Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Final Project Idea- Radiographic Scenarios
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Project Planning - Task/ Timeline Chart
Advantages of structuring the student’s use of time on a Task/ Timeline Chart includes allocation and management of resources such as time and IT access. It is useful for beginners because the table represents the project as a sequence of tasks and subtasks that are to be completed over a specific period of time. These students will also gain experience with IT-assisted PBL, accomplishment of milestones, and the use of higher-order thinking skills. In addition, students who have appropriate IT at home and good homework habits should allocate and manage their time and access to IT successfully, so that the tasks and subtasks (milestone) are accomplished in a timely fashion.
Disadvantages of structuring the student’s use of time on a Task/ Timeline Chart may include the allocation of time. It is important to allocate enough time for milestones to be accomplished. It is also important to allocate enough time in case of unforeseen difficulties, such as if a student is sick, if the task is too difficult, especially for a beginner, if equipment is down or out for repair, and if resources are limited such as a printer or camera. On the other hand, if 2 or 3 days are allocated for a specific lengthy task and some students complete the task or subtask faster than the others, then the teacher and students may be challenged and the teacher may have to deal with students who are bored and asking what they should do.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Inquiry-Based Learning
Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is seeking information or knowledge by questioning and converting that information into useful knowledge. It is seeking appropriate resolutions to questions and issues.
How does it differ from the traditional approach?
IBL focuses on using and learning content as a means to develop information-processing and problem-solving skills. It is more student-centered, with the teacher as facilitator. There is more emphasis on “how we come to know” and less on “what we know.” Students are also actively engaged and there is collaboration in the classroom.
What does it have to do with my classroom?
Inquiry learning can transform information into useful knowledge. It stresses skill development and nurtures the development of good habits of mind, so that students can thrive in the modern world. Habits of mind are nurtured through questioning and reflection. They can produce a world view that incorporates different disciplines/ subjects. They can be thought of as “ground rules” for particular disciplines. Therefore, learning plans and teaching materials need to include relevant context for new information to lead to broader understandings.
What are the benefits of inquiry-based learning?
Inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to greater understanding of content and the development of problem-solving skills. Problem-solving skills result from making observations, collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing information, which can then be applied to future “need to know” situations. One last benefit is the development of habits of mind, which can last a lifetime and guide learning and creative thinking.
How has inquiry-based learning developed since it first became popular?
In the 1960’s, the Whole Language movement was a positive development of inquiry-based learning because reading and writing roles began to change attitudes and practices in schools. A conference at the National Academy of Sciences, in the 1980’s, attempted to reform the U.S. system of education in order to get students more involved in the learning process and also, meeting the needs of a modern society. Today, inquiry-based learning gets students involved, allows them to ask questions, problem-solve, and helps students form their own knowledge.
What are some critical perspectives?
It is important that education prepare learners to deal with changes throughout their lives. It is important that learners learn a great number of skills such as higher-order thinking skills, collaboration, and working in a community. These are important skills that they will need to succeed in our complex, changing, and modern society.
How can I use inquiry-based learning in conjunction with other educational techniques?
Inquiry-based learning can be used with constructivism. Constructivism is a theory of constructing one’s knowledge and understanding through experience. In order to construct knowledge, it is important to ask questions and assess the information. Inquiry-based learning also involves asking questions in order to obtain information or knowledge. Furthermore, students develop problem-solving skills, become expert learners, and are guided through this journey with their teacher as facilitator. Therefore, inquiry-based learning can work well with constructivism!
Web 2.0 Tool Smilebox
The Web 2.0 tool that I came across is Smilebox to use with an instructional strategy. This tool will allow students to convert pictures or images into a slideshow and share it through an email, blog, print it, or burn it onto a DVD. I decided to use the Ready, Set, Recall strategy from the AEA 262 website. This is a great strategy to review students over concepts covered previously in the classroom. It can be used as an alternative to a quiz or to find out what they can remember, document, and share with other learners in their group.
In this lesson, students will first list everything they can remember about x-ray interactions and matter, on a slip of paper. They will then team up and each take a turn to combine their lists. They will have a time limit. Each group will then generate a list of the interactions and their characteristics.
Students will then collect images of the different interactions from the internet, save as images (JPEG), and place them on a slideshow. Each group will present their slideshow and briefly explain the concepts to the class. This is a great way to reinforce these important concepts.
Students will present a slideshow containing these different x-ray interactions:
Photoelectric absorption
Coherent scattering
Compton scattering
Pair production
Photodisintegration
Gardner, Perkins, Sternberg and PBL
I selected a project based on digital communication. This project focuses on making comparisons of what it costs to feed a family of four, in different parts of the world. The students will determine if the costs vary in the different parts of the country.
According to Howard Gardner, there are eight components of intelligence. These include bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalistic, and spatial. He states that each person has some level of each of these eight intelligences.
For this project, a team of students with a higher ability or talent in communication or maybe even, in several languages will be assigned to a task closely related to this specific talent. This team will be responsible for communicating with the student in a different part of the world, such as in Spain. Another team with a higher ability in math or with an increase in ability to handle complex logical arguments may be assigned a different task also in line with their specific level of talent. These students will be responsible for figuring out the currency exchange rate between the United States and Europe, while taking cost of living standards into consideration. In contrast, these students may also be encouraged not to work in their areas of highest ability in order to help develop their knowledge and skills in other areas such as intrapersonal or interpersonal intelligence, while working with PBL. Furthermore, curriculum and instruction, such as this PBL project will help students enhance their talents in each of these eight areas of intelligence, according to Gardner.
According to Robert Sternberg’s research, students who have a high level of “street smart” students will do well and will be successful in working with PBL. He has focused on only three components of intelligence. These include practical, experiential, and componential intelligence. A student who has practical intelligence and does well in the educational setting will adapt to his environment. A student with experiential intelligence will have the ability to deal with novel situations effectively. Lastly, students with componential intelligence will have the ability to process information effectively. In addition, intelligence can be increased by study and practice. These students talented in either one of these areas will be actively engaged and experience a high level of success with their projects based on digital communication, or any other project, according to Sternberg’s research.
Furthermore, according to David Perkins, IQ has 3 major components. These include neural intelligence, experiential intelligence, and reflective intelligence. Neural intelligence has a “use it or lose it” characteristic, and therefore, can be maintained and increased by use. Accumulated knowledge and experience in different areas will increase the student’s level of expertise in these areas (experiential intelligence). Reflective intelligence are one’s broad-based strategies used for attacking problems, for learning, and for approaching challenging tasks, including attitudes such as persistence, systemization, and imagination. Any student exhibiting these 3 specific types of intelligence can definitely be successful with PBL. Additionally, it is stated that Perkin’s research shows that education can be considerably improved by more explicitly teaching for transfer, by focusing on higher-order thinking skill, and by using PBL.
Finally, an IT-assisted PBL such as a project based on digital communication focusing on comparisons of what it costs to feed a family of four in different parts of the world will increase the intelligence of the students because of its various benefits. These include increased motivation, increased problem-solving skills, library research skills, collaboration, resource management skills, and lastly, improved research skills.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
PBL Web Sites
World Connection, is a collaborative project hosted by the Global SchoolNet Foundation, other reputable organizations, and outstanding partner projects. As the name implies, World Connection connects learners across the world in order to enhance cultural understanding and diversity. It is a project-based project in which students in the class are paired with other students from another culture for approximately a period of one month and exchange information. They communicate about specific topics by utilizing Wiki and will produce a short movie about the country and culture that they studied. The movies will be posted on a website such as YouTube.
Curriculum areas for this PBL include english as foreign language, history, international relations, multicultural studies, and social studies. Objectives may include a journal about the learner’s understanding of the culture and region before establishing a connection, completing blog/ wiki entries to show communication with their world-friend on a specific topic, a short movie to demonstrate their understanding posted on YouTube, and lastly, a research paper reflecting how this experience informed them about their specific region and world in general.
Down the Drain, also hosted by Global SchoolNet, allows students to collect data on the amount of water that they use and compare it to the amount of water used by other people in different parts of the world. The average American uses between 80-100 gallons of water per day. This collaborative project will help students find interesting information and answer questions such as: Do you know how much water you use every day? Do you think people in other parts of the world use more or less water than Americans? Students will determine the answers to these questions and will submit their results to the project database. Students will additionally review this data on water usage from people around the world and compare it to theirs, and determine what they may need to do in order to conserve water.
