Final Reflection

Please describe your overall experience in this course?
I enjoyed all the new knowledge I acquired about the different facets of constructivism.
Please focus on your reactions to "learning about constructivism by doing and experiencing constructivist instructional methods?
Much more difficult than I thought. Much more planning than I thought. I realized how organized and structured a socialized learning environment must be. Communication seemed to be the key to achieving my goals in this class.
Please evaluate the emphasis on collaboration in writing the wikiBook Chapters.
I thought it was good of me to learn from the experience and ideas of others. It made it feel less burdensome that I did not have to do all of the work alone and I thought it was interesting to learn how others found different information and made it all work together.
Please comment on your experience of others (e.g. WikiBook editors, external experts, other Internet surfers) observing and / or critiquing your writing in the WikiBook.
I really don't know. I did not really recieve any outside feedback. However, knowing that others could made me more careful and want to be more crediable in my writing.
Please compare the experience of doing research and authoring a textbook for a class (like this one) versus the traditional way of reading and studying an assigned textbook for a class.
I feel like I gained more knowledge through research, and through the research of my classmates. I was responsible for making sure the soruces were creditable and that I was finding the most current information. It made me search throughly and formulate questions.
As a result of your experience in this class, are you more likely or less likely to assign collaborative wiki writing assignments in your teaching situation? Please explain the reasons you are more or less likely to do so.
Since I teach elementary school, I would not do a wiki text. However, I would have my students work in groups to find their own information and put together a presentation and incorporate more technology to enhance their experience is a definiate.
Please comment about building quizzes and answer keys, and on grading your peers. Did you learn or gain anything valuable from these experiences? Please explain.
I felt it made me think more about how to organize my information and if what I was presenting was relevant to the topic. I also felt it increased my accountability.
What are your suggestions for improving the design of this course? None at this time.

Reflection

Even though I am finding that teachers are finding many uses for YouTube that are benefical, constructivist, and educational, I'm still not 100% sold on the idea. I am afraid about the content. I do realize that it is not like I will be surfing for ideas on the site while having it posted in front of my class, however, what about pop-ups, viruses, and just the unexpected things that can occur when using the site. I am a personal fan of Discover Education which used to be called United Streaming. I find great and relevant videos, however, I do wish the site was a little easier to use as far as finding the EXACT thing I am looking for. I guess YouTube could broden my search, but I am very aware and worried about internet safety. I liked the idea of Flickr, although I am aware the same content hazards could occur, it just seems a little more relvant to curriculum to use for photos. I guess the age of your audience also comes into relevance. I am an elementary teacher and need to be a little more aware of what my students have access to. I am curious what the future holds for these technologies. We'll see...

Reflection

I'm impressed with how useful YouTube and photosharing can be for educational purpose. It seems these days with all of the technology out there available that our possibities for making education more meaningful and more global are endless. I found a blog where a fifth grade math teacher uses Flickr to show students pictures of a math concept, then he phrases a question below for his students to answer in a "Writing Prompt". A high school teacher in New York used Flickr to have her students search for pictures of propaganda for a specific historical time period. There is even a web site generated from Britian where people can post and share lesson plans that require using YouTube.

I was also impressed with how people still acknowledge that we are still in a trial period when it comes to using things like YouTube in a classroom. With a the social video and little regulation going on, we still need to be careful. However, there are databasesbeing created where you can search and store "useful" videos to show to your students. Many researchers went to great lengths to acknowledge that the hazards of pulling up "unsuitable" material are great and I believe nothing can go in front of a class unpreviewed. It is uplifting to realize that these things can be used for "good" and give these kinds of technology a creditable use.

Resources 31 &32

Davies, J. (2007). Display, Identity and the Everyday: Self-Presentation through Online Image Sharing. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 28 (4), 549-564. Retrieved on April 5, 2009 from ERIC database.

Scharber, C. (2009). Online Book Clubs: Bridges between Old and New Literacies Practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52 (5), 433-437. Retrieved on April 5, 2009 from ERIC database.

Resource #30

Mullen, R., & Wedwick, L. (2008) Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs. A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 82, (2), 66-69. Retrieved on March 31, 2009 from ERIC database.

Trier, J. (2007). "Cool" Engagements with YouTube: Part 1. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, (50), 5, 408-412. Retrieved on March 31, 2009 from ERIC database.

Resource #29/ Reflection

Lake, C. (1997). Constructivism's Implication For Formative Evaluation. In Constructivism and Formative Evaluation, ACET. Retrieved on March 25, 2009 from http://tecfa.unige.ch/staf/staf-e/vimare/staf18/Documentation/CIFFE.pdf. (source from M. Beckman, personal communication, March 17, 2009)

I was very grateful to Mary for providing me with this information. I have a very narrow view of constructivist assessment. I thought if it was paper and pencil, it was not constructivist and if it had to do with creativity and dialogue, it was constructivist. I was a little (very little correct), standardized testing, and multiple choice, under certain condition, can be constructivist provided that there is dialogue between student and teacher and the learning is adding onto student knowledge instead of a reguriatation of facts. This was a difficult concept for me to comprehend. Formative assessment seems to be partial to constructivist, however can at times be not constructivist. At first I thought there were several similarities between traditional and constructivist assessment, but then I wasn't sure. However, it lead into a great discussion with my principal about exactly what is considered constructivist assessment. I still have lots to learn...

Resources #26-#28/Reflection

Here are just a few of the articles that I researched for our newest Wiki Chapter:

Price, M., O'Donovan, B., & Rust, C. (2007). Putting a Social-Constructivist Assessment Process Model into Practice: Building the Feedback Loop into the Assessment Process through Peer Review. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 44 (2), p143-152 .Retrieved on March 17, 2009 from ERIC data base.

Reeveves, T.C & Okey J.R. (2004). Alternative Assessments for Constructivist Learning Environments. In B.G. Wilson (Ed.). Constructivist Learning Environments: Cases in Instructional Design. (Pgs. 191-202). Retrieved from: https://www.fdi.vt.edu/summer/2004/Content/TrackG/Unit4/PDF/reeves.pdf Retrieved on March 15, 2009 from https://worldclassroom.webster.edu/webct/urw/lc2039116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Wolf, P. J. (2007). Academic Improvement through Regular Assessment. Peabody Journal of Education, 82 (4), p 690-702. Retrieved on March 17, 2009 from ERIC database.

I have to admit, the more I read, the more confused I became. I think I realized, although I might be wrong, there is kind of a blurry line between constructivist assessment and traditional assessment. I know that standardized testing is definately traditional and I don't believe it falls into constructivist practices, but at times when researching, I again thought about where the line really stands. I think traditional is more black and white, either the student knows the information or they do not. With constructivist, they will look for any sort of knowledge that is gained or transformed or modified OR maybe the learner just has more questions. That would be the catagory that I am currently in: MORE QUESTIONS. I again started to wonder if I practice more constructivism than I realize. I then have to answer NO. There is much more to constructivism in a classroom than I understand, I am aware of that. I am pretty much a black and white thinker, either it is or it is not. With some of my students I look for progress, I look for understanding, mastery, etc. I am sure I will learn more, I think that is the point. The one theme that I understood from all of my readings over and over was that constructivist believe that learning is never-ending and cyclicle. I am finding that to be true.