Edutopia

Edutopia

Success Stories for Learning in the Digital Age

The George Lucas Foundation

(note: I had more flags than the below... not enough time to get them all logged!)

pg 2 Innovative classrooms are not defined by fixed places but by their spirit of curiosity and collaboration among students, teachers, and others in a true learning community.

pg 8 On the night of our star count, students took their parents outside and instructed them on how to gather data for NASA. The next morning I listened to students eagerly comparing their data, not only with each other but other collaborating schools online. I knew I had a room full of successful learners. My students felt like real research scientists as they entered data on a star census map. They had learned to collect, analyze, and share information.

pg 9 I have a last story to share. One student, whom I will call Josh, was a nine-year old boy, a boy forgotten, with little support from home. He came in each day with an unwashed face, rumpled hair, jeans well worn, and duct tape around his shoe to keep it from falling apart. Josh was reading below grade level and regularly failing to do homework. He needed to wear glasses but absolutely refused to do so.

Slowly, through the course of our projects, Josh began to change. He became eager to work on the computer. Homework assignments started coming in, and Josh began reading “space” books. The night of our star party, I thought Josh would not be able to attend because his mother worked the night shift. But there he was, wearing glasses, with his mom as his guest! During the telecast, Josh stood beside me and said, “Look at him,” and he pointed to a NASA astronomer. Josh pointed again and said, “He wears glasses – just like me.”

pg 13 Project-Based Learning Online

www.globalschoolhouse.org/pr

http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jbharris/Virtual-Architecture

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html

www.ilearn.org

www.ason.org

www.learner.org/north

www.thinkquest.org

Research: SRI International Evaluation of Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project (2000). Center for Technology in Learning, http://pblmm.k12/sri/SRIEvaluation.htm

pg 30 Teachers who used laptops use a more constructivist approach to teaching. Constructivist teaching is based on research showing that learning is deeper and more meaningful when students are actively involved in the learning process rather than passively receiving information. Teachers who use laptops lectured less often than before – once a week on average. Ninety percent of those educators stated that the students in their classes teach each other, rather than relying solely on the teacher for direction, and 83% said they learn from their students.

pg 38 “Even though it looks like the kids are doing all the hard work, there’s a lot of planning that goes on behind it to make sure that the work is there for them,” Vreeland explains. Newsome Park teachers use a structure created by University of Alberta Professor Sylvia Chard, coauthor of The Project Approach. Phase 1 involves engaging children in an initial discussion of a topic. Phase 2 involves field work, meeting with experts, gathering information from the Internet, and compiling the information into multimedia portfolios. Phase 3 concludes with a presentation of the project work. At Newsome Park, that means inviting parents, community members, and staff and students from other schools to “Project Day”.