Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Star Trek Episode Week 5.3: The Zone of Proximal Development…

As I walked down the long stretch of stalls along Seattle’s Pike Place Market today, I couldn’t help but wonder if this market will still be here in twenty years? It was a beehive of activity as customers and patrons poured over fresh fish, flowers, fruits, and produce. Sellers and customers alike were interacting on a one-on-one basis and the transactions all took less than a few minutes. I watched as brides-to-be bought flowers for wedding bouquets. I witnessed fresh fish being bought, tossed, filleted, and shipped to a tourist’s home state (mine). All of this took place face to face. Sights, smells, emotions were all present and the images are still vivid – 10 hours later.

As technology continues to shrink the world’s boundaries, I wonder if soon, those smells and emotions won’t be replaced simply by sights or images. As today’s students become online consumers, will they be content with simply logging on, one-click ordering, and overnight shipping – never to come eye to eye with the seller. Now, more than ever, it is important to teach ALL students how to become socially educated and responsible. Working with peers is a must in today’s business world. It does not matter if your co-worker is twenty feet, twenty miles, or twenty countries away. We are becoming a globally community with new global standards of communication. The need for cooperation will transcend distance and boundaries. (Laureate 2007)

In school, teaching cooperative learning begins with simple, easy to achieve tasks. Technology is replacing flipcharts and dioramas as the new presentation tool. “Technology provides a unique and vital role in cooperative learning by facilitating group collaboration, providing structure for group tasks, and allowing members to communicate over distances.” (Pitler 2007)
In middle school, socialization is one of the most important aspects of the student’s day. Interacting with each other every minute of the day, they learn not only socialization skills, but also life skills. In a classroom, it is important to group students according to a specified set of collaborative learning criteria. For example, the Jigsaw Strategy works well in groups that are somewhat self-motivated to learn and then confident to share and teach others. (Laureate 2007) Technology serves to further enhance the ability of students to gather and report on that information.

Does using technology change a student’s learning style? Any piece of information or answer is now just a few clicks away. In the past, hours of library research would be needed to gather information. (Do your remember library classes on the Dewey Decimel system?) Today many students can access Encarta on their cell phone. (Laureate 2007) I use a blog for each class that I teach. In my music class, students were given an assignment to compose a unique musical melody using non-traditional music notation. Then students had to perform their composition. I posted some of those performances to the class blog for parents to view and make comments. In another class, I had a weekly discussion question where students not only had to answer the question, but had to make comments on other student’s responses (thanks Walden). I have used the computer lab to let students work together on virtual field trips and map projects. But with each of these collaborative projects, I also ensure that each group is working towards the final goal. It can be hard to determine that all group members work at same pace and same length of time, so it is important to monitor group progress and encourage those groups who become a little “too social.” As we learned last week, students learn better when constructing a product. Social constructivism engages interactive behavior by letting groups build a product together.

REFERENCES
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2007). Program Eight [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2007). Program Nine [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

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

Voice Thread link:
http://voicethread.com/share/524343/