Today as we broke into our small groups, I found it interesting to note that three of our members were from elementary schools and thcompleting ree from middle and high schools.  This was exciting to me because this indicates that project based learning has a place in Kindergarten to grade twelve education and I find that best practices in teaching are often applicable in many teaching environments.  This also means that I better do a very good job at implementing this type of learning with my students so that they are capable of projects in this manner as this is something that they will be doing for the rest of their educational careers if not the rest of their lives.

Our group had a good discussion about the International Baccalaureate program as Jenny teaches in an IB school.  It was good to hear that this type of learning can actually be effective in a classroom setting.    We didn’t, however, get to much of a discussion about technology in this type of setting.  I can see the possibilities of using technology to enhance these types of projects, both as a research tool but also as a presentation tool.  I am curious if students get in a technology rut and if given a chance they would always present in the same format ie. video or if they would be self motivated to try a blog one time, a video the next, a cartoon the next etc.

Project based learning does have a variety of resources on line.  The above image shows an outline of the PLB framework.  This PBL site seems to have good resources available (http://pbl-online.org/) and a good outline of what PBL is.  I am wondering if there is a way that I could set up some sort of forum within our school district SharePoint where people could share unit ideas and ideas about how PBL is working in their classrooms.  I wonder if my forum has to be restricted to SharePoint because as the one go to place for all members of our district, perhaps people would be more inclined to contribute rather than having to check two different places.  Perhaps people would be happy to check two different places if the information was valuable enough?

Why School was a great read for me this week.  While it was very American in its content, it only serves to make me love teaching in Canada that much more.  I thoroughly agree that when students are engaged, they are more likely to seek out answers and ways to problem solve.  I actually brought with me from home the Focus on Inquiry document that came out of Alberta in 2004, just for some relaxation reading when I am not working on homework. While inquiry based learning has been around for some time, I am not sure that I have a handle on what it really entails.  However from the blurry vision I have on this topic, I think that this type of learning lends itself very well to implementing technology in a variety of ways.

After all the work that has been going on with collaboration in my district last year, I was really hoping to focus technology on enhancing this collaboration.  I was also wanting to explore this inquiry based learning to greater depth.  I am wondering if they both can fit together in some way and also implement technology as a support for both the collaboration and the inquiry.  Perhaps the resources we have looked at this week could support both these points, or perhaps there are other aspects of technology that could enhance these topics to a greater extent.

I found a little video on YouTube that talks about project based learning (inquiry based learning).  The video is not the greatest in terms of graphics but the ideas presented are really great.  Not only does it talk about the classroom but about a similar project in the work world.  The connection is made that this is a life long skill that will be as useful in the professional world as it is in the classroom.

Project Based Learning: Explained

Here is where my technological expertise is lacking.  I can’t figure out how to put the video here, but I am fairly sure the link will take you there on your computer…It does on mine.  if anyone can help me learn how to insert a YouTube video into a blog I would be very grateful!

Information literacy seems to have many definitions.  Some definitions that classmates have blogged about involve the term “mastery”.  I have often wondered what this term means.  Is it being able to use the technology in a consistent manner, is it knowing every little feature and every nuance of the program, or is it being competent enough to teach others how to use it?  Since I don’t know the answer to this question, I tend to lean more towards other definitions of information literacy.

The University of Calgary has a good post about information literacy.  It provides several definitions of what this literacy could mean and points out that different people have different definitions.  For some, it simple means keeping up with the pace of technology.  For others the definition is more complex.  “Information literacy entails finding, evaluating, using, and subsequently communicating knowledge. The person must desire to know; must use analytic skills to formulate questions; must identify research methodologies; and must utilize critical skills for evaluation. In addition, the person must be able to search for answers to those questions in increasingly complex and diverse ways. Information literacy, then, involves a complex set of skills that allow us to express, explore, question, and understand the flow of ideas among individuals and groups in a vastly changing technological environment.” (http://people.ucalgary.ca/~ahayden/literacy.htm). The reason that I like this definition is that it goes beyond the connected self.  It is not just about personal interests and keeping up with technology to use as an individual.  Rather, it is about looking at a wide variety of resources, evaluating what is effective for the task at hand, putting it into practice and then sharing that knowledge with others.  I mentioned collaboration yesterday and I think that that is a key component with information literacy.  It is about sharing valuable knowledge with others in a timely fashion.  I do think, however, it is better to focus in on a few resources that you can learn and implement really well rather than being a “Jack of all trades and a master of none”.

In many ways, the reading of this article had me thinking that I am so glad that I don’t live in the United States.  While we fight over FSA’s and the Fraser Institute rankings here in BC, neither are tied to whether I have a job next year or not.  Partly because of this, I feel more freedom to  experiment and get closer to the new vision of schools.  What is this new vision, well, I don’t really know.  I suppose everyone’s vision is a little bit different.

In my school district, a big portion of the budget has gone to supporting collaboration among staff.   Each school had a core team (including extra staffing) to design ways of collaboration in the classroom.  It was very interesting to go to the district meetings and listen many ways that  schools are using this resource.  I find it ironic that, while we expect collaboration among our students, there is very little modelling of this practice for our students.  I do think that the way of the future is more in collaboration than isolation and that the article is correct in questioning the skills we are teaching our students.  Is it more important to teach dates and places or to teach students how to learn and how to expand their knowledge base in a collaborative setting?  I don’t think that there is one broad stroke that will be the “right” way to do things but I think that the important thing is to be open to different ways of doing things and to not be stagnant in ideas or practice.

Technology is another issue that we have been working with.  In the article, it speaks of schools who do not allow personal devices in the classroom.  This is a tricky issue for me as I work in a school with many underprivileged students and I wonder how to get around the stigma of not being able to afford the “latest and greatest” when students are expected to bring their own devices.  Not only are finances an issue but parents also become an issue in what they allow their children to participate in online.  Some parents may not want their students to follow my twitter account, for example, and isn’t it their right to say no?  But are they really making educated decisions when, often, it come to technology that they themselves don’t understand?

The School Library Monthly blog posted on May 10th raises an interesting point that ties both collaboration and technology together.  Alyssa Johnson states that ““School librarians, however, should be careful not to inundate first-year teachers with too many resources or too many tools. Instead, they should pick a couple of favorite examples and introduce more as teachers settle in.”  I think that this sentiment can, and should, be applied not only to new teachers but all teachers, parents and students.  It is important to begin small, let people get used to a new way of doing things and then progress on from there.  It is not about mastering it all now, but growing slowly over time.