Social Learning

This week I investigated social learning theories.  According to Dr. Michael Orey, social constructivism is similar to constructivism in that it puts emphasis on a student creating an artifact.  It also focuses on the need for students to be engaged in conversation about the learning process (Laureate Education, 2010b).  One way to tap into this theory is to implement cooperative learning in the classroom.  Cooperative learning helps to prepare students to learn together in a way that they will be expected to do when they enter the work world (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).  Cooperative learning can take shape many different ways.  The teacher can choose to group students randomly, by ability levels, or by other criteria.  No matter the basis of the group, the importance lies within the fact that the students are working together to solve a problem and to create something.  Cooperative groups also work with the connectivist theory. This theory states that knowledge is based upon a series of networks and the result of learning is that knowledge must be shared (Laureate Education, 2010a).  Because connections must be made and knowledge must be shared in connectivism, cooperative groups make perfect sense. Students network their ideas and help one another to form their personal networks of knowledge, all while distributing the learning among one another.

This week I also took a look at some technology applications that would be great for a classroom where social constructivism or connectivism are being used as models of learning.  Voicethread is an online resource that allows a person to collaborate with anyone else on the web.  The creator can receive feedback and information from other users.  This is not collaborative group by definition because one user generates the initial content, but it becomes a group work once other users give feedback on the original artifact.  Another technology that I looked at this week is Facebook.  Obviously, Facebook is a tool that students are using every day to network their own social life.  So what role does it play in education?  I think that it has amazing potential to enhance the learning process.  Students are networking together and they are creating artifacts.  Both of these things are essential in the social constructivist theory.  One final tool that I considered, and one which is my personal favorite, is Google Docs.  Google Docs allow users to easily share information and collaborate in order to create new artifacts.  The idea of cloud computing and allowing users to interface with one another using on the web is one that has and is radically transforming education.  It gives teachers and students the ability to build collaborative groups within the classroom, within the school, or with students across the globe in ways that would not have been imagined even five years ago. 

With these emerging technologies and learning theories, teachers must keep pace with what is going on in the world in order to give our students the best possible education.  If social learning theories are a valid basis for learning, and I believe that they are, then technology is the perfect gateway to help students build networks of learning that will give them the skills needed for years to come.

In case you cannot view my voicethread to the right, the link to it is

http://voicethread.com/share/1702854/.

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Program eight. Connectivism

as a Learning Theory. [Webcast]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and

Technology.  Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Program seven. Social

Learning Theories. [Webcast]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and

Technology.  Baltimore, MD: Author.

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.

Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with

classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.