Week 7 - PLEs and the Freedom to Create Meaning

The essential question this week is:  In an increasingly net enabled world, should our web tools be tightly connected or loosely aligned, and how do these decisions impact the classroom?

The Educause article, “7 Things You Should Know About Personal Learning Environments provides some insight.    The author defines the term Personal Learning Environment as an ever-evolving student created/self-directed learning network of people and resources.  In explaining its significance, the article is careful to mention responsibility for this self-created environment “rests with the learner.”

With that said the article points to the possible disadvantages of PLEs.  Chief among them are the metacognitive prerequisites needed in order to make self-directed learning truly meaningful.  The article says, “some students…may have never taken the time to think about their own metacognition or to reflect on how they learn best.  These less experienced students may not be ready for the responsibility that comes with building and managing a PLE.” 

Teaching methods that chart out pre-determined paths to discovery, particularly in the on-line world of infinite applications and possibilities, seem quite limiting.  In short, I would allow the students the freedom to be creative (within reason, of course). 

More educators should consider announcing the end goal then giving students the leeway to interpret that task by using whatever tools they deem necessary.  The self-directed approach, it seems to me, adds relevance to the learning process.  Is there nothing more satisfying (and longer lasting) then when we create our own meaning?

Week 6 - Communication is Key!

I was excited to find Andrew Marcinek’s article, “A Web 2.0 Class: Students Learn 21^st Century Skills, Collaboration and Digital Citizenship” because it partially addressed some questions I have about collaborative learning and the design of such projects.   In short, communication and collaboration are an art form.  How do I address this critical component in my project based learning assignment? 

The way I see it it’s not enough to instruct students to exchange ideas with classmates through their blogs or wikis or whatever collaborative tool their using.  I believe such instruction does not emphasize the importance of meaningful collaboration.   

Students need to be taught the craft of “being an effective communicator,” as Marcinek put it.  He describes a working and learning relationship between three schools in Iowa, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania using web tools.  The key to this program’s success is not that the students are using technology in the classroom, but rather the program is teaching students to expand their knowledge and practice of meaningful collaboration.   The testimonials offered by students participating in this project praise the benefits of learning with others in preparation for real-world experiences.  The article does not outline how this particular outcome was achieved (other than to say the students used blogs and Skype as their communication tool of choice.)

With this in mind, I have been trying to design my PBL assignment for a group of hypothetical 9^th graders to include “rules” of engagement.  I want the students to make it a practice to expound on the opinions and ideas of their classmates--instead of offering responses that are typically summed up to, “that’s a good idea!”  or “I like what you said…”   To be clear, these types of acknowledgements are not terrible in and of itself; in fact, peer-to-peer praise is a wonderful step in the direction of teamwork and group support. Often times, though, the practice of real collaborative work never gets beyond the brief pleasantries.  Additionally, students who have not been taught the skill of negotiating different personalities or finding value in differing opinions may get stalled in their work trying to overcome varying degrees of frustration. 

I am considering a collaboration rubric as a helpful guide, but I am also considering some in-class communication and teamwork exercises as a practice run before the 10-week PBL assignment is set to begin.  I am not entirely certain how much time needs to be spent on these “let’s learn how to get communicate” exercises.  Yet, I feel practice in this area (however long it takes) may prove invaluable.

Week 5 - Wiki's in Education

My objectives this week was two-fold—find an article on wikis in education and find additional resources to help me design a rock solid performance-based activity.  As it usually happens with me, I stumbled in the wrong direction with my on-line search.   I found what I thought was an article on how to ensure authentic work performance when using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.  Rather than continue my search for a blog precisely suited to my assignment, I found myself committed to reading what I thought might solve my two-fold quest for answers.

 The “blog” talked about some of the possible loopholes in e-learning.  I was particularly interested in what was said about student plagiarism and cheating.  Upon reader further, I was convinced the author would provide a sure-fire method to organizing multiple collaborative work projects like wikis and blogs.  However, it turns out that I had not found a magic formula for ensuring authenticity in work performance; nor had I found a way to measure and assess creativity. 

What was not apparent to my semi-trained eye was that this article was “pushing” a commercial product, or better yet a service (http://www.gyrus.com).  You see, when I followed the link embedded in the article it led me to the company’s website, I perused through their menus of information hoping to find a rock-solid management approach for my PBL.  Unfortunately, I found no readily available solutions.  In fact, following the link from the article to the company website was akin to reading off the menu at a fancy restaurant where everything is in another language and prices are definitely not listed. 

The point is my desperation to find an article on wikis led to a revelation about the underlying design of a PBL assignment.  Wikis are an amazing collaborative tool.  No question about it!  However, if I am to employ the use of web tools, I must ensure that the design of the program has certain features and objectives embedded in its design.  Students must come away from their projects with an understanding of the value of meaningful collaboration; but more importantly, I must ensure students are engaged enough to view the PBL as fun and challenging work.   The risks of  dishonesty, boredom or even the impression that on-line learning is an express train to an easy “A” are all but removed if the PBL is well designed and managed.

Project-Based Learning - Week 4

Week 4 – “Edutopia” Blog Response

In his blog, “Evidence that PBL Works” ( http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-findings-study-bob-lenz ), Bob Lenz asks  whether having quantitative proof that PBL is effective  will convince more educators to rely on its method.

I would imagine that hard data on PBL may do a great job of convincing administrators (and other stake holders) on its effectiveness, but the teachers may need a little more convincing. 

For starters, good PBL design requires time and a great deal of thought.  If there is one lament I have heard a million times in my graduate program it is “Where will we find the time to do all of this?” Having the time to design is just one of the crucial components necessary to make PBL a standard performance task in our classrooms.  Other teacher concerns may involve understanding how to effectively incoporate state's standards into the design in order to obtain the desired (measurable) results.

Some teachers will need a little more than scientific proof if they are to implement PBL as a standard teaching/learning practice.  More than anything, they will need time and the support of their fellow faculty to design student projects that are truly well thought out and work across content areas.