The instructional strategies I explored this week that correlate with the principles of constructivist/constructionist learning theories include the use of web resources as well as spreadsheets. WebQuests are the first tools that come to mind. This form of technology requires students to explore a topic in a small group, examine data, respond to an issue and finally make a decision (Glazer, 2001). WebQuests correlate with the principles of constructivist/constructionist learning theory by the teacher giving up control of the students‘ learning and instead permitting the students to actively construct their own learning (Han & Bhattacharya, 2001). In this type of activity the teacher becomes a facilitator/collaborator guiding the learners in their quest for information. Students are free to investigate the topic, create meaningful learning for themselves, and solve problems.
Another strategy I have used that is similar to a WebQuest is an e-Mission. My students participated in a problem-based situation where a major snowstorm was forecasted for New York City on New Year’s Eve. The students worked in small groups to track the temperature, barometric pressure, clouds and other weather topics. The culminating project was a video conference with NASA to share their findings. Based on each of the four groups’ information, the students needed to determine whether or not the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square should go on as planned, or be cancelled. Student learning was based on solving a problem and working cooperatively with all the other groups. If students used only the information their group researched, a well-thought-out decision could not be made.
The e-Mission was a hands-on, student-centered, problem-based based activity that related to real world events. Students had choices to make and felt safe to do so. Clear expectations were provided by my colleague and I and the remainder of the time was spent guiding student learning. The students left this activity with more knowledge about weather forecasting than previous students who only completed a few hands-on activities and required textbook reading.
References:
Glazer, E. (2001). Problem based instruction. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt
Han, S., and Bhattacharya, K. (2001). Constructionism, learning by design, and project based learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt
Kristen --
ReplyDeleteI like the e-Mission idea! I will be doing an investigation next year with one of my classes where they will use online resources to reconstruct "the lost mathematical concepts of an ancient civilization." I plan to have a costumed presenter start our unit with exotic tales of this amazing discovery he has found. It includes pictographs showing the people of that civilization working with three seemingly unrelated mathematical concepts, and the students will need to research to find out how the three are related. I anticipate that the result will be as you experienced- students will develop a much greater understanding and an intuitive feel for the concepts that they would not have gotten with more traditional methods.
In essence, my project will be leading students through several hundred years of mathematical discoveries in about 3 week's time. This is a great place to rely on the support of technology resources!
-Andrew
I like the e-mission idea. I am curious about exactly how it works. You mentioned that your students track the temperature, barometric pressure, clouds and other weather topics. Since this is a fictitious snow storm, where to they get these reading from? Did you make them up, were they put online, or is there a fake storm activity website that you can go to?
ReplyDeleteHi Ryan,
ReplyDeleteMy school has a Polycom video conference camera. I browsed the list of video conferences they have appropriate for my grade level and went from there. NASA sent the readings and pre-mission work for the students to complete before the live video conference. After the activity, the e-missions representative told us the data we had was for an actual storm projected to hit NYC (can't remember the year, maybe 2005). I'll include the link to Polycom's listing of conferences. Our building theme this year was National Treasures and one or two lucky classes earned a video conference each month.
http://www.vccontentproviders.org/searchprogram.php
This should give you a link to the database where you can search for a particular topic or browse the offerings. Good luck!