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Posts tagged ‘“project based learning”’

1
Sep

Collaborative Projects: What Does It Mean to ‘Co-construct’?

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson, in their implementation of the Powerful Learning Practice,  hold ‘co-construction of knowledge’ in high regard[1].

But, I dare say, as with other constructs, each of us has different understandings, impressions, implementations, and nuances of just what co-constructing knowledge means. After all, as is said, “The reader writes the story”.

Conversation

Socrates - Photo by Ian W Scott

Did you know that Socrates was extremely upset with the invention and adoption of the written word? He made a number of claims (topic for another post!), one of which was that people would read the printed words superficially and would not – could not – come to deep understandings without conversation. He believed that words were not reality – they represented realities – and, for ideas to be deeply understood, there needed to be conversation, debate, disagreement, clarification, elaboration.

So I will suggest that one of the essential requirements for co-construction of knowledge is exactly that – conversation. This typically involves language – spoken or written – easily accomplished technically in this day and age.

So how do you facilitate meaningful constructive conversations in your classrooms?  (It’s nice when they erupt naturally and spontaneously, that’s for sure! So examine the characteristics of that at those times. Check out what’s going on!)

If you are interested in ways of supporting online conversations among students read Scaffolding for Deep Understanding or if you question the benefits of groupwork read Why Should Students Collaborate?  Read more »

1
Dec

PBL – the New Worksheet

Project-based learning (PBL) is happening in classrooms all over the world.  Sort of.  I see a lot of kids ‘doing projects’.  Teachers design them.  Teachers create checklists of the process.  Teachers give timelines and ‘check in’ points. The kids immediately Google the topic, grab the information, reword it, toss in some stolen graphics and push forward to ‘get it done’.  The focus, for the student, often really becomes ‘getting it done’.

I see project assignments for kids who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs) where the work is incredibly ‘chunked’ and scaffolded.  These assignments are often more scripted with lists of things to do accompanied by check boxes to ‘help’ the students stay on track.

Oh, I know, that is the extreme scenario! Cut me some slack…just describing the extreme to make a point! :-)

And please don’t get me wrong. ‘Chunking’ and ‘scaffolding’ are exceptionally useful techniques…and, I love effective PBL, but, I have issues with projects becoming worksheets.  I have seen this pattern before.  (One of the great, and lousy things, about getting older!  LOL)

It reminds me of the days of ‘learning centres’ back in the seventies when the idea was that kids would move to various centres in the classroom to engage in constructive learning activities.  Conceptually great.  Implementation poor…generally speaking.  Kids were often seen rotating from one centre to the other after a prescribed amount of time doing, what often appeared to be ‘worksheet type’ activities – SRA Reading lab, penmanship (printing or writing), math dittos – and, oh yes, the occasional ‘listening centre’.

CONCEPTUAL DRIFT

I think that the basic issue here is one of inherent belief structure of the educators and the system in which they are immersed.  When new educational practices are ‘rolled out’ in school systems, some time is spent on the overall philosophy and much time is spent on the pragmatic implementation in the classrooms.  The former is often ‘watered down’ and the latter is often prescriptive and scripted.  This leads to a ‘conceptual drift’.  The original idea, in this case ‘project based learning’, loses the philosophical essence in favour of following the prescription.  What was originally a powerful, deep, philosophically bound approach has drifted to some skeleton of itself.

Thoughts?

CHECK THIS OUT

Please check out this page outlining effective PBL.

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29
Nov

HIDDEN – a project that worked

I would like to share with you the story of Hidden – a project that was developed by a student in the 11th grade under the umbrella of Adobe Youth Voices and iEARN.  This project then grew naturally into a bigger project as the result of a 10th grade student.

Let me start first by showing you the video – Hidden – by Robin.

PhotoShop – “Creating the images”

We had been learning about the artist, David Hockney, and had practised ‘squaring off’ some images in PhotoShop using the following tutorial:

Robin then saved various layers, and combinations of layers, as jpegs for inclusion into Adobe Premiere Elements.

Adobe Youth Voices and iEARN – “Student in charge”

Adobe Youth Voices is a global philanthropic initiative to empower youth.  Svetlana Yakubovskaya from Minsk, Belarus and Juan_Domingo Martinez from Esquel, Argentina led a great online course with 20 or so other educators from around the globe. Then the students and I started our plans for the media projects.   It was a challenge for us all to agree on a plan and we changed the plans as we moved through the process.  Students finally decided to create their own media arts pieces out of their previous work in Media Arts class. All the results have been posted on the YMCA Academy YouTube channel.

Robin believes that art should not be hidden for only people with money to see.  He sees graffiti as a form of art that is available to all.

I believe his work is so successful for several reasons. This project was his.  He owned it.  He created the idea.  He had the passion.  He had the motivation. He wrote the rap. He composed the music.  He performed it.  He struggled with the contradictions.  He overcame the ambiguities.  He was in charge and maintained focus and effort until completion.

Once posted to the Adobe and iEARN websites, Sasa Sirk from Slovenia contacted me.  She is a teacher who is running a graffiti project called Listen to the Walls Talking – an iEARN project.  She asked if Robin would be interested in collating some of the works of other graffiti artists from the project.  He agreed.

Google Earth as a Multimedia Tool – “Now it gets interesting!”

However, Alex (10th grade) and Robin joined forces and decided to take some previous knowledge of Google Earth and produce a multimedia Google Earth tour of graffiti sites from the Listen to the Walls Talking project.  Again, their idea…their initiative.  Their passion.  To see their results (a work in progress!), download this kmz file, double click it, and Google Earth will open up.  Click on the various sites in the sidebar and then click on the placemark to see the artwork from that location. (Here’s how to do that.)  In some cases, you will see ‘street view’ of that location as well.  (See McDougall Lane in Toronto for an example.)  Please be aware that this is a rough draft of an adventure in learning.  We, by no stretch, understand the intricacies of Google Earth at this point.

But, as we often say here, “Just go for it!  Take charge!”

PROJECT BASED LEARNING RESOURCES

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