Sunday, March 18, 2012


Cognitive Learning NeedsTechnology 
Most students today are referred  to as digital natives. Our society provides them with cell phones, iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, laptop computers, and numerous other digital devices. The stimulus these devices provide for students is provocative. Educators have discovered that including these technologies in the curriculum results in higher interest levels from the students. Therefore, as I reviewed the coursework for this week, I was thrilled at the many uses of different computer applications used to facilitate note taking, organizing and summarizing information.  
Cues, questions and advanced organizers focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use and organize information about a topic. (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007) In addition, cues should be explicit and provide students with a preview of what they are about to learn. Essential questions are necessary to direct students to use background knowledge when answering. When you do incorporate specific cues and essential questions,students have a clearer sense of what they are going to learn. Advanced organizers such as Inspiration help outline main ideas and themes in a web of bubbles and brackets These outlines in graphic form are attractive and provide a visual rendition of the topic being learned.  
The strategy of note taking and summarizing focuses on helping students synthesize information into a new form. Students need to separate the many facts from their reading and concentrate on those; not the extraneous data. Students need to analyze information at a fairly deep level in order to know what to keep and what to delete. Therefore, students need strategies to summarize efficiently. Technology such as word processing can be essential to build, scaffold and organize the main facts students have gleaned from their assignment. Note taking can be a combination of words and pictures and drawings. Combination notes are easier to develop when using a word processor and google images. The advantage of the word processor is that the notes will be legible and have the same format. This is important later when studying the notes and applying what has been learned. 
Templates specifically used for note taking help everyone organize key concepts, facts and questions. By teaching students how to access the many templates in programs, we teach them to build a network of strategies they can rely on.The use of a Wiki page for classroom management relies on note posting and summarization of data to organize the project. The Wiki page becomes the vehicle all students turn to for a concise rendition of the topic. Google documents can be created, stored and shared by teachers and students alike. Google Docs are very popular with technology driven districts because sharing what has been developed by one teacher, benefits any teacher who downloads and uses that particular template.
As Dr. Orey mentions in "Cognitive Learning Theories” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011), Paivio’s dual coding hypothesis shows how information is stored as images and text. Therefore, is a text definition is combined with a picture of the vocabulary word, a network between the two stimuli is made in the brain. Retrieval of the knowledge later in the lesson will rely on the cognitive learning and the brain’s ability to store the knowledge. We want our students to remember facts, so it is to our advantage to provide various strategic cues, questions and organizers to boost our success at this critical memory illumination. 

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M. & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development., Alexandria, VA., 2007.

2 comments:

  1. I like that how point out that using word processing for note-takiing ensures that notes are legible and formatting is consistent. Some of my students, whom I love dearly, have horrible handwriting! It may seem like a simple thing, but it is important that students can actually go back and utilize their notes!

    It is our job as teachers to show students the variety note-taking strategies. When they are older, they will have to choose which method works best for them. I was just at a conference this past weekend and it was interesting to see all the different tools people were using to take notes, such as their laptops, iPads, phones, recording devices, and the traditional pencil and paper. Hopefully when students leave our classrooms, they will be able to pick templates and formats that work best for them!

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  2. Danielle,
    I too have found that a student's handwriting can be detrimental to our image of them. I always encourage my students to "Open Pages (or Word) choose a font that is readable, and keyboard the information". It can be fun really. I hear "Slow down" and "Can you repeat that" and I know they are paying attention.
    Sometimes a really bright student is masked behind their terrible handwriting skill.
    Plus, all students can benefit from the Spell & Grammar check.
    Thanks for the post.

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