Constructivism, Connectivism, and the Cyborg theory

This week was the first week of EDLD 5364 and I read lots of passages and some in the textbooks and watched a few videos, it was mainly about three main points, Constructivism, Connectivism, and the Cyborg theory.

We watched a video and read a passage on the constructivism theory. The Constuctivism theory was developed by a Russian psychologist named Vygotski.  “Never sees something objectively, everything is subjective”. I liked this because the way the man described it in the video, he said everyone will hear something differently all said by the same person, because they all pick different parts and run with it in their mind. So a good teacher is trying to do that with kids, they are trying to  learn the same thing but in different ways but by hearing the same thing. I had never really thought of it that way but he is so right.This is a learner centered theory and what is so funny is you don’t have to be a kid to learn this way.

Next was Connectivism theory, this was about how a person connects with the network that a learner creates, with technology with other people. They learn from a network. He said that, “knowledge is about the distribution that occurs across the entire network.”  which to me is how I learn, either thru a network by my connections with other people, and that knowledge of learning is the way I exist with other people, and how we continue to learn throughout time and in the future.

The last one was the Cyborg theory, to be honest this was a weird video. It was about a guy that had implants of chips placed in his body which sent information to his brain and that way he was able to control things from these chips placed in his mind, I am sorry but this one was a little strange for my case, I felt like we were talking about Star Trek or aliens coming and taking over the world, butt some of you may like this so please if you enjoy learning about that click on his video lik below.

References:

·       Citation: Abbott, J. (nd). Building Knowledge: Constructivism in Learning. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F00R3pOXzuk

·       Citation: Siemens, G. (nd). The Changing Nature of Knowledge  [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMcTHndpzYg

·       Citation: Warwirk, K. (nd). Cyborg Life [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_l7SY_ngI

Teaching with technology Edld 5364 first weeks web conference

This weeks web conference was scheduled for Thursday night at 8:00, in which I rushed home from my first week at a new school to get home in time for the conference. My group members did the same, they all had first week of school activities that they had to work around for this web conference. I logged in at 7:55 p.m. CT with lots of questions for this new class, the screen came up and said that the host was not on yet and would need to wait, the conference was to start at 8:00 CT, I waited for 54 minutes, I emailed my IA and finally at 8:55 CT got a response from him saying that it had been cancelled and I needed to catch the Saturday web conference, well, I was not going to be able to make the Saturday web conference due to other activities so that is why I had chosen the Thursday night conference. I looked on facebook too at the Lamar Ed tech page and over 77 comments were about the same thing, where everyone else had waited and waited only to find out at 9:00 CT by an announcement across black board that they conference had been postponed until Saturday morning at 10:00 CT, really postponed, that was a cop out, it was already scheduled for that Saturday conference, I think it was very unprofessional of the professor and the IA to do this to the students, especially in such a big class and being the first week of the class when you need all your questions answered. I hope this is not a sign of how this class is going to be because that will be unfortunate that a class this important will be over shadowed by a screwed up first week. So basically other than griping about the web conference that didn't happen, I don't have much to say.

EDLD 5366 reflection

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and the new skills that I have learned while taking it. Creating new logos, branding yourself, making flyers, learning animation and working collaboratively on a website are just a few of the things I learned and did this class. I never before used some of the technology and thus my knowledge of technology has been expanded because of the fun I have had.

I have created flyers before but never kept in mind, C.R.A.P. (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity) of the flyer. It was an eye opener, never thought that flyers or websites for that matter should be atheistically pleasing to the eye.  But I look back and when I see a website or a flyer that doesn’t get my attention I usually throw it away or find another website.  A flyer is trying to get you to do something or buy something and a website is advertising something. This is now something I am going to keep in mind when making newsletters for my class and working on my classroom website, or even my personal blog or website. Putting my flyer on the discussion board, helped me see what other people think of what I had designed and created and I welcomed their input and knowledge of ideas I hadn’t thought of when creating the flyer.

The self- branding idea was a concept that never crossed my mind, but when I was learning about it we brand ourselves at an early age, thru social media, nicknames certain poses we do in pictures, how people think of us when they see something or someone (reputation). Our schools are branded, stores are branded, clothes are branded why not brand ourselves. I loved playing with and making a logo that described me and my classroom. Using different programs I never used broadened my knowledge of software. 

Collaborating on a website made me see how people all think different and how we all see things differently. I welcomed the knowledge of my team members that had used Weebly before, it was new to me, I had only used Google to make a website. It was exciting to watch a website come from the group up with all the pages and information.

I can’t wait to use the technology and software and knowledge I learned in this class and share it with my teammates and students.

Refrences:

Non Designers Designers Handbook by Robin Williams: https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-921384-dt-content-rid-6183491_1/courses/EDLD_5366_ENA_2013_60_AP2/Assets/The%20Non-Designer%20Design%20Book.pdf

The Art of Self-Branding, Part 1 – by L. Alcantra   Citation: Alcantara, L. (2009). The art of self-branding. Retrieved from

http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-branding-part-one/

 Creating Your Personal Brand: By J. Utecht  Citation: Utecht, J. (2010). Creating your personal brand. Retrieved from  http://www.thethinkingstick.com/creating-your-personal-brand

Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K-12 Classroom

Citation: Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K-12 Classroom. (2008, September). Retrieved from http://www.brainpop.com/new_common_images/files/76/76426_BrainPOP_White_Paper-20090426.pdf

Treehouse blogsite by Mike Rundle  (2006)  http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/how-crap-is-your-site-design

Weebly Group Website

Had a fun time creating a website with Jon and Carla, we each took two pages, I did Home page and Parents Page, Carla did Teachers and Special Populations and Jon did How To.... and Digital Citizenship
We shared all our information with each other via a google doc on google drive, Click here to check out our website.   http://csjvideoproductions.weebly.com
http://csjvideoproductions.weebly.com