Module 4 Responses

I responded to Andres blog at http://learningtheoryaanzaldua.blogspot.com/2011/10/module-4_23.html?showComment=1319932118163#c368694312174232280. I also responded to Sarah's blog at http://sarahdwaldenu.blogspot.com/.

Module 4 Blog: Connectivism

How has your network changed the way you learned?

My learning has changed greatly in just the past couple of years. When I started my master's degree with Walden, my whole idea of learning was completely changed. To start with I never imagined I could go to graduate school entirely online and I was very unsure if I had the background knowledge in technology to succeed in this virtual environment. But I quickly adapted and began learning through collaboration using wikis, skype, blogs, and discussion boards. I have recently been able to communicate and learn through my social network, facebook,  with some of my colleagues. These colleagues and I discuss issues that we currently face as educators. 

Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?

I believe pod casts, wikis, and blogs help facilitate learning for me the best. I am a visual learner and the pod casts help me gain a better understanding of the content than reading a book ever would. I also enjoy and benefit greatly from the collaboration portion of my distance learning courses. It is interesting to hear different viewpoints about topics and the way other states education systems differ from mine.

How do you learn new knowledge when you have questions?

I google everything!! Whenever I am unsure about anything I grab my phone and google it! 

Module 3 Responses

I responded to Amanda Darlington's blog at http://darlingtonsblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/module-3-collaboration.html?showComment=1318703246783#c64449365161517380.

I also responded to Ena's blog at http://ena-spoonfulofsugar.blogspot.com/

Module 3 Blog

Collaboration: Module 3 Blog Post

Howard Rheingold (2008), discusses that collaboration and communication is key to our world and to be successful. However, most cases people do not collaborate or communicate and the task at hand fails or is not as successful. Rheingold (2008) discusses the prisoners dilemma, the prisoners dilemma is that if two prisoners agree they would both get off without serving time but if they do not agree they both have to serve the time, and they never can agree! I could not agree with Rheingold more the human race has the hardest time collaborating and agreeing on things but when they do they get the best results. An example that he used is when the Egyptians built the pyramids, they had to have used collaboration and communication in order for them to be built successfully. Obviously, they were able to collaborate successfully because these amazing structures still stand today.

I believe that humans do not have a basic instinct to interact and work as a group. We were designed to fend for ourselves and our family and to compete until we have the best. However, we need to change this instinct and learn to adapt and be collaborative in everything that we do. With collaboration and communication we can succeed so much more in life!!

Technology can facilitate collaboration among learners more easily in my opinion than being face to face with each other. With the use of technology there is no longer the sense of competition and trying to be better than your peers. Blogs and discussion posts are the perfect example of this, we state our opinions and our peers elaborate on it or state why they feel differently and both classmates come to a common agreement most of the time. 

A study that I found that supported collaboration as an effective tool for learning is, "Collaborative versus individual use of regulative software scaffolds during scientific inquiry learning." This study compares individual and collaborative success during a scientific inquiry learning process. Forty two high school students either worked individually or in pairs, and the ones that worked in pairs showed significantly higher scores than the students that worked individually. This study can be found at http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2982653c-fb6c-46ff-9f68-cb28f8284471%40sessionmgr15&vid=5&hid=8

References

Manlove, S. and Lazonder A. (2009, June). Collaborative Versus Individual. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=8&sid=2982653c-fb6c-46ff-9f68-cb28f8284471%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=eric&AN=EJ855842

Rheingold, H. (2008, February). Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file].  Retrieved from  

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Module 2 Responses

I responded to Jennifer Robinson's blog at http://jenniferbethrobinson.blogspot.com/2011/09/module-2-post.html?showComment=1317494555247#c7876667499962688625

I also responded to Andres Anzaldua's blog at http://learningtheoryaanzaldua.blogspot.com/2011/09/learning-theory-cognitivism.html?showComment=1317494895594#c7811842621769419273

Module 2

Bill Kerr (2007) and Stephen Downes (2007) have conflicting opinions on the behaviorist theory. Kerr believes to a certain extent that we are all behaviorists while Downes feels that the behaviorist theory is an ancient theory and that instructional design is for one reason or another still based on this ancient theory (Kerr, 2007). I agree with Kerr(2007). Skinner's theory of behaviorism is based on reinforcement, which is something that is very evident in today's society. We do well at our jobs, we get a raise or promotion. We go to the gym and work out every night, we begin to see results and we keep going. Behaviorism is a cycle of a behavior, followed by reinforcement and the behavior often being repeated due to the reinforcement. This theory is very much evident in today's society as well as instructional design. Instructional design also functions off of reinforcement. A teacher implements a new strategy in a classroom, the students grasp the concept being taught easily (our reinforcement) and we use this strategy again.

Kerr (2007) also discusses in his blog post that the "-isms" are necessary to explain changes and that each -ism has a useful piece to it. "It seems to me that each _ism is offering something useful without any of them being complete or stand alone in their own right" (Kerr, 2007). I agree with this statement, if we could take the useful pieces from each theory and develop one effective theory that explained how we learn and how we process information these theories would be much more effective.


Karl Kapp (2007), discusses this same idea in his blog post "Out and About." He states that not one of theories one hundred percent explains how humans process information. 


References

Kerr, B. (2007, January 1). _isms as filter, not blinker [Web log post]. Retrieved fromhttp://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html

Kapp, K. (2007, January 2). Out and about: Discussion on educational schools of thought [Web log post]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/index.php/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational/

Module 1 Responses

I posted to Ena Smith's blog at http://ena-spoonfulofsugar.blogspot.com/. I also posted to Linda Hitcheson's blog at http://hutchisonedt550.blogspot.com/. These are my responses to the blogs for Module 1.

Rachel Bell