Constructivism in practice

During Dr. Orey's presentation, constructivism was defined as "a theory of knowledge stating that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning" while constructionism was explained as "a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact of something they can share with others" (2009). While I agree with his statement that constructionism is more relevant to teachers in the classroom, I do also believe that it is vital for educators to be familiar with constructivism and how it can be applied. Inquiry learning is the first thing that comes to my mind when I read the above meaning of constructivism. Students who are engaged in order to discover a concept requires them to actively construct his/her own meaning. Constructionism, however, I think is not necessarily the answer one hundred percent of the time. Some students thrive more with dialogue and would prefer to talk out a solution rather than create an artifact. The truth of education is, though, that we must have some sort of proof that the students know the information. The easiest way to do this is to have the students create the artifacts themselves, but there may be other ways to achieve the same result. For students who prefer dialogue, the students could record themselves explaining a concept and thus have an audio file as their artifact. There are many ways to use technology to a student's advantage, and I think some educators try to make things too difficult and fancy, thus creating a sense of anxiety when students use technology in learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.