Completing my blog entry tonight I delved into Cognitive Theories as well as Mind and Memory.
The above link is a useful site to involve your students on how our memories work better for storage when we use tools like concept maps, Power Point, Word applications, and multimedia for exemplifying new information . Stop right here and try some of the 20 second tests yourself.
Advance Organizers, cues, and questions are addressed from our chapter 4 of "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that works"(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). Teaching new concepts, or reviewing past information can be better taught with the support and practice of various technological tools. They indeed will provide meaningful information to stick to our children's brains. Some of these tools and applications are "structures that teachers provide" (Pitler et al.,2007 ) for students before and after a project. The chapter stresses that the essential questions will allow the students to immediately formulate more questions. All this begins to bring our pupils to a higher level of thinking. Quite cognitive! David Ausubel, a cognitive psychologist taught his theory that the most important development in learning is when "new material is related to relevant ideas". (http://tip.psychology.org/ausubel.html). He emphasized that these advance organizers are not just summaries but important ideas that act as a connection between new knowledge and existing ideas.
Therefore, instructional strategies such as using the AutoSummarize tool, a feature on Word, or highlighting important words on Word, as well as creative note taking that can include pictures and webbing, all create cognitive learning at a higher level of thinking. For older students, collaboration can be provided by much more intuitive tools such as Communication software such as blogs and wikis. Novak and Canas, authors of "The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How the Construct and Use Them1" talk about how our brain learns easier from storage of iconic images and sound. They also point out that as we teach our students to use these tools for organizing and planning information, so too we must review the mind with them and how their brains work. "Creating new methods of observing or recording events usually opens up new opportunities for new knowledge creation"
