Helping Students Become Global Citizens with NETS-S

The National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S), developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) outline various standards students should know and be able to do in regards to learning about and with technology. Within the NETS-S, there are 6 overarching skills students need to acquire in order to become productive global citizens and advocates of learning with technology:

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

Web 2.0 applications have the ability to provide the tools necessary to help students be able to “communicate, collaborate, compose, create, and contribute” (Schrock, 2006). Students have the ability to continue learning outside the classroom walls like never before, as access to these tools can happen at any time through the use of the newest technologies like the Kindle, iPad, iPhone, and Android applications.


Collaboration tools, such as Google Docs, can provide an experience in sharing the production and editing of content in “real-time” by all members of the group from any locale. Once the document has been created, validation of the creative work can be published online easily on a Wikispaces page. These communication and collaboration tools allow students to easily “interact, collaborate, and publish with peers [as they] contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems” (NETS-S, 2011).

In decades past, learning had been centered around the content. The primary shift for the 21^st Century learner is for students to be “learning the tools and the skills of remaking that content, becoming the creator and producer” (Rhoten, MacArthur Foundation, 2010, 1:42). The challenge, then, is finding the proper vehicle to drive learning within this new construct.

Kathy Schrock, a dedicated educator and advocate of technology in education, has taken on the challenge of providing a list of Web 2.0 applications that address the hierarchy of Bloom’s Taxonomy, known as Bloomin’ Apps. This digitally-mastered reference provides easy access into addressing higher-order thinking and processing skills through the sole use of Web 2.0 applications. With a bit of planning and purposeful design, each level on the taxonomy can be tapped into and related to the NETS-S standards.

The most daunting task in the process of addressing the NETS-S is keeping informed and updated on the latest technologies. As technology rapidly changes, so must how we teach and prepare our students for jobs that have not yet been created. With the NETS-S framework and Web 2.0 applications, this challenge could be an exciting adventure in transforming the face and pace of education.

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ISTE. (2007). NETS for Students 2007. ISTE - International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved April 15, 2012, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx

MacArthur Foundation. (2010, December 01). Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner. YouTube. Retrieved April 15, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw

Schrock, K. (2011). Bloomin' Apps - Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Retrieved April 15, 2012, from http://www.schrockguide.net/bloomin-apps.html 

Schrock, K. (2006, April 9). Overview. Kathy Schrock's Home Page. Retrieved from http://kathyschrock.net/web20/

Week 1: Project Based Learning - Exemplars

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." --- Benjamin Franklin

This quote from Benjamin Franklin could be the motto for project-based learning (PBL).  The more involved students are in their learning, the more they will learn, and are able to make connections to other concepts.

The exemplar lessons available on Edutopia depict great examples of students taking ownership in what they want to learn about as well as applying what they have already learned to real-world situations.

In each of the examples, the students are given choices and are making decisions. The teacher does not dictate what the students are to be learning about; they offer guidance by asking questions to help narrow and define the topic.

Authentic learning is happening in an architecture lesson at Mountlake Terrace High School where students use what they have learned in Geometry to create a design plan for a state-of-the-art high school in 2050. They enthusiastically begin developing futuristic models. There seems to be no limits to their ideas other than those that are bound by the laws of mathematics. The project allows them to unleash their creativity while working with peers developing communication and collaboration skills. The teacher provides guidance and invites experts into the classroom to offer suggestions and help assess the projects. The students’ ideas were valued and efforts awarded with compliments from the experts during development and through presentations at the end of the project.

Worms were just one topic of interest for a group of students at Newsome Park Elementary School. The school’s progressive approach to incorporate PBL allowed students the opportunity to investigate topics they were interested in, not just dictated by the teacher. The ideas ranged from worms to the stock market to cystic fibrosis, all due to the concern of a fellow student stricken with the disease. Through hands-on experiences, the students develop problem solving strategies and critical thinking skills that will be embedded for life-long learning. Because the teacher has taken time to carefully plan the project framework, other skills such as writing, math, and reading are incorporated, as they would be in the real world.

Technology can be a big component of the PBL process. Students learning about the migration of monarchs utilize the Internet to monitor their journey north after winter. It also provides a way for students to communicate and collaborate with peers in other states, or countries, as they contribute valuable data to the Journey North project. The students also connect what they learn through this project into the classroom as they observe and record changes to butterfly eggs found just outside their school. They were able to document larval activity until emergence using photography and create a culminating presentation to share with their peers as well as community members.

All three examples highlighted how this type of learning crosses curricular boundaries. In addition, multiple academic standards could be incorporated throughout one project with careful planning. In this format, the role of the teacher does change from the “sage on the stage” to facilitator and coach. The students are active participants in what they learn and how they learn, giving them the motivation and enthusiasm to become life-long learners.

References

Armstrong, S. (2002, February 11). Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning. Edutopia.com. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Curtis, D. (2001, October 1). More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?! Edutopia.com. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2002, June 6). March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration. Edutopia.com. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

The SUMmary of the Parts - IBL Week 7

Throughout the past seven weeks, I have been challenged to think about how I can incorporate

Inquiry-based Learning processes into my teaching. I was forced to examine how I can structure my lessons to produce more student-centered inquiry and incorporate Web 2.0 applications into the process.

I have not had the opportunity to put IBL into practice completely. What I have done is become more selective with the types of questions I ask. Getting my students to ask questions and think deeper about a concept is my ultimate goal so I know that I must model how to ask these investigable questions to produce critical thinking. At first I struggled to ask the correct questions in my math classes in order to get my students to think beyond “finding the answer”. At first, they looked at me like I was a bit unstable, but now I see them taking the time to think and analyze things more and more.

My current position does not permit me to utilize technology as much as I would like. However, I intend to continue to research Web 2.0 applications that could be integrated into my lessons. I feel it is part of my job to expose my students to quality online tools that they could possibly use in the future. I need to be cognizant of the fact that I need to contribute to educating my students for jobs that are not even invented yet. Helping my students become more organized, develop critical thinking, and questioning skills, will only assist them in their future educational endeavors. Utilizing aspects of Inquiry-based Learning may just be the tool I need to do that.

Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate & Evaluate - IBL Week 6

This week’s unit focused on developing lessons with the end-result in mind first, and then working backward. What I found most difficult was limiting my thinking to just the concepts of the lesson. I guess my focus has been to make the lessons utilize hands-on activities to convey the concept. I did not take the time to work through each phase of the 5E Instructional Model as proposed from the Biological Science Curriculum Study (2006). I know I thought about how I would “hook” the students, but beyond that and the assessment, my lessons went, well, how they went.

The exercise of taking a lesson and developing a specific course for each phase—Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate—permitted me to see how valuable it is to take the time to develop a lesson with these factors in mind. It was a difficult task, but I feel my lesson is much richer because of it. I now have a clearer understanding of where I want to take my students and am hopeful they will recognize it as well.

As Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." How true this is when designing lessons. The end must be in mind in order to take the right path to learning.

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Bybee, R, Taylor, J, Gardner, A,Van Scotter, P, & Powell, J. (2006, July). The Bscs 5e instructional model: 

     origins, effectiveness and applications .Retrieved from

     http://www.bscs.org/pdf/bscs5efullreport2006.pdf

Web 2.0 and Inquiry Based Learning – IBL Week 5

Last week, I posed the question, “will the IBL process alone be enough to motivate the unmotivated?” In the back of my mind, I worry about providing lessons that are engaging. This week, I learned how to incorporate Web 2.0 applications into the IBL process to help engage students.

I still wonder. Will inquiry-based lessons be enough to motivate and engage learners with technology added into the mix? I have never agreed with using technology for just the sake of using it. I know my students come into the classroom having had more access to technology than I ever have and with a much shorter learning curve. They also have a different mindset about technology than I do. I see it as a tool to become more productive in society whereas they may only view it as entertainment.

What Web 2.0 applications do, in my opinion, is provide alternatives and opportunities to the teacher and the student. I know I must attempt to reach all of my students, even those who are far better at using technology than I. Web 2.0 allows me to better equip myself for the 21^st Century learner. The content I teach will primarily be the same, but the learner will be different as well as the tools and the processes I use to reach him.

I guess moderation is the best way of approaching how to best use technology. I must make sure that students first understand the process of inquiry and the scientific process before adding another feature. I also think that if a student is truly interested in the topic, technology will neither enhance, nor detract, from their learning. Allowing students to choose what they want to investigate is key in this process.

This brings another question to mind about IBL. How much choice can you give them without sacrificing the integrity of the lesson?

Investigating Facts, Concepts, and Questioning Techniques – IBL Week 4

What I learned this week is Inquiry Based Learning is all about questions. Sounds simple enough, but when you are forced to look at overarching concepts and the facts that support them, you need to figure out how to ask the right question to get the “right” answer. I am not just speaking of a fact-based question that requires mere recall. More appropriately, I speak of a question that motivates the student to think beyond the facts, to use the facts, to investigate a possible solution.

Before approaching a concept with students, it is very important to take in consideration what they know and what they do not know, essentially their background knowledge. Students come into the classroom with their own set of facts about a particular concept. It is our job to find out exactly where we need to take them.

Discerning between fact and concept was a challenging assignment this week. There was no discussion prior to the activity to see if I understood what each was, and had there been, I would have felt confident that I knew. As I began to make decisions about each statement, I began to second-guess my initial response and continued to waver throughout the list of facts and concepts. I realized through the assignment how important it is have students discuss what they think and know about a concept before throwing them into an activity. The reason is two-fold: the teacher can find out valuable information, such as misconceptions students might have, or facts they already know; students that have little knowledge of the topic listen to what their peers are saying and can begin to make connections.

As I think about my own questioning techniques, I realize I do ask questions that require more recall than critical thinking processes. I need to be more aware of developing more investigable questions than non-investigable. The better I become, the better my students will become in discriminating between them, as well, and will begin to ask questions that get them thinking deeper about a topic.

My biggest concern at this point of the course is how do I get the unmotivated student to ask the questions, to want to participate in the IBL process? My own response seems to be, “get them motivated.” That is the answer everyone gives, but we all know that is easier to say than to do in some cases. Will the IBL process alone be enough to motivate the unmotivated?

Abilities, Understandings and Process Skills – IBL Week 3

Reading through the case studies, and viewing the video examples, helped to provide a clearer picture of what Inquiry Based Learning can look like in the classroom. There are various levels of student participation, questioning techniques, and teacher participation.

The inquiry-learning continuum ranges from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom with various levels of inquiry in between. In the teacher-centered classroom, questioning is very structured by the teacher. The students do not participate in creating the questions that lead to the investigation. This could be considered the beginning steps of implementation as the teacher eventually begins to release control and guide the students throughout the inquiry process. At the end of the continuum the students are given opportunity to ask questions based on what they want to know about a given subject, create a plan, and carry out the investigation. This open environment in facilitated only by the teacher.

While I did have the opportunity to peek inside an inquiry-based learning environment through this week’s activities, one question still remains. How do I effectively begin the process? What are the main pitfalls I can avoid? How will I know if my students are ready?