Project Based Learning

How can / has the implementation of Project-Based Learning changed the learning environment in my classroom? 

Project Based Learning can impact the environment of a classroom in a number of was. First, it continues to tear down the model of teacher as expert. It asks students to become the experts on a given subject. Second, the approach of finding solutions to a prompt has many real world applications. 

What impact does an excellent Essential / Driving question affect student engagement and the quality of the final projects?

On the most basic level, the quality (or lack there of) of students answers is directly related to the quality of the questions you ask. The significance of this truth is amplified when the questions need to last for an entire unit.

Problem Based Learning

I thought the "Bad Day for Sandy Dalton" activity was really nice! In fact, in college, I took a class called "Physics for Poets" that tried to teach science in a similar way. I enjoyed the class, which is the most important aspect of these kinds of lessons: students really get into the narrative aspect of these problems. Additionally, it makes lessons relevant because something like a car accident is common and relatable.

I also really like the idea of coming back to a single case study during a unit. One way to do this is to frame a recurrent essential question, with a story. For example, in my Literature of Sports and American Culture class we continually return to the Ed O'Bannon's legal suit against the NCAA for profiting off the use of his likeness. By continuing to come back to the case each time we get new information, it requires students to continually re-evaluate their own opinions.

Understanding by Design

I think the most relevant essential question for the Gold Coast activity is: How might the lives of humans living in coastal areas change because of changing sea levels?

(Though this doesn't come directly from the information presented in the assignment, I'd also want my students to think about culpability by answering the following: If human initiated climate change is responsible for rising sea levels, do we have a moral responsibility to change our activity to try to arrest the impact for people living on the coasts?)

Lesson 7 Reflection: Inquiry

Inquiry is an essential element to any modern classroom. It further removes the idea of the teacher as expert and allows for students to build content, determine focus, and build their own expertise. As students find resources and wrestle with big questions, they will have ownership not only over the content the have selected, but more importantly, they will have ownership of the ideas and conclusions they draw. The freedom allowed by this kind of study shows students the ultimate respect because it shows them that we know they are capable of creative and intelligent conclusions. I think inquiry based learning does just as much for the climate of a classroom as it does for the actual learning.

Lesson 6 Reflection: Constructivism

Part 1: Discuss your experience working through the French Revolution activity.

I enjoyed the readings and activity, I think this seems like an ideal way to learn history, though it can be difficult for students. When Albert Chan and I use primary documents in a fashion similar to this in our ALCUSH class we typically have students summarize the document before drawing conclusions from what they have read. We have found that this added step often forces students to read a bit more closely - especially when reading texts with challenging language like Jonathan Edwards's Puritan sermon "In the Hands of an Angry God".

Part 2: Constructivist Lesson Outline. How does the goal of the lesson influence / affect the tools used? What advantages do you see the tools used by your students give them over a more traditional approach?

The way I teach literature relies on students formulating their own ideas, and so my lessons often take forms similar to this. This is not to say that there are no wrong answers, but only that there are potentially multiple textually supported possible "right" answers. In terms of my goals and the tools I use, the readings and assignments are structured to push students to think for themselves, but I think I need to be more intentional about including goals and using tools to facilitate more comprehensive and differentiated ways for students to communicate the great ideas they are coming up with. I hope that after this class I will begin to experiment more with using web 2.0 tools to help my students express their ideas.

Lesson 5 Reflection

I have used collaborative projects in my classes, most frequently in ALCUSH. Albert Chan and I have students create powerpoint presentations to cover historical topics we don't have enough time to focus on. For example, each group will gather information about American culture in the 20's (sports, fashion, etc.), and each group will present to their classmates. This does allow us to cover a lot quickly, though it is not always covered well. It also gives students a level of power over our class curriculum, which is nice. The collaborative google products that have come into the educational scene have made these kinds of collaborative assignments possible. They did not exist when I started teaching, and these types of assignments would have been extremely difficult to assign. Collaboration no longer has to mean a substantial amount of class time is lost.  

Lesson 4 Reflection

I see that OER have the potential to level some of the playing field in education. No matter what their locale, students can have some of the brightest minds teaching them through their internet connection. Another positive is the adaptability and real-time updates that can happen to the content - as opposed to the set in stone textbooks.

On the other hand, I see some serious problems presented by an increased dependence on OER. The main issue I have is the impersonal aspect of the lessons. This criticism has two aspects for me. First, the lessons I deliver to my students are specifically based on what I know about them as learners. My knowledge of my students informs the order of activities, pacing, even the word choice I use in presenting a lesson. OER must be for the masses, and therefore, will lose this differentiated and personalized aspect. Second, the credibility I have with my students is only partially based on their belief in my expertise in my subject are. In my experience, it is much more important that they know and respect me as an individual and that I know and respect them as individuals than it is for them to know I am smart. Without this personal relationship, they will not listen to or care about what I am trying to teach them; it is foundational. OER, again, lose this relational aspect of education. Because of these issues, I see OER as a furtherance of the flipped classroom pedagogy - they can be useful to supplement in class learning, but should be used with discretion.

I do think part of what I've written above comes from my discipline; besides grammar, I don't teach many explicit skills. Instead, my students are reading novels and discussing their ideas about what they've read. I am not willing to outsource these discussion, and perhaps that is where some of my aversion comes from. I would be happy for OER to teach my students things like grammar (or supplement my teaching).