Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitivism is how someone processes information. In the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors give many good examples of how technology works with cognitive learning.

In Chapter 4, Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers, the authors start by explaining what the items of the title of this chapter mean. Cues are explicit reminders or hints about what students are about to experience. Questions perform the same function as cues by triggering students' memories and helping them to access prior knowledge (Pitler,Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). This chapter tells teachers to use more visuals to help the students understand and remember the material being taught. Teachers need to also use organizers to help keep the information in order. If items are just written randomly with out any organization, the students are going to just become confused and not remember a whole lot of what they have been taught. One way to organize it would be to use a mapping tool. The students can see what items connect to each other. Another good technology items to use would be videos and graphs. I know when I teach math, I try to use as many visuals (graphs, charts, etc.) to help the students to not only visualize the material but to help them remember it better. Virtual tours would be a great concept to use for a visual. The students will be able to see first hand what you are talking about without having to step foot near the place. Chapter 6 goes into talking about summarizing and note taking.

I have learned from students coming into my class that they are not taught how to note take in class. There are some technological ways that can help students learn to take notes and keep them organized at the same time. One way mentioned was having the students blog about the information taught to them in class. Blogging is a way for student to not only talk about the information from class but to do some peer to peer teaching. The text talks about an item to help students understand what they are reading that I was not aware of. They talk about an option in Microsoft Word called auto summarizing. This tool allows the student to input the material that they are reading and with a couple of clicks with the mouse, the program summarizes the material for them. One other technological concept on note taking the text mentioned is the mapping tool again. They state that it is a good tool to use in note taking because it keeps things organized. When using the mapping tool, the student can start with the main idea of the material and then branch off of that the supporting details. The mapping tool will then put the information into an outline making it clearer to the student what to write about.

Technology is a very helpful tool in many ways. I find that the applications that this text mentions to help students with note taking, summarizing and organizing are real helpful one. I want to incorporate some of these items into my own classroom this year. I am even going to share some of these options with my colleagues in case they are not aware of them. It can help them help the students understand better and keep themselves organized.

References:

Pitler,H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, CO: McRel.