In the Learning Theories Paper assignment, I purposely chose the Social Activism Theory because I wanted to dig deeper

into the Constructivism school of thought. When I took my education classes 6 years ago, I studied the different major schools of thought and I had to chart out where on the spectrum I saw myself. I fit in the Constructivist area at the time and wanted to see if my beliefs had changed since then. In my position as an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher, I have to say I completely agree with and believe in the idea of Constructivism. I believe people learn best by doing and that knowledge is gained through experience, interaction with others, environments, and engaging project-based learning. I fully believe that technology integration is a fundamental process in education. I believe this because technology is relevant but more importantly, the process by which students and teachers are engaged in learning is always present when connected to educational content. Personally, I believe that there are times and reasons that content can be delivered the old fashioned way and separate from other subject areas. For the most part, I strongly support the idea of integration across the content areas with technology. For example, I recently completed a VoiceThread project with 125 fifth grade students. The students were learning about the rock cycle. The content they were required to know was to identify certain rocks and what category they belonged in (sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic). For this project, students had to find a picture of a rock they chose (I included the necessary rocks plus some extras), find what group they belonged to, and any extra information they thought was important. Then they had to upload their pictures to the class VoiceThread and read their research. This project combined skills in Science and Language Arts. The kids found information beyond what they needed to. More importantly, they made connections to their real world. They may have found characteristics of rocks that they may have experienced already (granite is found in countertops or a marble floor) Since we are near Washington DC, many students made connections to a monument or building that was built out of their rock. Another project-based learning project I have begun is with the iPads. I found a new eBook app named Scribble Press. It is a free eBook creator where students can design books to be read on many different eReaders and online. Students even have the ability to submit their book and pay for it to be printed and bound. I have third graders making eBooks on simple machines. They use the iPad to take pictures of the various simple machines. They have to title each page as the name of the machine, include the pictures, and type a sentence or two about it. This project, much like the VoiceThread, allows students to make connections and formulate their own concept of what those simple machines actually are. In conclusion, I believe the Social Activism Theory and the Constructivism school of thought are in line with my belief system. Both concepts center around the idea that the learner creating knowledge through project-based learning activities and active involvement in a learning environment. I believe this not only based on my teaching examples, but my personal examples as well. Growing up, we learned by memory, not by doing. We were testing on the meaning of concepts but not the how and why behind them. I could tell you what 5 times 6 was but not how I could use that in everyday life (as in a project in my backyard. I could write a persuasive essay (not perfectly) but not on a concept I agreed with, knew anything about, or had any relevance or connection to my life. I hope I continue to engage

students in project-based learning as I feel it will have a greater benefit to them in the real-world than my education. The hindrance to this approach lies in the increased amount of standardized testing. In the words of my school librarian, teachers are afraid to let kids learn . She meant this in the context that teachers are so wrapped up in specific objectives and concepts that they are worried about doing anything that may deviate from that because of test scores. They are also afraid to try different approaches such as using more technology because our methods worked for testing in the past, why would we jeopardize that? In education, we need to get away from labeling kids with a number and looking at kids one year at a time. We need to start focusing on developing life-long, critical thinkers, and problem solvers that will be productive members of society.