Wicked Project Part A
- An educational need or opportunity.
My educational opportunity is to implement project based learning (PBL) into my junior classes next year. For the past two years I have used my juniors as guinea pigs for a “self paced” classroom. For the most part it has worked really well, but I always felt like the projects the students were doing were sub par to what I thought they should be doing. So I will be combining the self-paced class with the project based learning and hope that the projects are more in-depth, creative, and cover all the standards.
- How you plan to address this educational issue with technology.
I plan to address this educational issue daily with technology. My school is going 1:1 next year so, in theory, every one of my students will have some type of a device to use in class. I think this will be the perfect time to implement the PBL into my classroom. “Virtual Organization” is lacking for a lot of students (and teachers!) So I really want to get them to use technology to help them out, not make them more confused. I heard a great term this summer, “virtual backpack.” I will try and equip my students with a virtual backpack that will help them with projects and organization.
One way I will use technology is with a web 2.0 tool called Schoology. Schoology is a classroom tool that will allow me to post all my assignment, add a calendar, post announcements, put students into groups, allows students to add resources, all with a class blog. I will use this to put everything into ONE space. Right now I have a web site and a wiki and it is confusing for my students and a pain for me to up date.
I will also be using Diigo for research. I want my students to get into the habit of saving their research, taking notes on-line, and then possibly sharing the information with a group or me.
With PBL I need several ways for students to present the final project. The technology I will use with that includes: powerpoint, Prezi, Glogster and more if I can find them. I want to give my students choices and the more ways to present I find the better the presentations.
- Logistics of solution:
The Logistics of my “virtual backpack” ( which will include Schoology, Diigo, and the presentation web 2.0 tools) will be used from day one. I want to spend a lot of time with my students to help them get organized for PBL (and their other classes too). The first two or three days will be spent putting things into the “virtual backpack” AND showing them how to use these tools. So many times teachers give students tools, but then they do not show them how to use the tools effectively. I want my students to get into the habit of going to Schoology for assignments, questions, and ideas. I plan to have my students save all their research into Diigo. And finally I want students to play around with the different presentations tools. I would like them to get out of using Powerpoint and explore other means of presenting. I plan to use these tools all year long with all of my students.
- Relevant research and resources
http://www.softwareshortlist.com/articles/Schoology_Review.html
http://www.teachersfirst.com/single.cfm?id=%2011217
http://mulloverthings.com/2012/01/41-schoology-review-part-1-dashboard-profile-blog/
Diigo:
https://sites.google.com/site/team8project9440/using-diigo-in-the-classroom-2
Project Based Learning:
http://college.cengage.com/education/pbl/background.html
http://www.gsn.org/web/pbl/index.htm
http://www.hightechhigh.org/pbl/
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb08/vol65/num05/Project-Based_Learning.aspx
Virtual Backpack
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_H18AdRaNWOSlBrUWhnT3R6NkU/edit
- A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.
- Indicators of a successful project
Hello Janet,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you've got a very meaningful, very useful project to apply technology in your classroom. What I really like about your project is that you plan to have the students hit the ground running with the 1:1 program. I imagine it will be critical to have students using their devices applied to real school work straight away.
Another aspect to your project that I really like is that you've selected two specific technologies for two aspects of the work, but allow the students to evaluate and choose an application where they will be the most creative.
Well done on this, and good luck!
Best,
-Maer...
Janet,
ReplyDeletePrograms always work best when you start with it in the fall! Great way to let students know what you expect from them. I started an inquiry based program with my math students last year. I like the term “virtual backpack" , I'll still that for next year! I curious about the Schoology, I'll be looking to see more about this.
1:1 and PBL were designed for each other. We have been preparing for our 1:1 and are doing the same thing however we are also bringing in challenge based learning, CBL, as we are finding that with the students it creates a more authentic, meaningful, learning environment. Maybe it might worth a moment to look up some of the research.
ReplyDeleteJust out of curiosity - Will the students be able to take their devices home with them at the end of the day? I appreciated the way you included multiple means of representation for your PBL assignments - giving students a choice as to how they will share what they have learned is both personal and powerful. The secon thing I found myself wondering about is what type of devises will you be using in your 1:1 initiative. Will it involve iPads, BYOD, or laptops. Please consider mentioning this, as others will be be interested in implementing your project in their own classrooms. Here are a few technologies, beyond PPT, that came into mind for for student projects: VoiceThread; Google presenter (group projects); Animato; etc at http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools. Looking forward to learning more about your project in your next post.
ReplyDeleteHello! Yes, each student will be able to take their devices home at the end of the day. The 1:1 initiative is BYOD...which will be interesting on many levels and will make assignments a bit of a challenge in some cases, but we'll see how it goes in the fall. I will make sure I mention this on my assignment. Thanks for the new technologies, I will look into those.
ReplyDelete