Reading Reflection 3

Finding the “Big Idea” for a project as the teacher I should think about the important information I want students to gain throughout the project. The “Big Idea” simply is the meaning of the project. Teachers should review the curriculum standards for the subjects before starting the project. Also, teachers should consider the real-world benefits of the project. Thinking about real-world contexts helps to reveal the interdisciplinary nature of a project. When trying to teach students a concept it’s important to provide the students with a way of learning that will keep their interest. Brainstorming with other teachers will help further expand thinking about the learning opportunity that projects present.

When it comes to helping students develop 21^st century skills this can be done by adding more to the project requirements. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is a way of moving from lower order skills to higher order skills. The categories of objectives are; Remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. Analyze, evaluate, and create are the most relevant to project- based learning. Using higher order thinking skills can make the project evolve.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization defines literacy by the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written material associated with varying contexts. Students learn and develop their own knowledge. The National Education Technology Standards for Students addresses creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, digital citizenship, and technology operation and concepts. Ultimately, literacy is defined as learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens. We want students to be able to find information, decide if the information is good or bad, deal with raw data, and put out their own understanding. Teachers should think about how to teach students to find, evaluate, and synthesize information from multiple sources.

Technology can deliver essential learning functions for project-based learning. It will always be important to have the functional ability to make things visible and discussable in project- based learning. Once the function is identified read through an assortment of tool ideas to deliver those that serve those functions best for your context. The following is a list of essential learning functions: Ubiquity: Learning Inside and Outside the Classroom and All the Time.  This gives students the ability to learn anytime no matter where. Deep learning is the second essential function. Students should be able to use tools to analyze and organization information that they are given. The third function is making things visible and discussable. By showing a picture or visibly showing a concept can help students understand better. The fourth function is expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building a community. This function is using technology to express, share ideas, and build a community. The fifth function is collaboration—teaching and learning with others. This function is used when collaborating with others through technology on certain topics. The sixth function is research. This function is used to research on the web what the important information that is needed. The seventh function is project management: planning and organization. Project management helps students manage time, work, sources, feedback from others, drafts, and products during projects. The last function is reflection and iteration. Students can reflect on their past thinking.

The concepts in this chapter help guide me to using technology in my teaching. It gives me ways to how to come up with the big idea of a project. This relates to our in class project because we are using technology to help our students gain information about staying healthy.  Throughout our planning we are thinking about what we want the students to gain after the project. In our group we are also thinking about how our project will help our students develop 21^st century skills.