactly how to teach these skills, perhaps give me ideas I hadn’t thought of.  Perhaps those ideas were there, and I just didn’t dig deep enough, but there lies the problem, I shouldn’t have to dig at all.

My 3rd Graders' First Blogs

This week will begin my 3rd Graders' first experience with Blackboard and blogging.  I'm not crazy about the layout of Blackboard when using it with such a young age group, but it's good practice for them.  We always talk about how we need to prepare these kids for the real world.  Well, Blackboard is a good start because when a buddy of mine saw my computer logged onto Blackboard during a visit, he said, "hey, you guys use Blackboard, so do we.  I looks a little different but pretty much the same."  He's an accountant for a big company, so that's proof that some teachers are training kids for the business world.

My students are going to create a very basic blog.  I did one as an example.  I talked about who I am and all of my favorite things.  I'll have them use mine as a model for their own.  They'll just introduce themselves then talk about the things they love.  I figure this will allow for a pretty good level of replies from their classmates and dialogue.  I'm not sure what kind of topics I'll do in the future; I guess I'll play that by ear unless anyone has suggestions.  Teaching them how to log into Blackboard and going over the basic layout of the blog section will take up a good bit of time since it's their first time, so I think on this first day, I'll just have them reply to my blog.  I figure by the time they're all on the right section, there will only be about 15 or 20 minutes left in the class.  This will allow for some replies.  It will also show them the importance of substance to their blog if they're going to generate any comments from their classmates.  Wish me luck, this will be a first for most of the 3rd graders in Baltimore I think.

Follow-up to Previous Post

So I did the discussion board activity with my 4th and 5th grade students last week and as promised, I'll give your the run down of how it turned out and what I learned from it.  Perhaps this will help you if you choose to do this with your students.

As I had said in my previous post, I had my concerns about a student and her confidence and ability to perform this activity.  They were justified.  She began typing out her idea, but was really struggling.  I encourage them to get help from the student next to them before asking for me.  This is to save them waiting time.  I've had an eye on the student she asked to help her for the past year because I started seeing some behaviors I didn't like, but I thought she had been making good decisions lately and trusted that she'd help her classmate out.  Instead, she urged her to post her unfinished thread on the board, then proceeded to tell others to read it.  Fortunately, the other students didn't want to play her game, and I was quickly able to delete the post.  Unfortunately, this did upset her and left her crying (something rare with her).  I sat with her for a little while and guided her through starting a strong discussion thread.  Students responded to her thread positively as she had some good ideas.  The consequence to the girl's bullying was this: she received no school money at the end of class, and gave herself a bad image because no one wanted her "help" after she did that.  When I saw the other girl's mother after school, I told her about the great job her daughter did in my class.  The other girl saw this.

Now as far as the fourth grade is concerned, I didn't take into account the amount of time it would take to model this activity, log into Blackboard (the district messed up a lot of the students' passwords, and I messed up a few of the numbers for their usernames), and how long it would take them to type it up.  Only one or two students completed their post during that class session.  I have the other fourth and fifth grade classes on Monday and Wednesday of next week.  Instead of typing their posts directly onto the discussion board, I will have them type it up in Word first, then have them copy and paste it onto the discussion board, that way if they don't finish in time, they'll be able to continue the following class or when they get a chance any other time.  This will be a learning experience for me as well as for the students, but we'll get it all worked out I'm sure. 

Teaching this activity is not an option but a must in the state of Maryland.  They are saying that by 2014, all state testing will be done on the computer.  I'm not sure how this will be logistically possible since we only have one computer lab.  I started putting a second computer lab together in my school, but that's just my school, what will the other schools do who don't have any computer labs.  Who knows?  I guess I'll leave that topic for another blog entry.  For now, I will be comforted in knowing that I will do my best to get my students ready for that day.

New Stuff

I am very excited about tomorrows lesson.  I'm going to use the discussion board on our new version of Blackboard (a web platform like we use for Walden).  This will be new to my students.  Today, the class I was supposed to have was in trouble with their classroom teacher, but I don't like losing days considering that I only get to have them for my own computer lessons 36 times a year, so I agreed, but said that they'd have to at least get their writing done for the discussion.  While there were many 4th grade tears at first, as I read the topic, the wheels started turning and the pencils started moving.  As they overheard what a classmate was telling me or their teacher they wrote, others started adding it to their paper.  I stopped it there and made the connection that this is the purpose of what I'll have them do next week; they are going to read what each other wrote and comment on it.  They may even say that they like the idea and want to add that to their response.  I also got the teacher excite about this piece of technology.  She's now interested in using discussions for her language arts workshops.  I told her that we can work together on that if she likes; collaboration has been a goal of mine.

My fifth graders wanted to get started last week when I told them what they were going to write about, but there wasn't enough time.  I can't wait to see what they write about.  I'm a little concerned, however, about one girl.  She is very low in her reading and writing skills, and was supposed to be held over, but her mother overrode the decision.  I want to accommodate her without putting her on the spot or make it look like I'm babying her; something she hates.  I still haven't figured out how I'm going to go about this.  I will assist her as much as possible so she has a reasonable amount of information.  I will post a follow-up in the next couple of days.

A New Direction

Last year was one of my most challenging years as a computer in my school district.  Due to these difficulties, my mission for last year had to be put off, and will become my mission for this year.  That mission was to get my students more fluent with using Web 2.0 tools.  That was impossible to do last year, but I'm excited to say that it will happen this year.

Two years ago, I can't see that my school received blazing fast internet speeds, but I was able to work with it.  It was fast enough for me to go ahead with my plans for the following year.  Then, last year, the district started upgrading all of the lines to fiber optic lines with a T1 connection.  During the upgrade, the old equipment that some of the school were still receiving internet from died, so they had to have consolidate all of the schools who hadn't been upgraded yet to the last remaining outdated system.  It was at this point that our internet speeds dropped off almost completely.  Without exaggerating, I'd have to say that it was most likely comparable to around mid to late 1990s internet speed; pretty much unusable with the graphics and script currently used on webpages.  Around June of last year, we were moved onto the new T1 lines.  Wow, the difference was instant.  I would now consider the speeds to be blazing fast.

With this, I very much look forward to my 3-5th graders participating in weekly discussions on the Blackboard web platform we use.  I will also teach the teachers along with the librarian how to use Wikis.  This can be used to have groups of students work on a research project, then build a Wiki to show their research.  Another possibility is to have the language arts teacher use them to have the class as a whole log in to correct a paper and explain their corrections.  I also need to get my students more proficient with sharing resources between each other electronically.  With Web 2.0 tools, I don't see any reason for any research to be printed out until the final product is complete.

I've already started meeting with my classes this year, and I've started getting them excited about using these tools.  They forced me to tell them the first discussion topic, but they won't be able to post anything until next week.  I told them to look at this torment as a chance for them to really think about what they want to write before they post it.  This will be a very exciting and refreshing year for us all.  On a side note, while typing this blog, I thought about a 2nd grader's question about why I want them to be able type without looking at the keys.  I currently don't have power due to a storm and have my laptop tethered through my phone for internet.  It's dark, and I can't see the keys.  I will have to give them that reason when I see them tomorrow.

Breaking the culture of privacy

So I've been given the assignment to create a blog.  This goes against everything I've been brought up to do.  As the grandchild of German and Slovak grandparents, I was heavily influence by their old ways.  Privacy and making your emotions public are about as taboo as it gets from my upbringings.  You keep your emotions in check, and screen people heavily before you bring them into your inner circle of friends.  I'd like to thing that I've moved a little bit beyond these old school thoughts, though it's hard to move beyond your own upbringing; I do have a Facebook account and make the occasional status update. I'm not sharing my feelings about very much, but rather, I'm using it to get opinions on matters or giving opinions on matters or joking about something.  I'll often check on old friends and see how they're doing.  My account is private and I'm only sharing these posts with friends, so creating public blogs will go against everything I've been taught.

I've always poked fun that those who post a little too much out there in the public.  For example, Twitter is a wonderful resource to dethroning kings, and presidents who've outstayed their welcome to power, but I don't see the point in having an account so you can tweet that you just woke up from a bad hangover, or that your neighbor is doing something that really makes you mad.  Putting this kind of info out there just ends up getting you in trouble.  Perhaps these types of people might be a little lonely and feel less lonely when they have a lot of followers, I don't really know.  I believe in sharing info with the world when it could serve some type of purpose of improving a situation or productivity, but like everything else, there is such a thing as going overboard.

So, I'll go against the cultural values I've been taught to some degree once again.  I can justify it!  If I end up communicating with other teachers, I might actually learn form them.  I will share some thoughts, and receive some thoughts in return.  Will I cry, share my innermost thoughts, talk about my emotional well being? Lol, not likely.  But, perhaps this will give me an opportunity to post ideas and thoughts I've had relating to my job, and hopefully receive ideas from others that will guide me in becoming a better teacher.  This will be my reason for blogging.