My Video Reflection

http://www.edutopia.org/video/movie.php?reset=cookie&keyword=137&id=Art_1145

My video was titled "An Incredible Journey." It was about a Charter School in Nevadan, California using project based learning curriculum. They talked about how usually students drag into school in the morning, and get more excited as the day goes on because its closer to the time they can leave, while teachers usually come into school with lots of energy and leave at the end of the day drained. This method of teaching should have the students leaving just as tired as the teachers because it requires the students to work for their learning. While this style of teaching is sometimes referred to as discovery learning, some of the teachers don't completely agree with that terminology. They feel this is more of a process of structured projects guided by the teacher rather than one "discovery" after a certain task which was specifically designed to evoke that discovery. This school used water probes to get data from a watershed nearby. They then took the data into their science labs, and math classes to analyze different aspects of it. They worked in groups which helped them with important social skills that aren't always addressed in regualr classrooms. This project lasted for 12 weeks which teaches important skills like time management and task management which are also sometimes ignored in regular lessons. The project culminated having them creating a video news report that discussed all of their results, and presenting their results at a showing in front of family, friends, and other professionals. Its a style of teaching that incorperates many different content areas as well various technologies.

There was a lot of technology used in the video. There was a lot more student centered technology. I think this is due to the fact that the idea of the teaching style promotes students using many different technologies to further their understanding in a broad scope of topics. Since there are so many different content areas that one lesson can cover, many different technologies can be easily incorporated. The students were using palm pilots with water probes to record data from their local stream. They were also in a digital media classroom which had computers, video recorders, green screens, and audio equipment. They later had to present all of their conclusions as a speech which involved the use of basic technologies like powerpoint.

I think technology made the lesson much more engaging simply because without the technology there would be nothing to be engaged in! This entire lesson was based on the fact that they were using technology. They not only used technology to collect their data and to analyze their data, but they also used it to creatively present their conclusions.

They recommended in the video that in order for a teacher to be well prepared for this type of lesson it is best to plan backwards. They feel that you should think about the expected outcome and go from there. Ask yourself questions like who are your students, what they need to know, what do you want them to know, and what should you teach them. Also, the teacher needs to become familiar with the technologies that are used. If a student is struggling with the technology and you as the teacher cant help them, the main idea of the lesson is lost in something that could have easily been prepared for.

I would assess the students by giving them periodic journal entries. This would allow them to tell me how they feel the project has been going, what they like and dislike about certain parts of the project, and any complications that have come up since the last journal entry. Since this style of learning is based over 12 weeks, and is a continuous effort it is difficult to quiz on their knowledge of the topic, since they every day they are working towards completing the cumulative final project. The movie said that the teachers in this case assessed the students by having classroom reflections where they debrief for self-evaluation, asking the students what worked and what didn’t. They said that reflection on learning is equivalent to retention.

The advantage to this is that the students must know what they are talking about in order to finish their project. They can’t learn something, be tested, and forget it since every part of the project is a continuation of earlier learning. Some of the challenges to this is that not every school has this advanced technologies, and even if they do, not all teachers will understand how to use some of them as well as others. Also, some of the teachers in the video said that as a teacher you have to keep track of all the groups of students’ because it is easy for them to fall behind and shut down. The students also voiced that sometimes it was hard for them to stay motivated on a project that was so long term and that they could get easily distracted.