Explore Online Content with InstaGrok This is a guest post from Jennifer Carey (@TeacherJenCarey) of EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site. One of the most challenging things to tackle in education today is the glut of information that is available to students right in their pocket! With a few swipes, students can come up with thousands of resources; however, evaluating all of those sources serves as a challenge for students. Enter, instaGrok. After entering a query, instaGrok creates an interactive mind-map on the topic including multiple sources. Project Based lLearning | Learn about project based learning on instaGrok, the research engine Students can also keep a journal in their Grok and test themselves with quizzes designed by the Grok engine. Looking to learn more about research or Project Based Learning?
Resources and Tools for PBL Start to Finish Tips for downloading: PDF files can be viewed on a wide variety of platforms -- both as a browser plug-in or a stand-alone application -- with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader program. Click here to download the latest version of Adobe Reader. Documents to Help You Get Started The Hunger Games Project Documents Below are sample project-based learning documents from teachers Mary Mobley (English) and Michael Chambers (world history) of Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas. Back to Top Culture at Manor New Tech High School Manor Visitors Summary Sheet An overview of Manor New Tech for visitors, including mission statement, learning outcomes, and the school's commitments to their students Learning Outcomes Manor New Tech's learning outcomes for all classes Manor Bell Schedule Daily bell schedule for Manor New Tech Additional Resources on the Web Suggested Reading
What Project-Based Learning Is — and What It Isn’t | PROJECT BASED LEARNING Screenshot/High Tech High The term “project-based learning” gets tossed around a lot in discussions about how to connect students to what they’re learning. Teachers might add projects meant to illustrate what students have learned, but may not realize what they’re doing is actually called “project-oriented learning.” Terronez, who teaches at High Tech Middle, a public charter school in San Diego, Calif says that when an educator teaches a unit of study, then assigns a project, that is not project-based learning because the discovery didn’t arise from the project itself. For Terronez, the goal is to always connect classroom learning to its applications in the outside world. It takes a lot of diligent planning by the teacher to design projects that give students space to explore themes and real-world resonance to make it meaningful for them. When Terronez assigns a writing project, it’s rarely just for a grade. [RELATED: What’s the Best Way to Practice Project-Based Learning?]
Free Lego NXT MindStorms NXT-G Robotics Challenges Tutorials At the request of Tasmanian teachers Miss Clare Neilson and recently retired Mrs. Juanita Airey, activities using Lego's NXT 1 MindStorms Robots have been developed for use in School-based 2-hour sessions. Some, but not all, will work with the new NXT 2 kit (click here for more information). Challenges with an "M" after the challenge number include mentor notes. First Challenge (NXT 1) - Building Robot 1.1 "TuftsBot" - click here. First Challenge (NXT 2) - Building Robot 1.2 "MiniBot" - click here. First Challenge (Apple videos) - Building Robot 1.2 "MiniBot" - click here. Challenge 2M - Teaching your Robot (NXT 1 & NXT 2) - click here. Challenge 2M (Apple videos) - Teaching your Robot (NXT 1 & NXT 2) - click here. Challenge 4M - Teaching your Robot to move, smile and speak (NXT1 & NXT 2) - click here. Challenge 4M (Apple videos) - Teaching your Robot to move, smile and speak (NXT1 & NXT 2) - click here. Challenge 10 - Building Robot 2 "DomaBot" (NXT 1 & NXT 2) - click here.
Must-know Buck Institute Project-Based Learning Resources Taking the leap and implementing Project-based Learning can be daunting, but there’s no need to panic or go it alone. Buck Institute of Education is the epicenter of PBL with an amazing number of resources and a community of practitioners who are leaders when it comes to sharing ideas and projects related to PBL and spreading the word about the benefits. Here are four ways to improve your instruction that are appropriate for beginners or a great refresher for the more experienced: Make sure students are asking the right questions At the heart of Project-based Learning is the inquiry process. Use exemplars and models as a guide Early in my career, I felt that if I were to show students examples or modeled a task for them, that I was somehow cheating them from the experience, and I also assumed that students would just copy what I showed them. The same can be said for teachers trying PBL for the first time. Remember the importance of planning Build a PLN (Professional Learning Network)
Is Google Making Us Stupid? Illustration by Guy Billout "Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I can feel it, too. I think I know what’s going on. For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. I’m not the only one. Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. Anecdotes alone don’t prove much. It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. Also see:
The Challenges and Realities of Inquiry-Based Learning Inquiry Learning Teaching Strategies Getty By Thom Markham Teachers in a rural southeast Michigan high school were recently discussing the odd behavior of the senior class. It seems the 12th graders were acting more civilly toward the junior class in the hallways. The prom was also quieter and more well-mannered than in previous years. The teachers’ explanation: Project-based learning. Here’s the back story. Stories like this are about to become more important to educators. This is a steep challenge because it forces education to cross a philosophic divide. Standardizing Valuable Skills To put a new system in place, a first key step is to disseminate and train every teacher on a clear set of performance standards to assess skills required for effective inquiry, such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. The challenge: Right now, a standards-based environment forces teachers to straddle the inquiry process. Assessing Collaborative Learning Figuring Out Knowledge
JIBLM.org - Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics - IBL Course Notes in Mathematics 4 Phases of Inquiry-Based Learning: A Guide For Teachers According to Indiana University Bloomington, Inquiry-based learning is an “instructional model that centers learning on a solving a particular problem or answering a central question. There are several different inquiry-based learning models, but most have several general elements in common: Learning focuses around a meaningful, ill-structured problem that demands consideration of diverse perspectivesAcademic content-learning occurs as a natural part of the process as students work towards finding solutionsLearners, working collaboratively, assume an active role in the learning processTeachers provide learners with learning supports and rich multiple media sources of information to assist students in successfully finding solutionsLearners share and defend solutions publicly in some manner” The process itself can be broken down into stages, or phases, that help teachers frame instruction. 4 Phases of Inquiry-Based Learning: A Guide For Teachers 1. Student-to-material. 2. 3. 4.
9 Characteristics Of 21st Century Learning The label of “21st Century learning” is vague, and is an idea that we here at TeachThought like to take a swing at as often as possible, including: –weighing the magic of technology with its incredible cost and complexity –underscoring the potential for well thought-out instructional design –considering the considerable potential of social media platforms against its apparent divergence from academic learning Some educators seek out the ideal of a 21st century learning environment constantly, while others prefer that we lose the phrase altogether, insisting that learning hasn’t changed, and good learning looks the same whether it’s the 12th or 21st century. At TeachThought, we tend towards the tech-infused model, but do spend time exploring the limits and challenges of technology, the impact of rapid technology change, and carefully considering important questions before diving in head-first. The size of the circles on the map are intended to convey priority. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
The Inside-Out School: A 21st Century Learning Model The Inside-Out School: A 21st Century Learning Model by Terry Heick As a follow-up to our 9 Characteristics of 21st Century Learning we developed in 2009, we have developed an updated framework, The Inside-Out Learning Model. The goal of the model is simple enough–not pure academic proficiency, but instead authentic self-knowledge, diverse local and global interdependence, adaptive critical thinking, and adaptive media literacy. By design this model emphasizes the role of play, diverse digital and physical media, and a designed interdependence between communities and schools. The attempted personalization of learning occurs through new actuators and new notions of local and global citizenship. Here, families, business leaders, humanities-based organizations, neighbors, mentors, higher-education institutions, all converging to witness, revere, respond to, and support the learning of its own community members. The 9 Domains Of the Inside-Out Learning Model 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.