Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

          According to Orey, Social Learning Theories actively engage students in constructing artifacts and conversing with others. In turn Cooperative Learning is an instructional strategy that has students interacting with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning (Pitler, 2007). Both of these can work together in the classroom so that students gain what is needed for and enriching learning environment.
            Students normally interact with each other socially.  Doesn’t it make sense to use that to our advantage as teachers? There are many opportunities as teachers that we can use such sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Webquest, Google Docs, Edublogs and so on to our advantage when getting our students to have an urge to learn.  I know that I use some of these resources everyday and I gain insights and knowledge from them.  They use these sites anyway, so why not use them in a way that it is benefiting us as teachers also? It makes sense! We can take our content and have students work together on projects through online tools and collectively and cooperatively learn.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Social learning theories. Baltimore, MD: Dr. Michael Orey.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.