Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Applying what we learn...

When I started EDIT451 I felt completely disoriented by the material. The problem is how to connect the readings, theories, etc. to the real world. Last week, my EDIT451 group started work on Situated-Learning Theory, so I developed a simple activity using this theory for a real-world class that I teach in Spanish. I've now done the new activity twice in two weeks and it's going very well. Learning a language is a particularly appropriate subject for testing this theory - language acquisition involves cultural components, social skills, and depends entirely on real-world effectiveness as a measure of success.

Now I'm wondering if anyone else in our class has had the opportunity to apply any of the new ideas in our course to their own real-world activities?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not really. I feel as equally disroriented as you do. I feel that the information I'm receiving is only for my information and not something I can apply to my classroom experience.

msguysblog said...

At first I felt that way, but by now I see see how the information can inform how I deliver and assess content knowledge. Although hectic for me to stick to the schedule demanded by the course, as a teacher in a field somethat wary of technology (English teacher), the material has show the learning theories, blogging, etc. can instill some of the same learning competencies encouiraged by my discipline and can appeal to younger audiences (by building on their abilities and facility with technological mediums).