The Journey for Student Interaction

VoiceThread is a great social learning tool for your classroom. Each "thread" or slideshow is a collection of images/video plus voice and text comments. You can create them as part of a lesson and have students leave comments. Or instead, students can create a thread and receive feedback from their peers. Our school is focusing on social-emotional learning, so I made my first VoiceThread about kindness. Check it out. Feel free to sign into VoiceThread with Google and leave your comments. Share your thoughts about possible uses for VoiceThread in your own classroom. https://voicethread.com/share/11584037/

The Journey to Constructivism through Technology

Constructivists, following the work of Jean Piaget, believe that learning occurs when new information is attached to previous knowledge (Han & Bhattacharya, 2010). Constructionists, like Piaget’s student Seymour Papert, follow this line of thought and then add that learning occurs when students construct artifacts of their learning (Han & Bhattacharya, 2010). According to Orey (Laureate Education, 2015), the two terms are usually considered synonymous. Technology tools can help to achieve learning goals in the constructivist classroom.

A constructivist-based classroom is student-centered and lively. The engagement level is high as students grapple with new information. Students move about the room as needed. The teacher confers with individual students and conducts small group lessons. Students work in partnerships to learn what they need to know to create solutions to open-ended problems. Students rely on analytic rubrics for self-assessment and to determine their next steps (Sulla, 2013). Finally, student create and present artifacts of their learning (Han & Bhattacharya, 2010) for real-world purposes. The students in a constructivist classroom are not the compliant students of the traditional classroom; they are engaged in learning as they assimilate their new knowledge creating new artifacts, according to Orey (Laureate Education, 2015). Constructionism allows learners to build their knowledge while they are making products that they have chosen to create.

Technology provides a myriad of ways students can construct artifacts of their learning. Students can use word processing programs to create presentations and put their ideas in writing. They can track and graph real-world data in a spreadsheet program to test their understanding (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012). They can easily publish their work to a worldwide audience on the web. Students can build prototypes on 3-D printers and revise their models. Students can create projects using coding programs and share with an online community. They can record a short video to teach others about a math concept. The possibilities for integrating technology in a constructivist environment are endless.

I teach using the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom approach of Sulla (2013). Students are motivated to learn by a “felt need” (p. 15). Students are empowered to learn because they feel passionate about making a change or helping someone. For example, my students love writing letters to those who have the power to make change. The act of creating an artifact of their learning in conjunction with fulfilling that felt-need is very powerful. Creating artifacts of learning through technology is also supported by the International Society of Technology in Education (2018b) standard three for students. In the LATI classroom, students learn by working on authentic, open-ended problem-based tasks (Sulla, 2013). They use Seesaw to post short pieces describing their creations or explaining a new concept that will be seen by their classmates and families. They create PowerPoint and Sway presentations of their new knowledge. My students are about to embark on a journey to create through coding. It is imperative that students create products that demonstrate and reinforce their learning.

            Mitchel Resnick (2014) believes all levels of education should be more like kindergarten, full of peers, play, passion, and purpose. Resnick’s ideas (2014) show he is a proponent of constructionism. He posits that students should not only receive information from technology but rather, use it to form knowledge (Resnick, 2014), as constructivist also believe. Damyanov and Tsankov (2018) also recommend that students use programs such as Canva to understand and convey information in a visual format. Christa Flores (Twitter, n.d.) posts frequently about the maker-movement and students’ creations for learning. Designing and making artifacts using technology is a standard for educators set by the International Society for Technology in Education (2018a). Supporters abound for constructionism coupled with technology.

            Today’s educators are especially fortunate to have a variety of digital media to put in the hands of their students. Technology tools allow students to form and test their ideas and to share their learning with others. Technology integration in the classroom supports the ideals of constructivism and constructionism by allowing learners to add new learning to their schema and to build models and artifacts of their learning.

References

Damyanov, I., & Tsankov, N. (2018). The role of infographics for the development of skills for cognitive modeling in education. International journal of emerging technologies in learning (IJET), 13(01), 82-91. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.3991/ijet.v13i01.7541

Han, S. & Bhattacharya, K. (2010). Constructionism, Learning by Design, and Project-Based Learning. In Orey, M. (Ed.). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf

Twitter. (n.d.). Christa Flores. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/sciteach212

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2018a). Standards for educators. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2018b). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from Walden Library.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Resnick, M. (Producer). (2014). Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvgVpQI56I

Sulla, N. (2013). Students taking charge: Inside the learner-active, technology-infused classroom. New York, NY: Routledge.