Technology tools can be very effective and influential in students' learning. It can also help them to evaluate their own strengths. For example, a blog offers students space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning. A ProfilerPRO (which we have used in our classroom) is an online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group. Another tool is the SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang, which both allow you to set up surveys. All of these technology tools really help students to tap into their prior knowledge, and allows them to evaluate how they are doing and what they are good at.
There are many ways to get students minds ready for knowledge. First, you want to tap into prior knowledge. By introducing a KWL (Know/Want to know/Learned), you can assess what students already know and how to assist them best. As a teacher, we must be intentional in our instillation of passion in order to transfer the desire to try and succeed into our students so they may do the best of their ability. We want to be encouraging, allowing students to explore and think and discuss.By building excitement throughout the lesson or the week, students' interests emerge, and they become more invested in the project. A teacher must describe the activity, answer questions, encourage students to inquire, and advice them on design. Teachers can also use technology to get minds ready. For example, teachers can use Google Earth if you are discussing geography, or they may use social media sites (safely) at school to display a project collectively.
By teaching fundamentals first, teachers must think about teaching prerequisite knowledge or skills students need to be independent. Teachers must build up to the idea in order to grasp what it means. Teachers can set the stage for independent inquiry through tools such as the KWL process.They can also share the assessment rubric with students, parents, teachesr, whomever.
The next important step would be to prepare for technology. The teacher can first set up a technology playground. Teachers can track how students are doing, but it has a large learning curve. The next step would be to tap into student expertise. Because they grew up cutting their teeth on technology, they likely know more shortcuts tan any of the teachers. A third thing teachers can apply is to introduce project-management tools such as journals or logs to keep track of all they have accomplished. Finally, teachers must demonstrate how to use technology successfully and wisely in order to be effective.
Promoting inquiry and deep learning is very important in PBL. Our questions we ask our students should be geared specifically towards higher level thinking. First, we must have a complex and engaging project. By taking a basic question/objective and really expounding upon it to stretch out as many possible answers as possible is ideal. Teachers must guide students to get them to imagine what experts might ask. We need to ask questions such as "which one", "how", "what if", "should", and "why".
In our unit of healthy living/food preservation, we need to include this in our lesson plan very explicitly. When planning hands on PBL we must plan ahead, and be sure that when we are implementing the strategies, they are cohesive and effective. First, we will lay the groundwork in our lesson plans and prepare as much as possible. Then, we can focus on getting ours students' minds ready by utilizing tools and technologies to instill passion in our students. Food preservation may not be the most exciting idea to some, so it is our job to make it have meaning. We can also think about how to incorporate technology to have a captivating introduction to a project. By understanding that we must teach the fundamentals first, and thoroughly preparing for technology, we can help our students to get the most out of it. Finally, by promoting inquiry and deep learning, we can include this in thinking about what projects we are doing and how we are approaching and presenting them to our students.
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