3351 Double Journal Entry #9

Quotes:


"Create is at the root of  creative thinking. If we want
children to develop as creative thinkers, we need to provide
them with more opportunities to create (Resnick)."


"How can we use new technologies to integrate play, design,
and learning? One way is to provide children with the
opportunity to design their own games (Resnick)."


"In recent years, schools have adopted more “hands-on”
design activities, but the focus is usually on the creation of
an artifact rather than critical reflection on the ideas that
guided the design, or strategies for refining and improving the
design, or connections to underlying scientific concepts and
related real-world phenomena (Resnick)."

Response:

I chose the first quote because I strongly agree with what it says. To get students to become creative thinkers they have to be given a chance to create and sadly once a student reaches the secondary schools most of the opportunities to create something for themselves have been taken away or the guidelines are so strict that there is seldom room for their own creativity. The next quote I chose because I thought this was a great idea. Just think about what students would learn by creating their own games. They would learn how to use technology in a very creative fun way along with several other things including design and even problem solving. I see this last quote as still being a major problem in our schools today. Teachers are having students create projects but that spend little time on why they did this project and how it relates to the real world instead once the project is done then the students get a grade and they move on.

Here is a YouTube video with Mitchel Resnick talking about the kindergarten approach to learning.

Sources:


All i really need to know (about creative thinking) i learned (by studying how children learn) in kindergarten. Retrieved from http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/kindergarten-learning-approach.pdf

3351 WebQuest Link

The WebQuest I will be working on with Donnie Harrison is here.

3351 Double Journal Entry 8

What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?


One of the biggest challenges to this approach is teachers simply lacking the skills and knowledge to implement these approaches. If a teacher does not fully understand how to do something then they get frustrated and see it as a waste of time. Through most of my blog postings I have touched on this problem especially when dealing with technology. The first step in creating a better education system is to first teach the teachers.

Project-based learning and research-based strategies:


Setting objectives can be seen in project-based learning through the fact of there is a common goal that the students are working towards.

Simulations and Games can be connected to project-based learning because they both are using different means to teach students knowledge in a way that is grabbing the students attention.

Cues, Questions, and Advanced Organizers is connected to project-based learning through the fact that it is using students prior knowledge to build upon.

Sources:


Barron Brigid. (n.d.). Teaching for meaningful learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf


Research-based strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/

2201 Magazine Cover

2201 Double Journal Entry #6

Relationship between media literacy skills and traditional literacy skills:

   Media literacy skills and traditional literacy skills are related because they both share the same skill sets such as using prior knowledge and making predictions.

Quote:

"Even though students are spending more and more time on the Internet and teachers increasingly expect their students to do assignments online, digital media literacy skills are vastly underrepresented in the curriculum for all but the most advanced students (as, indeed, are offline critical-thinking and reading-comprehension skills).(David, 2009)".

Response:

This quote sums up yet another huge problem in today's education field. We are requiring students to use technology yet we are not teaching them how to use it. In a lot of cases some of the teachers do not even know how to use the technology either as they pointed this out also. Our education system is stuck in a traditional state of mind. As I have said in previous posts the old way worked during the time it was useful but that time passed with the coming of the Internet. In this article it also pointed out that other countries educational field are surpassing ours because we have not yet started using technology to its fullest potential. I understand that our culture is rich in traditions and in a lot of situations we bulk at change but when it comes to educating our children we should do whats best for them even if it means reteaching teachers that are already teaching.

Here is a great site that you can use to learn more about media literacy.

Sources:

David , J. (2009). Teaching media literacy . Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

Double Journal Entry #7

1. What "dominant paradigm" is showing signs of wear?


The "dominant paradigm" they are referring to as showing signs of wear is the traditional way we have been educating our students. This method was based on the teachers and the textbooks being the mane source of knowledge. In this method the knowledge was taught through lecturing and reading.

2. According to the research, how does Project-Based Learning support learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.


In the traditional approaches the focus was on content knowledge. With Project-Based Learning not only are the students learning the content they are also learning how to transfer the knowledge they have to handle new problems they encounter. They learn how to use their prior knowledge more proficiently in performance situations that they will face in the real world and in future jobs. The first benefit form Project-Based Learning is an increase on test scores dealing with critical thinking as we can see in the study done by Shepherd (1998). The second benefit is seen in Boaler (1997, 1998) study. In this study students in Project-Based Learning school were taught mathematical knowledge that engaged them in exploration and thought. These students did better on conceptual problems then those taught in traditional schools and within three years more of these students passed the National Exam. A third benefit is a increase in students ability to define problems from Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal (1992) study.


3. According to the research, how does Problem-Based Learning support learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.


Problem-Based Learning is better than traditional approaches because unlike traditional approaches that use a single approach to solving problems Problem-Based has several approaches that can lead to solving the problem. They have the students break into small groups to identify a problem then come up with a approach to solve it. Most of the research on this method has been done with students in medical education. According to the study done by (Vernon & Blake, 1993; Abanese and Mitchell,1993) medical students who were taught by Problem-Based Learning scored higher on clinical problem solving measures then those who were not. In teacher education this method better prepares teacher candidates to think through and resolve classroom dilemmas more productively (Darling-Hammond & Hammerness, 2002). Also students who are taught under this method are able to come up with accurate hypotheses and coherent explanations (Hmelo, 1998b; Schmidt et al., 1996).


4. According to the research, how does Learning by Design support learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.


Learning by design supports learning better by giving students a better understanding and application of knowledge. A benefit of this method can be seen in developing technical and subject matter knowledge (Newstetter, 2000). Another benefit with this method is better learning outcomes as fount in Hmelo, Holton and Kolodner (2000) study. In a study done by Fortus and colleagues (2004) showed that this method help students learn the targeted science concept better.


5. What are the differences between the three approaches.


 The major difference I see between the three approaches is determining which approach better benefits the content you are trying to teach. A example of this would be I would use the problem-based approach over the learn by design to teach math.


6. In your opinion, what is the most important benefit to learning that is common across the three types of inquiry-based learning approaches?


The fact that they are teaching students skills that will help them in the real world.

Sources:


Barron Brigid. (n.d.). Teaching for meaningful learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

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