EdTech 542 - Reflection Week 6 - Assessments

This week we continued with our PBL projects. The topic of this module was assessments. I found this week to be quite time consuming but it was expected considering the amount of time we, as teachers, spend on assessment development and the actual assessment of our students.

There was a lot of information on different types of assessments and their creation. I have added many new resources to my resource list as they were very helpful. I also added these to my resource page in the project.

Here is a link to my project thus far. Note the Assessment and Resources pages.

This week showed that there are so many ways to help students learn. Although summative assessment is still very important to test a child's progress, formative assessment (on-going assessment) is the way of the future. It is essential for students to be assessed in a variety of ways which can lead to "learning as they go." Things such as formative quizzes, journals and learning logs, preliminary plans, rough drafts, practice presentations, notes, checklists, concept maps and self and peer evaluation can be used to assess students throughout the project. These allow for the students to learn what is correct and what needs work during the project when they can be corrected. It should be noted that these assessment methods can also be used for summative assessment.

EdTech 542 - Reflection - Week 5 - The Driving Question and Technology

The PBL process continued this week. It was an important week as the introduction of the Driving Question and its sub questions were discussed. Edutopia states that the importance of the Driving Question in a PBL project are essential to both teachers and students. From a teacher’s point of view, the Driving Question “helps initiate and focus the inquiry of the project.”  As well, “it communicates the purpose of the project in one open-ended question.”  From a student point of view, It “creates interest and a feeling of challenge” so that even the most reluctant student thinks, "Hmmm, I guess that sounds kinda cool." In essence, it guides the work. It gives the “boring activities” some relevance and purpose. It makes the students understand the answer to the important question of why are we doing this?

The Driving Question I came up with for my project is How do we, as young entrepreneurs, create a successful business venture within the confines of our school?  Here is a link to the overview of the project. This question allows for the entire curricular standards of the business course to be met. The students will need to learn about all aspects associated with running a business from startup through liquidation, including financing the business, marketing the business, working the business and closing the business. In the end, students will have learned different aspects of entrepreneurship. All important but different for all participants.

The use of a Tubric - available on the BIE website - was used in the development of the Driving Question. I have added this resource to my PBL project resources and, as well, my own resources for this course. The course used many resources for the development of a Driving Question. These included a webinar and an ePortfolio and are also available in my resources page.

According to the Webinar, The Driving Questions should follow three main criteria:

1. The question must be “engaging.” The Driving Question must create excitement for the student. They need to understand what the project is about and its relevance to the real world and the individual student.
2. The question must be “open-ended.” The Driving Question must be more than a basic question that a Google search would be able to find. It must allow for unique answers from each student and the final answer must be detailed and reflected upon.
3. The question must be “aligned with curricular standards.” The Driving Question must be written to allow for the content, knowledge and skills to come out in the project. It must be aligned with the standards however, not written in such a direct way.

Other things that should be present in an effective Driving Questions are the following: It must be objective, focussed and answerable through research, practice, collaboration and reflection. Sub questions should also be present. These should be used to help in the answer to this question through the use of mini lessons as each sub question relates to a curricular standard expected of the Business Opportunity course. All will relate to running a business and answering the Driving Question. The individual lessons associated with these sub questions will lead to a far better understanding of business and its eventual success.

As second part to this week’s learning was to use a technology based organizer to help brainstorm ideas for the project. I used a program called Gliffy. Although I have never used this program before, this brainstorming presentation helped to organize my thoughts for this PBL project.

References

Drake, R.J. Driving question. ePortfolio. Retrieved Feb. 14, 2016 from http://www.jetspost.com/eportfolio/pbl/driving_questions.htm.

Larmer, J. & Olabuenage, G. Driving question - Webinar. Retrieved Feb. 13, 2016 from http://bie.org/object/webinars_archived/driving_questions.

Miller, A. (2015). How to write effective driving questions for project-based learning. Edutopia. 
           Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-how-to-write-driving-questions-andrew-miller.

EdTech 542 - Week 3 and 4 - PBL and Project Idea

The landscape of education is changing. With so many school boards involved in school reform (re-design), teachers have been looking for ways to bring their classroom into the 21st century. Outcomes and competencies have become equally important to student learning. Collaboration, innovation, creativity, authentic projects, technology skills, trans-discipline teaching, inquiry and flexibility are some of the incredible changes happening today.

Although inquiry-based learning techniques such as Problem and Project-Based learning are not new, they are now, more than ever, in the forefront of teaching pedagogy. This type of learning fits perfectly with 21st century education and the skills associated with our students. I have been a part of Career and Technology Studies (CTS) for some time. Our department has worked hard to offer students inquiry-based learning although there is much to learn. Many or our teachers have used PBL but to a limited extent. This course and the BIE website will surely offer better, more organized projects. One advantage of PBL is the students enjoyment of this type of education. It seems as though the students feel as though they are a part of something larger than just learning in school. From the teacher’s standpoint, it brings about a teacher-student relationship that can be compared to athletes and their coaches.

The idea I have for my PBL project is to have the students in my Business Opportunities class create a business from startup to liquidation. In group of three or four, the students would have to come up with a business idea, make a business plan and then pitch the business idea to their classmates. The students would then vote on the best idea and then start the business. Once the idea is voted on, the students would chose the President of the company and the Vice Presidents of each area (Human Resources, IT, Marketing, Production, etc.). The students then would choose which area they feel they would benefit the business the most. The entire group would then come up with a mission and goals, sell shares to get the business finances going, get a bank account so as to write cheques when needed, develop and run the business and finally, at the end of the semester, liquidate the business and pay off the shareholders. Classtime would be the student’s work week. Every Friday a shareholders meeting would take place - led by the executive. As well, teaching would occur with mini lessons throughout the semester in a whole group or individual business area setting. Student reflections would be written weekly about the learning that occurred. The final presentation of the project would be a final shareholders report accompanied by a cheque to each shareholder.

EdTech 542 - Project Based Learning - Week 1 and 2

This is my first entry into my learning log for EdTech 542 - Technology Supported Project-Based Learning. The first week was an orientation to the course. The syllabus is very well-prepared by Dr. Yang. Introductions from all colleagues were expected via a discussion thread and advertisement. It was great to read about some of the talented colleagues taking the MET program.

Module 2 - Overview of PBL - gave a strong description of PBL and the foundational concepts needed to succeed in this type of teaching. We were introduced to the Buck Institute for Education (BIE) website - a non-profit organization that gathers and shares high-quality PBL instructional practices and products and provides highly effective services to teachers, schools, and districts. The site has many PBL projects that can be used or modified to today’s teachers. It truly is a amazing resource.

Our project for the week was to join a discussion on the definition of Project-Based Learning. As well, we were to comment on responses to this questions made from our colleagues. To view my discussion post, click on this link. I have also started a resource document as there have been many readings and websites that will help with this learning. This document will continuously be updated throughout the course.

I am really excited to learn more about this topic as I have been using a variance of this type of teaching for many years without formal training. It will be interesting to see where I need work and where I am have done a good job.