Social Learning in Practice

This week was an exploration in social learning.  Which to most people would just simply be using collaborative learning techniques.  Most teachers think that just putting students into groups and giving them an assignment to do together is what collaborative learning is all about.  Yet, after reading the article on Cooperative Learning by Palmer, Peters, and Streetman (Palmer, 2003) I can see how it is very different.  I got a real sense of what I've been doing wrong when I tried it after following the Scenario that the authors presented to drive home the lesson.  The section about the benefits of Cooperative Learning really helped convince me to try it again, next school year. 
 
 Another technique presented in our readings came from Chapter 7 of text "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works" was that of the simulation game.  I often have difficulty with getting students engaged in studying U.S. History, unless I find something that "edutains" them.  One game that my students are showing interest in is a game on the IPod Touch called "Oregon Trail".  It was interesting watching how fascinated they were with the game, and when they finished, they could describe hardships that early pioneers faced when traveling west.  It is something that I will definitely use in the future when I am covering Manifest Destiny and has encouraged me to check out the "Revolution" web simulation that was mentioned in the book (Pitler, 2007) as well as searching for other web based simulations to help my students learn.

The techniques presented in the readings all had social learning frameworks in that the students were all working together to create a new body of understanding and knowledge.  The learning was not just one person having an epiphany and "spreading the word", it was each student contributing to the whole and building a whole new level of learning or creating a new understanding that has influenced by their common experiences (Davis, 2008) as well as their individual differences (Kim, 2001).