Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Technology and social learning
The maximum level of social interaction is possible, in my opinion, only in the classroom, where peers can work together in collaborative groups and interact in real time and face-to-face with one another. The ideal use of technology in the context of social learning and constructivist theory, in my opinion, would be for research by a real, live collaborative classroom group, for assistance in creating an artifact (by the collaborative group), or for posting the artifact on the Web (by the collaborative group). The technological functions could be of the social learning type (FaceBook, VoiceThread, or podcast), the constructivist type (Webspiration, or a virtual field trip), or the collaborative type (a wiki or even a blog). All of these technological tools would be in addition to the real-time collaboration that would happen in the classroom, rather than a substitute for that face-to-face collaboration that I think is important for a student’s social development.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tim-
ReplyDeleteI agree that face to face interaction is more valuable than interaction through technology. I understand your concern for social development. I think that so many of them rely heavily on technology to communicate and are lacking the face to face social skills.
On the other hand, we have to prepare our students for the future job market. Much of communication will take place interactively from across the globe. I think that we need to provide our students with these learning experiences as well.
-Tricia
Tim,
ReplyDeleteI remember the project where you had your students videotape the projectile motion, record and analyze the motion, and then use datapoint to determine the velocity and the acceleration of the projectile versus time.
I would say that this project is a social learning constructivist project
Maria