Summary of Education 285
Integrating technology into the classroom
In my opinion the technology covered in this course that best represents constructivist theory and incorporates Bloom’s taxonomy of learning would be the Webquest. Constructivist theory is completely based around the concept of collaborative learning, that students learn better in groups and working with each other and their teacher, rather than independently taking notes from a lecture. It is the idea that the teacher should be facilitators, working with the students. In the constructivist scenario the student has an active role in their own learning. The Webquest completely captures and utilized these ideals. I will use the Webquest I created to explain further.
The students are assigned one of five theories as to what killed the dinosaurs. Then they are to use the links given as guides to beginning researching their assigned theory. The students would be initiating their own research and are able to guide what sources they end up using, as well as exploring sites they find on their own. They are in complete control of their learning at this point. After they have researched, they are to meet in groups to present their theories, they will then be collaboratively teaching other members of the group about their own theory. So the students are working in groups to teach each other about all of the theories behind dinosaur extinction. The teacher throughout this whole assignment is merely acting as a facilitator, helping when needed and checking in on student’s progress. The learning is coming straight from the students themselves and their peers. The entire concept of the Webquest is based on different points of views being explored and student directed learning.
I also feel that the Webquest follows Bloom’s taxonomy of learning. The Webquest starts out with obtaining basic facts and knowledge. It starts out with the student obtaining the facts, the straight information about each theory. The next step is for the student to create a presentation about their theory to share with their group, in this they are summarizing the facts and knowledge they just obtained. They are showing that they comprehend what they just found. Then each student within a group is going to apply their collective knowledge in order to analyze which theory best explains the dinosaurs extinction. So they will be applying their knowledge in order to answer the question, in doing so they are analyzing each other’s arguments. The next step is to come to a group consensus on what killed the dinosaurs; they will be synthesizing all the information they have to create a final theory. They are now constructing their own answer to the question of what killed the dinosaurs utilizing the knowledge they had obtained and their analysis of each other’s theories. The last step of the project is for each group to present their final theory; the group, the class, and the teacher are going to then evaluate what they came up with. They are going to look at their final theory and compare it with the facts that are known and determine how supported their theory is. Thus the Webquest progresses just as Bloom’s taxonomy suggests while embracing constructivist learning pedagogy.
