How Does Project-Based Learning Work? Tools for understanding the process of planning and building projects. Project-based learning, as with all lessons, requires much preparation and planning. It begins with an idea and an essential question. Have in mind what materials and resources will be accessible to the students. Teacher Eeva Reeder developed and implemented an architecture project for her geometry students. Here are steps for implementing PBL, which are detailed below: Start with the Essential Question The question that will launch a PBL lesson must be one that will engage your students. "Questions may be the most powerful technology we have ever created. Take a real-world topic and begin an in-depth investigation. Among many other wonderful resources for understanding PBL, the Buck Institute for Education (BIE) offers a great tutorial on how to "Craft the Driving Question." Edutopia.org PBL blogger Suzie Boss describes a variety of project kickoff ideas in How to Get Projects Off to a Good Start. Create a Schedule
How Do We Prepare Our Children for What’s Next? Culture Digital Tools Teaching Strategies Paul Schultz What kids learn at a young age will determine whether they're prepared for a future full of unknowns. When most of us were deciding what to major in at college, the word Google was not a verb. It wasn’t anywhere close to being conceived at all. Neither was Wikipedia or the iPhone or YouTube. Fast forward a couple of decades (or more) and we see that the career landscape has changed so drastically that jobs need new definitions. Some of us could ask ourselves if we would have embarked upon our current careers had we predicted how the Internet would revolutionize every part of our lives? “We’re 15 years into something so paradigm-changing that we have not yet adjusted our institutions of learning, work, social life, and economic life to account for the massive change.” Davidson offers three can-do suggestions for parents: EXPERIMENT WITH SCRATCH. Here’s the full transcript of my interview with Davidson. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Cathy Davidson Q.
15 Keyboard Shortcuts That Will Enhance Your PC Productivity at www.matchmove.com Inquiry HUB ShowMe - The Online Learning Community Technology in the Classroom | Technology Integration Ideas that Work Technology has become integrated in the classroom in so many ways, that we often don't even think about how we are using it. The Education World Tech Team offers lessons and activities to help educators make better use of technology tools for instruction, and to help students improve their technology skills within the context of the regular curriculum. Included: Integration activities that utilize the Web, PowerPoint, Excel, digital photography, SMART Boards, and more. In more and more schools today, technology is recognized as an instructional tool, not as a subject of instruction. Still, many educators, less familiar and less comfortable with technology than their students, struggle to seamlessly integrate a growing list of technology tools into their regular curriculum. "Using technology in the classroom is becoming easier for teachers," instructional technology consultant Jamye Swinford told Education World. "Refdesk also has links to newspapers, listed by state and country.
The Cycle of Inquiry and Action: Essential Learning Communities Sidebars:The Cycle of InquiryKey to Teacher Inquiry: Framing the Question, Planning the ResearchWhat Counts as Data?Three Ways of Looking at a Colleague: Protocols for Peer ObservationReadings and Resourcs In a true learning community, inquiry becomes everybody's work. Teaching, learning, community involvement, leadership, organizational management and change, professional growth–all take place in a continual dynamic of asking good questions and finding evidence that can guide a school's actions. The kids who skip school, the kids who cut class, and the kids kicked out of class all end up, at some point, in Greg Peters's office at Oceana High School. "I could spend all my time just checking up on kids," says Peters, a math teacher and the attendance officer at this 800-student school in Pacifica, California, a diverse, working-class community about half an hour south of San Francisco. And their findings usefully highlighted some issues at the school. A Cycle: Inquiry and Action
Featured Project Detail : Adobe Youth Voices .: AnimAction, Inc - Awareness Through Animation ™ :. In June 2006, Adobe launched a new global philanthropic program, Adobe Youth Voices. The program engages 12-18 year-olds with digital tools to develop critical skills necessary to become active and engaged members of their communities. Through documentary filmmaking, animation, digital images, audio and web projects, these youth are encouraged to "create with purpose" and have a voice in changing their communities. AnimAction was invited to collaborate as an animation training partner with Adobe Youth Voices partners iEARN, the world's largest non-profit global network of K-12 educators and youth using technology to design and collaborate on projects that make a difference in the world, and Listen Up! AnimAction trained 60 youth and teachers in animation at the Adobe Youth Voices, Christel House India Learning Centre based in Bangalore. The collaborative efforts of all the partners developed into a resounding success as you can read from the comments from teachers and youth.
Online Projects Are for Everyone Are you tired of locating the "perfect" Internet activity, only to find it full of dead links and confusing directions? Are you bored with P owerPoint? Are you looking for interesting technology integration activities that work the first time, every time? Look no further! As you head back to school this fall, it's likely that you face a strong administrative mandate to more fully integrate technology into your curriculum. For many teachers, however, using technology also presents a significant challenge. To help you solve those problems and meet that challenge, to simply get you started as quickly and easily as possible, we asked the Education World Tech Team members to share with you some of their favorite tried-and-true technology integration activities. "One of the more exciting aspects of my job is seeing teachers take hold of technology and incorporate it into their own classroom needs," Lydia Patrick told Education World. The project involves a total of eight lessons:
21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning | K12 educational transformation through technology Flipped learning: A response to five common criticisms One of the reasons this debate exists is because there is no true definition of what “flipped learning” is. Over the past few years, the Flipped Learning method has created quite a stir. Some argue that this teaching method will completely transform education, while others say it is simply an opportunity for boring lectures to be viewed in new locations. While the debate goes on, the concept of Flipped Learning is not entirely new. It’s our opinion that one of the reasons this debate exists is because there is no true definition of what Flipped Learning is. Dr.
EducationNews.org - An Authoritative News Source for Elementary School, High School, and Higher Education News and Education Articles Instructional Strategies Online "What children learn depends not only on what they are taught but also how they are taught, their development level, and their interests and experiences.... These beliefs require that much closer attention be paid to the methods chosen for presenting material..." Understanding the Common Essential Learnings, Saskatchewan Education, 1988. (p.10) "The last decades of research in human learning have presented new insights into the ways that learners are active in constructing their own understanding. Constructivist learning theories have shown the limitations of viewing 'learning' as something we can 'give' to students that they will 'receive' or learn in exactly the same form, at exactly the given time."