Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Week 5 Chapter Insights


Learning With Technology: A Constructivist Perspective


Chapter 4

Learning With Technology Technologies For Meaning Making


This is a unique chapter in the aspect of presenting learning through the multimedia environment. Students that participate through this learning process are active, constructive, intentional, and cooperative as they conduct authentic investigations.


The author has given some interesting sites for the students to explore individually and in group settings. Students can learn virtually everything under the sun and beyond with multimedia environments available on videodisks, compact discs, and information available on the World Wide Web.


The learning activities presented in this chapter begin with The Astronomy Village. This site enables students to investigate numerous topics for research papers and presentations to their peers. Some of the topics include: Search for a Supernova, Search for Nearby Stars, Search for Planetary Building Blocks and Observatory Site Selection.


Another activity involves an imaginary river in Australia named the Nardoo. Students have the technology to use video, radio clipboards, computer catalog, plant and animal book, text tablet and a clippings folder. On of the student investigations focuses on chemical pollution on the river. The simulations give students the opportunity to do problem-solving, seek information and conduct investigations in order to construct their own knowledge about ecological issues.


The Second Voyage of the Mini enables students to be archaeologists studying the Mayan civilization off Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. This is the first program I would ask my gifted and talented students to research as part of the social studies unit.


Students can use also become familiar and proficient as hypermedia authors. Students need to compose material for publication with video, still images and graphics right from the outset. Being a poet I believe I can model my personal works for the students to assist them in their own creations.


The authors want the learners to realize that we live in a real world that consists of real problems. The contextual learning are enabled to work with multimedia and hypermedia tools in meaningful, real-life tasks.


As previously stated in this textbook teachers take a role of coach for their students. The teacher provides prompting or provoking of questions to motivate the students. The teacher can do assessment by viewing the final projects.

Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement


Chapter 6

Nonlinguistic Representations


This chapter introduced a variety of approaches a teacher can utilize as learning strategies ranging from graphic organizers to physical models. The research and theory presented by the authors is no linguistic representations or imagery mode of representation. Traditionally students receive information linguistically as the primary mode of obtaining new knowledge. This text offers some alternatives from the linguistic to the nonlinguistic generalizations.


The activities to produce nonlinguistic representations of knowledge in the minds of students include creating graphic representations, making physical models, generating mental pictures, drawing pictures and pictographs and engaging in kinesthetic activity.


The text offers six graphic organizers which can be created in many forms to meet the needs of the assignments. These organizers include Descriptive Pattern Organizer, Time Sequence Pattern Organizer, Process/Cause-Effect pattern Organizer, Episode Pattern Organizer, Generalization/Principle Pattern Organizer, and Concept Pattern Organizer. The compact disc “Inspiration” would be very useful in creating these organizers for use in lesson plans.


Making or using physical models such as manipulative gives students the concrete representation to establish and image of the knowledge in their minds. By generating mental pictures is one of the most direct ways to generate nonlinguistic representation.


Students can create symbolic pictures by drawing pictures or pictographs. Using hands n type manipulative enables students to think about the concept before they describe the task either by writing or through oral presentation. The last physical model is the engagement of students in kinesthetic activities. During this process students physically move about to learn the knowledge being taught. I personally enjoy creating physical models for my students to become actively evolved in learning.


Return To My Web Page

Jim's Page

Email: tjpetke@cci-yuccavalley.com