Social learning is learning that occurs within a social context. We learn from one another through observations, imitations or modeling. An instructional strategy that enables students to interact with each other is cooperative learning. Students work in small groups to enhance their learning.
As mentioned in the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction, technology can play a big role in cooperative learning. Some examples of cooperative learning activities using technology include WebQuests, creating web sites, blogs and wikispaces. There are several communication resources such as blogs, wikispaces, and skype. There are also share sites such as Google docs that allow students to collaborate on a project.
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Seven Mind Mapping Tools to Try This Year
1 year ago
Do you have a prefered technology from the ones you listed in your second paragraph which fulfills cooperative learning needs?
ReplyDeleteI have only tried Webquests. Anything online requires parental permission and I have a difficult time getting students to return signed forms...of course if I gave the right incentive I guess it would not be a problem. I do have a wiki, but not one that the students are contributing to.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask the same thing sthompsonpc asked. I have never used wikispaces before and will definitely so some research on them. I understand totally how difficult the use of some technologies can be due to the school requirements for parental permission. Our district now sends out a form to every parent at the beginning of every school year which gives the school consent to work on technology as seen fit. We have the obvious blocks and restrictions on the computers that the district sees necessary and this does eliminate most issues during the year however is something special comes up it is a process to gain permission from all parents, and sometimes you have one or two who will give you a hard time.
ReplyDeleteTeresa can you tell me a bit about your Webquest and in what applications it can be found? I too, went to the administration asking permission to introduce a technology that might be more interesting to the students. How do you ask for a parents permission to introduce creating a website when most of the parents I know won't even allow their children to have a Myspace of Facebook account?
ReplyDeleteI only had one student that said her mother would not allow her to participate in a podcast that I was doing for a previous Walden class. I feel that there are still ways to have students complete projects using technology and then you can post them on a wiki or show them as a presentation to the class. Using Comic Life is a great way to have students' use technology and show their understanding of aconcept...and create a comic strip.
ReplyDeleteI currently do a Webquest on roller coasters with Stats. it is found on the webquest site mentioned in one of our resources. They have to explore the internet (which I give them a roller coaster datatbase to use) to find the 10 most thrilling roller coasters in the US. They copare variables such as length of ride, duration, biggest drop, steel or wooden. They will use Excel or maybe Numbers to create graphs of the variables, then pick three to create a brochure.