Salla's Blog

Experiential learning and a biology project blog

Task

“Please research which other theories fit to educational (micro)blogging. Take one of them and develop a small usecase for your future pedagogical field of practice using this theory.”

I didn’t quite get the task. I didn’t know if I was supposed to search for general learning theories to fit educational (micro)blogging or all the theories existing. That’s also why it took such a long time for me to start doing this task. While trying to figure this task out I did find a few interesting web sites. They may not fit to this task, but here are the links, still, for those who may be interested.

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/middle-school-math-science/2008/08/05/teacher-tools-that-integrate-technology-educational-blogging-middle-school-version/

http://blogging4biology.edublogs.org/

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Nov-10-Mon-2003/news/22546246.html

In the end I decided to pick up a learning theory that I think would make a “great pair” with edu-blogging. I read a lot about different theories (for example here: http://www.learning-theories.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning) and picked up experiential learning as being the most interesting to me.

Experiential Learning

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”

This quote is by the originator of the experiential learning –theory, David A. Kolb. So this is a theory which underlines the meaning of “hands-on” experiences and reflection. Theory consists of a cycle of four stages:

• Concrete experience. “Do-stage”, for example a field work, class trip.

• Reflective observation. “Observe-stage”, conscious reflecting and thinking what have been seen, experienced, learned… For example writing a report after class trip.

• Abstract conceptualization. “Think-stage”, learner tries to come up with a theory or a concept of what he has observed. For example why he saw a rainbow on the class trip.

• Active experimentation.  “Plan-stage”, planning how to test the theory the learner made on the last stage and of future experiences. For example a plan to try to make a rainbow inside the classroom and see if this experiment supports the theory.

–>By reflecting experiences are made into concepts. These concepts then support active experimentation and new experiences.

Experiential learning doesn’t require teacher all the time so it fits perfectly with educational blogging. Teacher’s role is more like a facilitator. We have to remember that experiencing doesn’t necessarily mean learning. That’s why this experiential learning process really needs a meaningful goal setting and all the four stages to exist. Whit a great teacher (=facilitator) this process can, though, lead to learning new skills and attitudes and even new ways of thinking. Now I will present an idea how this learning theory could been transformed into practice of educational blogging.

My Usecase

In my opinion, experiential learning suits best project working. I want to combine it with biology. This project is designated for f young kinds, 4th graders or so, but, I think, can easily be changed for other age groups, too. The goal is to research the versatility of nature and learn to do small experiments.

First I’ll take my class for a trip to the nearby forest. I’ve told my pupils to look for things that seem interesting, new, hard to understand, fascinating to them. They have to write down their thoughts and take pictures of their findings. After the trip everyone can upload their best pictures on class’s own blog and write a question or description under them to clarify the picture. After this kids can comment pictures on blog and vote for the most fascinating ones. Voting happens anonymously to prevent best friends just voting for each others.

Then we pick up the most interesting one (two or three) for further researching. I think, there’s no time within just one project to conceptualize all the pictures, that’s why we pick just a few. Now pupils continue their discussion on the blog about these decided pictures. Every once in a while the teacher can also take part to the conversation to lead it to “right” direction. The purpose is to come up with questions considering those pictures and step by step also answer possibilities for those questions. As pairs or small groups I want kids then choose the most interesting picture and the main problem/question concerning to it. Eventually all the groups come up with their own blog entry about summarizing their thoughts about the picture and finally their own answer to the “problem”; giving a name to the picture.

The final stage for the groups is to try to find a way to check their thoughts. We can for example go back to the forest to observe more, try to find info on internet or books, make experiences in classroom… All of this (web-links, pictures, reflections, questions aroused..) should be posted to class’s blog.

For example it could be a picture of a maple leaf in autumn colors. “Why isn’t it green anymore?” “Where’ve those colors came from?” “Why does the color change?” “Why in autumn?” Then the group decides that their main question is why the leaf changes it colors. “It’s prettier now”, “autumn would be too grey otherwise”…. By these thoughts kids try to build their own theory which, in the end, is tested.

Eventually this class blog would be like a project diary.