Learning Techniques and Tech Tools to Make Them Happen

Recently I was listening to the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast and heard about the research of some cognitive psychologists on learning strategies.  In it, they talk about six learning strategies that help us develop our study skills.  I thought I would share this with you and also include some tools for making that happen in a technology rich environment.

First off, you can read the actual article here.  In it, the learning strategies are:

1. Spaced Practice
2. Retrieval Practice
3. Elaboration
4. Interleaving
5. Concrete Examples
6. Dual Coding

Many of the learning strategies we were taught growing up fall into one of these categories.  I do not write this blog post to talk about flashcards, but rather how a chromebook or mobile device can be used in the same way.

Spaced Practice is the same as chunking, and teachers structure their lessons so that they are introducing a small amount of new information and reviewing old information already.  With the use of Google Calendar and turning on alerts, we can show students how to remind themselves to work on a larger project a little bit at a time, such as essay writing and revising.  There are also student planners for chromebooks, such as My Study Life and myHomework.  Just a reminder that anything requiring an account may have restrictions for students under the age of 13 without parental permission.

Retrieval practice forces us to put away anything that might trigger a memory that might make us feel that we know or understand a concept, but without the trigger, we cannot recall the information.  The learning experts suggest writing or telling all the information on the topic so that you can see how much you can recall.  Then through this, any misconceptions can be corrected or you can make note of areas in which you could not recall enough.  

Chromebooks can be used to do this in a number of ways, from recording sound files of students talking about their knowledge, then a teacher can listen and give feedback, to a student taking a video of themselves talking and following the same procedure.  Sound recordings and video recordings can both be made directly on the chromebook, then saved to Google Drive, linked in Google Classroom, or sent via email to the teacher.  For sound recordings, I recommend Mic Note and for video recordings I recommend Soapbox.

For the elementary iPad setting, Educreations and Evernote are great options for this, but iOS 11 now has screen recording available, so students could actually be just using the camera and recording themselves with the camera facing them as they talk.

Elaboration goes hand-in-hand with questioning techniques and good class discussion, where the students are posing, answering, and facilitating discussion.  While face-to-face would always be preferable, it is possible to use discussion boards to work on this skill asynchronously and also have students provide evidence to support their claims.  Google Classroom and Schoology both work very well for this.  At the high school level, having students work towards providing citations to their discussion posts will prepare them for the requirements of higher education coursework.

Interleaving is mixing the repetition of a variety of skills so that students are forced to decide on the correct strategy to give the answer.  This is where project-based learning really shines because it is already mixing a variety of strategies and skills.  Writing, problem-solving, communicating, working well with others, planning a timeline are all elements we see in our projects.  Depending on the task, technology is usually a great tool for these ideas that we are already implementing in a great number of ways.

Concrete examples is something that teachers always do, but by having students come up with an example to explain an abstract idea of their own, it is more likely to stay with them.  It can be done in a number of ways.  The hardest part is not just drawing from a handful of students, so having every student contribute their concrete example to a Google Form or a discussion board can force them to create their own version that will stick with them as they learn because it can be personalized to their interests.  Exit tickets, Frayer models, and parking lots are other ways of having each student create their own.

Dual coding is my favorite because I am a visual learner.  To draw from what the authors said, it’s just combining the knowledge with a visual format:

“And when we say visuals,” Smith explains, “we don’t necessarily mean anything

specific, so it depends on the types of materials. You could have an infographic, a cartoon strip, a diagram, a graphic organizer, timeline, anything that makes sense to you so long as you’re sort of depicting the information both in a way with words and a way with pictures.”

“This isn’t just for students who are good at drawing,” Weinstein adds. “It’s not about the

quality of the drawing. It really just needs to be a visual representation as you can depict it.”

Another favorite for me is sketchnoting, and if you like Sylvia Duckworth, you know how effective mind mapping can be.  This is really powerful for students who like to doodle.  They will often come up with sketches so great that they are worth sharing with their classmates.

While this blog post has been long, I hope it has given you a variety of resources and ideas.  Please reach out if you have any questions and be sure to check out the websites of the Learning Scientists and Cult of Pedagogy.