The WISE Approach!
by Jasmeet Virk ~ February 14th, 2012. Filed under: Module B. Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning Experiences (TELE).WISE is based on Inquiry based learning and its two main principles of making thinking visible and to learn in a social environment. My understanding is that the main motivational force behind the creation of Wise is to promote Epistemic understanding of the ideas about nature of science.
So the WISE uses the social constructivism model of learning which allows students to diagnose, analyse, critique science knowledge in a collaborative online environment. The WISE uses the Web as a teaching medium in which the content is presented mainly through hypertext.
Examination of the lessons show that the information is presented in small slices: first everyday facts were presented to allow learners to make association (contextualize) and then gradually complex information was presented that could be scaffolded by this previous information. Scaffolding is also afforded through multimodal means of written material, visual and auditory representation, and real life documentaries.
As a teacher, I was not allowed to assign the project to my class without previewing the lesson. Students also had to go through the lesson sequentially and could not skip ahead. This affordance allowed meaningful interaction of the learner with the knowledge. There was assessment for understanding and if the students struggled, they were linked back to the page they needed to examine again. Students also did note taking at different stages and were told how they will be utilizing the notes at a later level.Students collaborated with their peers about their learning.
Some Concerns:
I believe that there wasn’t enough collaboration in the process. It was mainly near the end of the process and not much during the knowledge building process. I believe the collaborative part of learning should begin right as the students start to examine their prior knowledge.
There was no facilitation for student-student or student- teacher interaction outside of assignments.
Also there was not much flexibility for externalizing the learning to allow students to represent the learning in different ways.
I missed the open-endedness and the real life connections of the Jasper Series!