Chapter 30 addresses concepts to help students with cognition and learning. I believe it is important for teachers to utilize a variety of instructional styles to improve students’ ability to learn and comprehend information presented. Students learn in a variety of styles; therefore, it is crucial that we, as teachers, provide them with a variety of activities to help them access and gain the knowledge they need to know. Some techniques I enjoy using in my lessons include small group and partner work, hands-on projects, partner dramatization analyzing, webquests, video, and music.
Another concept that can be applied to learning is repetition. When I refer to repetition, I don’t mean rote memorization, but students’ exposure to the same information in repeated episodes. The more interaction they have with repeated information, then the more likely students are to remember and comprehend what is being taught.
Regarding the online applications that I reviewed for this week, I examined Google Documents, Ajax, and Zoho office suites. I use the different tools for Google quite frequently. Google Documents I find to be useful at times, however, it does change my formatting–something I am working on overcoming. It is handy because I don’t have to worry about pulling out my jump drive all of the time–and then possibly forgetting to take it to work. The comparison between Ajax and Zoho was an easy choice for me. I like Zoho much better. It appears to be more user friendly and can be easily maneuvered. Ajax seemed to be cumbersome and required me to download programs, whereas with Zoho, I could use them through online access. I also like the ability to be able to work with the last handful of documents even though I might be offline. While reviewing Zoho, I also found some of the features that appealed to my husband. He is a salesman in the truss industry and keeping track of appointments and jobs can be interesting at times for him. He liked the idea of being able to access information easily.
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Pat,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your post I was nodding my head in agreement ... A LOT! I'm in complete agreement about repetitious exposure to information and I totally understand what you are talking about when you mention the different between 'memorization' and exposure. I recently went to a training on metacognition effects within a K-12 leanring envrionment. At this training it was emphasized that students need to be EXPOSED to an idea or concept at least 3 separate times in order for a full comprehensive understaning. I found that to be quite interesting and oh so true when I reflect on how my students learn best. :)
~Salena
I have not had the formatting issues you spoke of with Google Documents but then we have only used them for a few of our spreadsheets for scheduling. Once Zoho is current for Office 2007 I want to try a few more things. I have not looked into Ajax at all and the idea of loading even more programs to the laptop isn’t all that great.
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of webquests. Could you expand a bit? Variety and repetition, sounds like you have both sides of the pod covered.
Jim W.
It is so true that our students need to be provided with a variety of ways in which to tap their learning potential. With your use of small group work, dramatizations, and videos it sounds as if you go out of your way to ensure the learning of each of your students. Way to go!
ReplyDeleteI reviewed Zoho as well and found it to be all encompassing. I hope to investigate it further when I have more free time in my schedule. :-)
~Jennifer B