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Classroom Guide: Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning

Classroom Guide: Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning
Facebook Edutopia on Facebook Twitter Edutopia on Twitter Google+ Pinterest Edutopia on Pinterest WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation What's Inside the PDF? Keep It Real with Authentic Products Don’t Overlook Soft Skills Learn from Big Thinkers Use Formative Strategies to Keep Projects on Track Gather Feedback -- Fast Focus on Teamwork Track Progress with Digital Tools Grow Your Audience Do-It-Yourself Professional Development Assess Better Together BONUS TIP: How to Assemble Your PBL Tool Kit

New Guide Offers Assessment Tips for the Classroom Recently, I watched a team of ninth-graders share their vision for a city of the future. They had clearly done their research, investigating everything from the politics of ancient Athens to the principles of sustainable design in the 21st century. They summarized their findings online and then took their learning a step further to design a 3-D model of their ideal city. As their classmates and teachers gathered around the scale model, the young urban designers pointed out the innovative features of their metropolis. If we hope to offer students more real-world learning experience like this one, we need to be willing to reconsider how we assess learning. PBL Strategies I've organized these tips to follow the arc of a project-first planning, then active learning, then culminating event, and, finally, reflection. Project-based learning and authentic assessment are made for each other. Big Questions Ahead style="margin-left: 20px;"> Click here to download the guide, and then pass it along!

Facilitating Knowledge Work With Social Collaboration Traditional definitions often define collaboration as a team who coordinates their efforts in order to achieve a known objective. Social collaboration, on the other hand, is about collaboration in a broader sense. It is about people collaborating as an enterprise and contributing to a shared purpose by directly and indirectly helping each other achieve goals. Whether we are having a conversation that clarifies a certain issue on a blog, updating information on a community wiki or answering a question on a micro-blogging platform, we are in fact collaborating. Although this kind of collaboration is often indirect and quite subtle, our contributions can help individuals, teams or the entire enterprise deal with major challenges. There are many use cases for social collaboration — coauthoring content, using a wiki or collecting feedback via a blog, to name a few. We need to start sharing and turning content into social objects. The Social Object Sharing Information Finding Information

printable coloring pages on Etsy, a global handmade and vintage marketplace. Reverse Instruction: 21 slides, 5 minutes This is a five minute presentation I am making today as part of an NAIS 3 hour workshop, Becoming A School of the Future: The conversation continues. The slides themselves are almost entirely image driven; my talking points for each slide are below. Notes on slides: Slide 2. (NB: I love this particular photo of a lecturing teacher, but the teacher in question actually lectures rarely and is one of my school’s best practicioners of reverse instruction). Slide 3. Slide 4. Slide 5. Slide 6. Slide 7. Slide 8. Slide 9: Flip teaching entails teachers redeploying the content delivery, whether through using the free resources of Khan Academy, MIT, and other such sites, or, and this is just as important, by making their own lectures available for studentsvia podcast, vodcast, webvideo, Slide 10 and narrated powerpoints. Slide 11. Slide 12. Slide 13. Slide 14: And for more ability of teachers to work closely to support students. Slide 15: Ditto Slide 16. Slide 17. Slide 18. Slide 19. Slide 20.

Download and Convert Files? I Can Do That! Home » Free Webtools Do you need a free tool to convert file formats or download videos from the internet? Look no further. Zamzar is the tool for you If you're having trouble viewing files or you need to download a file but need it in a different format, then you need Zamzar. To use Zamzar simply upload the file(s) to Zamzar that you wish to convert (100mb or less). Looking for another site similar to Zamzar? Media converter uses the same basic principal as Zamzar- convert your files for Free! If you like this tool, you'll love SimpleK12's newest eBook: "Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for 2011" Sign up by entering your email below (or find out more about the eBook here) As a teacher, do you think file converters are useful? - Kimberly Share this post with your friends and colleagues:

Reactions Let's start with the idea of a chemical reaction. Reactions occur when two or more molecules interact and the molecules change. Bonds between atoms are broken and created to form new molecules. That's it. When you are trying to understand chemical reactions, imagine that you are working with the atoms. 1. When a refrigerator or air conditioner cools the air, there is no reaction in the air molecules. 2. 3. Mars: Why is Curiosity Looking for Organics?

Supporting Project Team Formation for Self-directed Learners | CELSTEC Printer-friendly versionPDF versionTitle: Supporting Project Team Formation for Self-directed Learners Authors: Spoelstra, Howard; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Sloep, Peter Abstract: The outcomes of project-based learning can be optimized if team formation experts assemble the project teams. Description: Spoelstra, H., Van Rosmalen, P., & Sloep, P.

Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for 2011 Home » Free Webtools What better way to ring in the new year than with some new FREE tech tools! Please join us in this special new year's kickoff as we share what's new in the EdTech UNconference and technology integration tips and tricks for your classroom. What: Live online webinar - "Hidden Webtools for 2011 PLUS What's New in the EdTech UNconference" When: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Eastern Time, USA Who: All are welcome, but space is limited. Cost: Free! How to Enroll: Click here to register, or copy and paste the following URL: Join us as we reveal our brand new eBook, "Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for 2011". Kimberly Warrner, the EdTech UNconference Chair and Grace Dunlap, Technology Integration Team Member, will pick their favorite webtools for teachers and explain: What the tool isThe basics of using the toolApplications for classroom use So, please join us as we kick off 2011 in true #EdTech Style.

Inquiry-based Learning: Explanation What is inquiry-based learning? An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning, says our workshop author Joe Exline 1. Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge. "Inquiry" is defined as "a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge -- seeking information by questioning." A Context for Inquiry Unfortunately, our traditional educational system has worked in a way that discourages the natural process of inquiry. Some of the discouragement of our natural inquiry process may come from a lack of understanding about the deeper nature of inquiry-based learning. Importance of Inquiry Memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in today's world. The Application of Inquiry

What's the Appeal of Freelancing? [INFOGRAPHIC] Why would you become a freelancer? Is it the allure of working in your PJs? Of not having any supervisor? Whatever the reason may be for you, the freelance life appeals to many folks. In fact, according to the U.S. SEE ALSO: Designers: Try This Gorgeous Project Management App for Freelancers In fact, one aspect of freelancing is so attractive that companies are incorporating it into full-time work: the ability to work from home. Yet another trend supporting the rise of freelancing is the coworking space, a relatively recent innovation that gives freelancers and others a comfortable, convenient and collaborative shared office space without the associated pressures and mundanity of, well, Office Space. Here's a look at some survey data showing just why many folks are choosing to freelance, either in addition to full-time employment or as their sole source of income. Click image to see full-size version. Top image courtesy of iStockphoto, alvarez

Just-in-Time vs. Just-in-Case Learning: Implications for Personal Professional Development | Welcome to NCS-Tech! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about professional development, personal learning networks, conferences, workshops, motivation … for different reasons. Think of the last time you learned something new that mattered to you, really made a difference in your teaching. Was it from a book, a magazine or a video? At a professional development workshop? Regardless of the venue, you probably learned it from a colleague, or other educator, someone experienced with a particular topic. More importantly, WHY did you learn? In my experience, the most effective professional development is needs based and delivered by knowledgeable professionals at a time and place most convenient to the knowledge seeker. Consider the typical classroom teacher or district administrator. What if you could learn… Exactly what you needed to know (or where to look)…Anytime, anywhere it was convenient…From real people – educators like us, locally and around the world… And what if it was all FREE? They have a need. -kj-

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