I designed the second module of the Moodle site according to the Scratch kindergarten learning approach (Resnik, 2012), community of practices (Barab and Duffy, 2000) and social constructivism, and the Gibbs & Simpson’s assessment framework (2004).
Firstly, the Lifelong Kindergarten group initially designed the Scratch platform and the activities of the online community to extend the kindergarten learning approach (Imagine -> Create -> Play -> Share -> Reflect->Imagine) for young learners. However, the same approach can be utilized to teach learning groups at any age. Resnik (2012) argued that the kindergarten learning approach can be applied to any learning environment to increase motivation and creativity (Resnik, 2012).
The following is the Scratch learning philosophy incorporated into the second module:
- Imagine – designing features and creating requirements will promote learners’ imagination and help them design game components: sprites, backgrounds and music.
- Create – creating the Scratch project after watching tutorials will provide students with the opportunity to design and create their own Scratch project
- Play – tinkering with the Scratch program blocks is a part of playing, and it is similar to playing with Lego blocks.
- Share – sharing their cool ideas on creating scratch characters and programming experience with course participants on the discussion forum will provide students with meaningful sharing experiences . Also, the workshop is the space for sharing work.
- Reflect – Students will reflect how they did or how other group members did during the workshop activities. The workshop is a space to give feedback and explore other people’s work.
Secondly, the course assignments provide students with “communities of practice” (Barab and Duffy, 2000). Students will learn how to program in real-life software engineering context. The activities, like creating design specification and requirements, and creating their own games as a group, will help students build strong relationships within communities and construct knowledge together. The group design and requirements activity affords strong social learning opportunities (Vygotsky, 1978) facilitated by knowledge exchange among peers. The social constructivist view highlights learning as a social activity and emphasizes that learners’ interactions with people in the environment stimulate their cognitive growth (Schunk, 2008). During the collaborative design and requirements gathering activities, learners will revise and advance their ideas by knowledge negotiation and knowledge sharing within the community. According to social constructivism, learning “requires exchanging, sharing, and negotiation, as well as occasionally drawing on the expertise of more knowledgeable individuals.” and it “involves both personal inner process and social aspect” (Liu, Lin, Chiu, & Yuan, 2001, p. 247).
Thirdly, I used Moodle’s workshop feature to explore how assessment can be done through peer review and how the assessment can extend learning. According to Gibbs & Simpson’s assessment framework (2004), the assessment should promote extended learning. It appears that the workshop is a great place to promote the extended learning utilizing anonymous peer feedback, self-assessment and sharing with peers. Specifically, the workshop activity allows peers to review other students’ work anonymously. Anonymous peer review has proven to be a beneficial learning activity in that it increases the quality and amount of critical feedback (Lu & Bol, 2007).
References:
Barab, S. A. & Duffy, T. M. (2000). From practice fields to communities of practice. In D. H. Jonassen & S. M. Land (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp. 25-55). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved from: http://sashabarab.com/research/onlinemanu/papers/commun.pdf
Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2005). “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 11 March 2009.
http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
Liu, E. Z., Lin, S. S., Chiu, C. H., & Yuan, S. M. (2001). Web-based peer review: The learner as both adapter and reviewer. IEEE Transactions on Education, 44(3), 246-251.
Lu, R. & Bol, L. (2007). A comparison of anonymous versus identifiable e-peer review on college student writing performance and the extent of critical feedback. Journal of Interactive Online Learning 6 (2), 100-115. Retrieved from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/6.2.2.pdf
lwf (2012, February 12). Mitch Resnick – Learning from Scratch. Retrieved March 5th 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDPssJedOJ4
Schunk, D. H. (2008). Learning theories: An educational perspective (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press