Pickle Education: Exploring Educational Technology

 As a teacher—and someone who constantly questions how students learn best—I haven’t always put students in the driver’s seat. In fact, early on, I clung to structure and control like a life raft. But every year, I’ve added a little more room for exploration, a little more space for students to take the wheel. That gradual shift is what led me to connect so strongly with Constructivist Learning Theory. Constructivism is the idea that students don’t just absorb information—they build it. They take in new experiences, connect them to what they already know, and make meaning through active engagement, exploration, and reflection. Learning isn't handed to them—it's constructed in their own minds. 🧠 What Is Constructivist Learning Theory? Constructivist theory (shoutout to Piaget, Vygotsky, and Dewey) centers on a few key ideas: Learning is active, not passive. Students construct knowledge based on their prior experiences. Teachers are facilitators who guide thinking, not just cont...

As both a teacher and someone who is diagnosed as autistic and ADHD, I’ve spent a lot of time learning how different neurotypes process information. So when I started learning about Cognitive Learning Theory, it didn’t just make sense—it felt familiar. I see its principles reflected in my own thinking, and in the ways my students—whether they’re in honors classes or receiving resource support—learn best. Cognitive theory emphasizes how information is processed, stored, and retrieved by the brain. It focuses on mental processes like attention, memory, and metacognition—how we think about our own thinking. That focus on internal processing fits not only how I learn, but how I’ve seen learning stick with my students across all levels and abilities. Learning That Sticks: Memory, Scaffolding, and Spiral Learning One of the most fascinating takeaways for me was the connection between short-term and long-term memory, and how understanding that relationship can reshape the way I teach. I immed...

 As the first learning theory we studied, the behaviorist approach stands out because so many of its principles are still common practice in schools today. Behaviorist Learning Theory is based on the idea that learning is a change in behavior caused by external stimuli in the environment. It focuses on actions and how those actions can be shaped or modified through modeling and reinforcement. In today’s classrooms, behaviorism is especially evident in classroom management practices across K–12 campuses, though it is most recognizable in elementary schools. Positive reinforcement through rewards is frequently used in elementary settings to encourage desired behaviors. Professional development on classroom management often emphasizes the importance of using positive reinforcement and minimizing attention given to negative behaviors. Behaviorist principles also appear in intervention strategies across all grade levels. Students performing below expectations are provided with addition...

 In my classroom, education doesn’t just live behind a screen or sit quietly in a textbook. It’s in the personal logos created with geometric transformations , the 3D models crafted from recyclable materials , and the moment a student says, “Wait… this actually makes sense now.” At the heart of my teaching philosophy is student-centered constructivism —the belief that students learn best when they actively build understanding through experience, exploration, and reflection. That means my classroom is a space where learning is not only digital or analog—it’s both. And educational technology? It’s not the star of the show. It’s part of the toolkit. I use tech with intention. Tools like Formative help me create interactive assignments and assessments that give immediate feedback and spark reflection. Google Classroom is my go-to for organizing resources and keeping communication flowing. Kami allows me to create and share digital notes that students can access anytime, anywhere—b...

For my first assignment in my Digital Learning Environments course, we were asked to perform a digital search on a term related to the course. I chose cognitive learning theory —a topic that shows up in a later module and immediately stood out to me as the most engaging. It explores how we process information, store knowledge, and apply learning—all of which are central to both effective teaching and the design of digital learning tools. I began my search using the campus library’s online system, which returned an overwhelming 144,556 results . Hoping for a more manageable number, I tried the ERIC database (15,508 results) and then Google Scholar, which gave me a staggering 4.52 million results . It quickly became clear that refining a search is just as important as starting one. By experimenting with filters, I discovered how dramatically I could narrow the results. Selecting “full text,” switching to natural language, and adding keywords helped cut through the noise. In my case, I a...