Week 8 Reflection

Having a mini spring break that started on Thursday, it is hard to remember there are still things that need to be taken care of for classes.  Thursday afternoon I totally spaced the beginning of the Twitter sessions since my brain was already on spring break mode, so saying that I was very confused with what was being discussed.  I really ponder how to use collective learning groups in the classroom and how they would look differently than collaborative or constructivist learning.   Collin brought up the question of how collective learning would look like in a classroom where there is a lot of memorization of information.  I asked the question if the concept and had the students work collectively to gain a deeper understanding or to solve a problem would this still be considered collective learning.  In a sense I would think it would be but also maybe it would not be since students are not working solely collectively to learn new information.  I hope that make sense, I feel as I type things I may not have a strong understanding of how collective learning could look.

  When I look back I think in a sense we may already use some collective learning in the classroom it just may not involve technology.  A teaching style that was brought through conversation with Sara L was the constructivist approach.  This to me is a step in the right direction to collective learning.  In both students are creating there own meanings.  With constructivist learning the teacher still provides the materials students would need to be successful.  These ideas and concepts remind me a lot of Montessori schools. I think no matter what type of learning takes place in the classroom, it is important to allow students develop their knowledge of something.  We do not learn by sitting and listen to someone explain to us how to do things, we learn best through experiences that are relevant and important to our lives.