2.3 Authentic Learning
Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in authentic learning experiences.
(PSC 2.3/ISTE 2c)
(PSC 2.3/ISTE 2c)
Artifact: Engaged Learning Project
Reflection:
This Engaged Learning Project is an authentic, student-centered, technology-driven lesson designed for tenth grade English students. I created this project in the summer of 2013 as a part of the ITEC 7400 course, 21st Century Learning and Teaching. In this authentic engaged learning project, students read Into the Wild by John Krakauer and met with local experts on the feasibility of living a sustainable lifestyle. They traveled to a sustainable compound located in on the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to interview the locals there. Students documented their thinking and learning through the use of video blogs and film. Their final assessment is to answer the real world and essential question of, “What can we learn from nature & how do we live with nature in more symbiotic way?”
Standard 2.3 notes that candidates must model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in authentic learning experiences. This learning project is designed to allow students to engage with local experts, grapple with real world problems, and direct their own learning, thereby making their learning and experience authentic. The instructor, in this setting, is a facilitator of knowledge, and they are by no means the center of focus for student learning. While it is essential for me, the instructor, to model and facilitate authentic learning by bringing in local experts, setting up a variety of opportunities to explore the area around, and demonstrate the appropriate steps to take when answering difficult questions, my role is secondary. In order for the learning and experience to be authentic, it is essential that students take on the lead role in answering questions and finding answers. The use of technology is essential in this project as students are expected not only to document their thinking and learning, but to share their journey with community members and interested outside parties. This engaged learning project is designed to be a highly engaging, relevant, and authentic learning experience.
I created this project in the first semester of the ITEC program. It was invaluable in setting up a foundation for the remainder of my graduate course work because it allowed me to fully understand the importance of modeling and facilitating authentic learning and experiences in my school through the use of technology. Authenticity is possible without technology, but not with the same ease and impact that technology affords. The efficacy of implementing an engaged learning project with technology as the means for distributing student work and connecting students to the world is staggering. If I could modify this project, I would ask students to share their work beyond the school-setting and have them reach out to other students and schools in other parts of the world.
The impact this project has on student learning is very positive. Students commented on how they learned more about their country in this project than they did in the many years of Costa Rican history they had taken in previous years. They were highly motivated, and very interested in fleshing out such a large and world-troubling question. Their content knowledge was exponentially developed, though it wasn’t explicitly taught, rather their understanding of persuasive writing and analyzing informational texts came secondary to answering an authentic question and solving a real world problem. The tenth grade teachers continue to use this project in order to make the yearly class trip to Punta Mona (the sustainable community in Southern Costa Rica) more relevant and meaningful.
Reflection:
This Engaged Learning Project is an authentic, student-centered, technology-driven lesson designed for tenth grade English students. I created this project in the summer of 2013 as a part of the ITEC 7400 course, 21st Century Learning and Teaching. In this authentic engaged learning project, students read Into the Wild by John Krakauer and met with local experts on the feasibility of living a sustainable lifestyle. They traveled to a sustainable compound located in on the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to interview the locals there. Students documented their thinking and learning through the use of video blogs and film. Their final assessment is to answer the real world and essential question of, “What can we learn from nature & how do we live with nature in more symbiotic way?”
Standard 2.3 notes that candidates must model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in authentic learning experiences. This learning project is designed to allow students to engage with local experts, grapple with real world problems, and direct their own learning, thereby making their learning and experience authentic. The instructor, in this setting, is a facilitator of knowledge, and they are by no means the center of focus for student learning. While it is essential for me, the instructor, to model and facilitate authentic learning by bringing in local experts, setting up a variety of opportunities to explore the area around, and demonstrate the appropriate steps to take when answering difficult questions, my role is secondary. In order for the learning and experience to be authentic, it is essential that students take on the lead role in answering questions and finding answers. The use of technology is essential in this project as students are expected not only to document their thinking and learning, but to share their journey with community members and interested outside parties. This engaged learning project is designed to be a highly engaging, relevant, and authentic learning experience.
I created this project in the first semester of the ITEC program. It was invaluable in setting up a foundation for the remainder of my graduate course work because it allowed me to fully understand the importance of modeling and facilitating authentic learning and experiences in my school through the use of technology. Authenticity is possible without technology, but not with the same ease and impact that technology affords. The efficacy of implementing an engaged learning project with technology as the means for distributing student work and connecting students to the world is staggering. If I could modify this project, I would ask students to share their work beyond the school-setting and have them reach out to other students and schools in other parts of the world.
The impact this project has on student learning is very positive. Students commented on how they learned more about their country in this project than they did in the many years of Costa Rican history they had taken in previous years. They were highly motivated, and very interested in fleshing out such a large and world-troubling question. Their content knowledge was exponentially developed, though it wasn’t explicitly taught, rather their understanding of persuasive writing and analyzing informational texts came secondary to answering an authentic question and solving a real world problem. The tenth grade teachers continue to use this project in order to make the yearly class trip to Punta Mona (the sustainable community in Southern Costa Rica) more relevant and meaningful.