Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What I took the most from the cognitive learning theories is that to really get a student to learn, you have to get the information to really "sink in" to the long term memory. The best way to do that is to use as many intellegences as possible (Laureate, 2008). Using such things as organizers and taking notes allows students to see, read, listen, and put pictures with what the lesson is trying to teach. The more ways to present a topic, the more the students will learn what is being taught and be able to recall the information. It will not just be remembered for a short time, but it will really "sink in."

As far as using virtual field trips, I just have to say that aside from actually going somewhere, these are one of the greatest ideas ever thought of. The virtual field trip allows so many more students to experience differnt things that would probably not be possible, especially since it is getting harder and harder to take "real" field trips. Talk about emerging students in a lesson. This is a great way for students to really learn about a topic and really get the information to move through the brain. I did not have time to really explore as much as I would have liked, but I definitely want to try to encorporate some virtual field trips into my lessons next year. Not only will it be something new and different for my students, but hopefully it will reach more of them and make the lesson more meaningful.


Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Program one. Understanding the Brain [Motion Picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore: Author.

3 comments:

  1. Tiffany,
    I certainly think that when we teach to as many of the learning styles, intelligences, and modalities as possible in our classroom, it will have a much deeper and more profound effect on student learning!

    I am also very intrigued by the prospect of virtual field trips to be used in my classroom! I simply cannot wait to begin using them! What I found when I was searching was that, much like so many other things on the internet, some are very good, and others just are not. I also found that some of the links to sites with specific field trips were links to museum websites, where the information was quite difficult to locate. Overall, I realized that finding an appropriate and quality virtual field trip certainly takes some leg work and time to search for it. What do you think? How was your experience as you looked for virtual field trips?

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  2. Tiffany,
    I also love the idea of virtual field trips. It is almost impossible to take a real field trip with budget cuts in school systems. This is a great way to expose students to things that they would never get to see. I teach in an area where many of my students have never even seen the ocean yet they are expected to understand the coastal habitat when we study that in science. Virtual field trips are going to open so many doors in my classroom that I would never have been able to open for my students before. I am really excited to use them this upcoming school year.
    Emily

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  3. Julie and Emily,

    I am super excited to see how many virtual field trips there are out there. I can't wait to try to incorporate some of them into my plans next year.
    Julie - It definitely took some leg work to find a quality field trip that was appropriate. With math, I think I am going to run into that unfortunately. While I was looking through the field trip sites, I had a very hard time finding one that related to what I teach. I am sure with some extra time and a more specific search topic, I can find more, I hope.

    Tiffany

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