I have become somewhat attached to G+ as I find it a simple discussion board to which one can attach links, video and images, etc. But I very much like the fact that I can take my time and think about what I want to say and present my ideas fully. My responses are not instant; rather I mull ideas over and look at readings before responding, if I respond at all. The time to process supports my learning style.
Twitter, however, is the other extreme. This is a new tool to me. I still struggle to see how the discussion aspect works and only just recently actually figured out that I could reply to another person… so much for me thinking that I was at least become fluent enough to speak to the natives.
With this in mind, over the course of the week I have I have been devising a plan of sorts to try on one group of unsuspecting students. And then I got inspired to share after viewing the video shared by Lisa. I realized that it is a leap of faith that I needed to make, there are too many good ideas out there and, as Edward suggested, perhaps I was putting it off because I felt that I needed more support, or at least that was my excuse. Perhaps I didn’t want to air the first version, just the successful 23rd version. But where will that get me? So I thought to myself that I would ‘go all in’.
My plan was quite simple, let me correct myself; I thought my plan was quite simple. Have students complete a project like I have many times before but this time have them produce a product blending a number of technologies. Then I thought of the lack of reward inherent in many projects, just more ‘product’ to be produced by students. Then I remembered the projects where teachers would publish the works of the students and recalled the pride they had when they viewed their finished product.
Then I thought, “I am going to flip this all about and have them create an Open Educational Resource (OER) using Creative Commons”. As Barry said, its an opportunity for me to not be the expert, but rather to facilitate and provide structure for the students to lead their own learning.
My idea now seemed less simple …
The class that was going to complete this task is a traditional face to face senior Economics class. I wanted to leverage the technology we have been investigating, so I discussed openly with the students possible tools and what their ideas were.
I was interested by two specific points. In this senior class there were several students that did not have cell phones! The second was a matter of student choice. Where given multiple tools to use when responding to questions, their concern was would they be penalized for not participating in all of the tools?
So I was in a bit of a quandary, I had a project where I wanted them to using online tools, but had several problems to address. So I circled back to the beginning. I knew they liked the idea of communicating online, but they wanted a ‘one stop project shop’.
My decision? The website provider Weebly? Weebly has simple to create pages using pre-existing elements, it can be accessed via smartphones and allows both Twitter and Facebook to be linked to it. More importantly it allowed for discussions to be centralized, and the final product to be created managed and delivered.
The perfect tool perhaps? I doubt it, but I feel that I am making gains again in the technical tools side of education.
So the purpose of my blog this week was to share my experience in facilitating this project. The first step was to have a simple site created and to have the students develop a basic knowledge of what was trying to be achieved. So far we have begun looking at Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources, the next will be to investigate what makes a good OER, then we will begin development of a ‘plan’ using Understanding by Design.
My only question at the moment is regarding student materials being published online. Do I need a consent from students? I feel that once they publish under the Creative Commons licensing it should be fine.
I see this project as not only an opportunity for students to show what they have learned throughout the course, but also an opportunity for them to see that the knowledge they have gained has value.
We have completed one activity and I can say that the students were very engaged. I myself am very excited to see where they take it. So I invite you to follow us in our project, A Study of Supply and Demand, even though it is version one, and welcome any ideas or comments.
Now I am just hoping that there is enough time left in the year.
References
Collaborative for Teaching and Learning. (2014, March 5). Project Based Learning. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNff-hVg2s