Building Social Constructivist Learning Environments in Online

SettingsConnie Jaeger, Dr. Victoria Lovejoy, Tammy

Stephens

• Can there be teaching if there is not some kind of definable learning?

• What is the relationship of teaching and learning?

• When and how is teaching most powerfully enacted?

• And who or what is most responsible for learning: the environment? the teacher? the learner? or some larger notion of participating together in a community?

• And what do our answers to these questions mean for how we should organize education and teacher-student relationships?

Behaviorism Social Constructivism

Theorists Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike Vygotsky, Rogoff, Bruner, Hillocks, Dewey: Child and Curriculum Experience and Education

How learning occurs Transmission of knowledge: Teaching is telling

Transformation of participation

Implications for instruction Both teacher and student are passive; curriculum determines the sequence of timing of instruction.

All knowledge is socially and culturally constructed. What and how the student learns depends on what opportunities the teacher/parent provides. Learning is not ‘natural’ but depends on interactions with more expert others.

Student’s role ‘Empty vessel’ Collaborative participant

Teacher’s role Transmit the curriculum Observe learners closely, as individuals and groups. Scaffold learning within the zone of proximal development, match individual and collective curricula to learners’ needs. Create inquiry environment.

Dominant instructional activities

Teacher lectures; students memorize material for tests

Teacher-guided participation in both small-and large-group work; recording and analyzing individual student progress; explicit assistance to reach higher levels of competence

PODetc provides teaching professionals:

• Online learning options

• Courses on integration strategies of 21st century technology skills

• Collaborative online classroom environment

• Increase knowledge of the latest technology tools

• Convenient asynchronous format 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Connie Jaeger, Creativity & Innovation in the Classroom

Dr. Victoria Lovejoy, Tech Literacy 101: Foundations in Collaborative Tools, STEM

Tammy Stephens, Tech Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems, Tech 103: Utilizing Social Networking Tools in a Leadership Capacity

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