Blog 4
Summarize and reflect on last week’s group discussion and journal your reflection and learning experience. Recapture what you have learned thus far.
I entered last week’s discussion not really knowing what to say. I had read all the material several times, but did not feel comfortable with trying to discuss the topics. I did not post much. I really felt inadequate to add to the discussion. Later on in the evening, I realized that I had entered the wrong chat room and was mortified about my mistake. I did find that discussing ideas for the project very helpful. It was helpful to hear what others were thinking of doing and I actually had a couple ideas to share as well. The discussion of positivist and constructionist was helpful in assisting me to gain a better understanding of the two points of view. I found that doing the work for the quiz and the critique was very helpful in that I began to see how the content fits together. I am still not sure I understand scaffolding, and am reading more about context.
I am a GTA at Tulsa Community College and work with beginning nursing students. I have been observing the faculty for the various methods of teaching and the techniques they use. I have observed some of the constructivist and behaviorist styles of teaching. I have observed the use of games, drill and practice, small group, storytelling, lecture, roll play, demonstration and return demonstration and the use of humor. I am responsible for a clinical group and I am being aware of how I teach my students. The nursing program does an evaluation regarding learning styles among other evaluations and I am attempting to present material that will be helpful to the learning styles of my students.
When I entered this course, I really knew very little about web development. I had taken an Informatics course. I had chat skills, online coursework experience, email, and general online search for research article experience. I had never Blogged myself, but had read several Blogs of other people. I have written in a journal over the years but never where the content was available for the world to read. I have taken a Psych of Learning course about 30 years ago and I had forgotten most of what I had studied then. I also started this course with doubts as to whether or not I would be successful with course assignments and I must admit that I have had to spend a lot of time reading and rereading the material to grasp some of the more abstract content. What I have learned is the difference in positivist and constructivist view points, alternate methods of teaching, I am much more confident with Blogging. I have an understanding of “space” and “dwelling” I am lacking in understanding scaffolding. I think it means that “to be supportive in teaching” or “coming along side” the student as the teacher. I have learned much more about instructional design as I did not know much about this field at all. I am not quite sure how to pull all of this together to develop my own course but look forward to learning this information as well. I have looked at communities differently and have studied the lifecycle of communities which include virtual communities. I am so blessed to be in a class where there is support from the faculty and my colleagues. Thanks so much. Julie
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6 comments:
Julie, If you are interested in more information about learning styles, James Keefe and Rita Dunn have both done much research on the topic. They both caution that you not over emphasize one learning style over another in a student because there is a danger in them not developing and strengthening other ways or styles of learning that might be useful to them in future endeavors. I think that it is great that you have learned so much. Do not be so intimidated. All of us are learning to a great degree and will continue to learn from each other. Just as you spoke about learning styles it reminded me that I should consider different modalities and strategies so to meet the needs of different styles of learning for my students. Thanks for sharing, Nancy Cline
Great Blog Julie! I noticed that you were having a hard time coming up with a working knowlesdge of scaffolding. I too am still fuzzy on it, but I took Cognition and Instruction last year and there were some things that I learned. The way that I look at scaffolding is that it is the way we learn as opposed to what we learn. We are in a course learning about different subjects, learning theories, communication tools, context and what that entails. Scaffolding is the guide that we get from the course or teacher that helps us to make connections between the material. In this manner, the questions and assignments that we are doing are in some ways a scaffolding process. They force us to use the information that we have learned and to put things together. This scaffolding is what allows us to pull the distinct informational bits out and use them when we need them. It is not a perfect definition by any means but that is a little bit of the way that I understand it.
Julie, like you I have learned many new alternative types of teaching like understand of space, dwelling, positivist view and constructivist view points. Also, I am unsure how exactly we are supposed to put it all together. I am sure in the coming weeks we will figure it out.
Julie, I enjoyed your reflections and can also relate to feeling a little lost about some of the concepts, although the repetition is beginning to help. I think that as nurses, we get so much information about nursing theory, and the science of nursing that education theory and virtual education theory is completely new ground for us. My background is clinical nursing, and although I teach every day, I don't really think about the process of teaching. Anyway, I think that we will take some very valuable lessons from this course with us that we can integrate into virtual classrooms. I appreciate your honesty, and I'm hanging in there with you!
Julie, I too am a little fuzzy about scaffolding. I will try to read more into it and if I get a better grasp on it I will let you know. I enjoyed reading about your background because it's nice to hear the information coming from a different point of view. I also felt like the quiz helped me to synthesize some of the information. Keep up the good work!
Julie, in the reading area there is a zip folder "context_environment" where I have uploaded an article about specific components and procedures about scaffolding. I hope this article will be helpful to you with your project.
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