- Discussion on what should be considered in finding “the
Big Idea” for a project.
Identifying the core concepts and processes are at the heart of the
subjects we teach and is the first step in project planning. All subject areas
focus on big ideas and so do lessons in the real world so after identifying
concepts and processes that the students should understand we also have to
reflect on why the concepts are important. In finding the big idea we should
consider how the idea will apply in the real world, what is the relevance to
the students’ lives, who cares about the idea, and who will it affect. One of
the most important aspects to take into consideration is the real-world
contexts that go along with the idea. When students know that their projects
offer value for their community, they become more invested in learning.
- Discussion on the 2lst Century skills.
All well
designed projects allow students to stretch their intellectual muscles in ways
that traditional activities cannot. One way to do this is to plan activities
that are associated with Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The objectives
are to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. All of these
objectives are important when doing an assignment but for project-based
learning the last three objectives are especially important.
- Discussion on the 21st Century literacies.
In the 21st
century literacy has to go beyond just reading and writing. The definition of
literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create,
communicate, and compute using materials of varying contexts. Literacy involves
learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens. Digital age literacy
includes inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity. Students
and teachers need these skills to learn and live in an increasingly digital
world.
- Discussion on each of the essential learning functions.
In this chapter
there are eight essential learning functions.
1. Ubiquity:
Learning Inside and Outside the classroom, and All the Time: Tools that support project learning by giving students the
opportunity to learn anytime and anywhere. Teachers should look for tools that
support project-based learning such as hand held devices and web applications.
2. Deep
Learning: Teachers should help students to
go beyond information created by others and help them to make sense of the raw
information on the web. Students learn more when they have to navigate, sort,
organize, analyze, and make graphical representations in order to express their
learning.
3. Making
Things Visible and Discussable: The
first step in getting conversation going in the classroom is to make thoughts
and ideas visible and sharable to the class. With digital tools teachers are
able to show rather than tell, see things not normally seen with a naked eye, and
express ideas through multimedia.
4. Expressing
Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community: The web is in a current transition from an information
medium into a social medium. Students are living in a digital age where they
are continually exposed to these mediums so it will be easy for teachers to incorporate
it in their classroom to express their ideas and build a society around shared
interests.
5. Collaboration-Teaching
and Learning with Others: Current technology
and tools around us encourage students to learn together and that is useful in
projects that include collaboration.
6. Research: Most of the projects students will be doing involve research
and much of that research will be done on the internet. For this reason teachers
should learn about quality directories, search engines and internet filtering.
7. Project
Management: Planning and Organization: Management
helps students to manage their time, work, sources, feedback, drafts, and products
during projects. One thing teachers can do is to create a web home page for
their class so students can post, share, and organize their project.
8. Reflection
and Iteration: Students learn more when they are
able to examine their ideas from all points of view. The easiest way for
students to reexamine their work and to get feedback is to create a blog. Students
can post drafts and get feedback so that they can learn and improve their
project before the final draft.
- Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to
your topic/project.
All of the information
provided is important for future teachers to know and is relevant to our
project-based learning assignment. The assignment requires the students to do
much research about their topics so it is important for me to know how to
filter the internet to find appropriate sites for them to view. The students
also need to know how to navigate the internet so once they are on the site
they can dig for further meaning and discover useful information. We are in the age of technology and this
chapter showed me how to utilize many resources so that my students can learn
about the big idea of their project through many tools. This chapter showed me
how students can utilize many of the tools that they already use in their
personal lives and use them in their education so that they can merge the two
worlds to learn more.
