The Engaged Learner - Module 1

             
There seems to be a few different opinions on what exactly the engaged learner is but the consensus is a student that is a successful, self-regulated, problem-solver that will be a lifelong learning. The student may also enjoy working with groups of classmates, has defined goals for their learning, and is creative. The focus of this review is on learning tasks, instructional models, and assessment. Lastly, I will compare my own teaching characteristics and practices to the engaged learning principals

The first principal on learning tasks is an idea that the engaged learner needs genuine, demanding, and multidisciplinary work to succeed. This idea sounds very good but I find it difficult to determine in my subject matter, of energy technology, where the work level needs to be. We have objectives that are on the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy and others at the higher levels. I find myself teaching lessons in the middle, which I can now see isn’t always fair to the engaged learner, but I feel in the first few weeks of class I could evaluate more and make changes to specific assignments to capture that group. An example, would be having the student complete a worksheet that has them doing research on types of renewable feedstock’s to make biofuels. By asking specific questions to get specific answers I am not allowing the engaged students to expand past the task of doing basic investigating. This task could be more creative and contain different disciplines if the student researches the history, profit margins and science behind the biofuel industry.

The second principal is instructional models for the engaged learner. These models should encourage the learner to become a problem-solver, to enjoy projects, and interact with peers in a constructive manner. In addition it should help the teacher develop a working relationship, whereas the student needs a facilitator more an instructor in the classroom. I think in certain portions of my courses I try hard to make pieces of this principal come to life. For example, I have developed numerous hands-on lab activities that must be completed with a partner. For the engaged learner doing an activity that requires teamwork and is project driven is a great experience for them. In all of my labs students need to reflect on the problems they are solving. I want students boost their cause and effect skills and think about ways to make labs more effective. The engaged learner would like a flexible lab setting that expects him or her to work with small groups of different personality, race or sex. All of these variables should be looked at as learning opportunities for that student and I feel I need to explore them more. To expand on the feedstock research paper I mentioned earlier I should have students describe and demonstrate through technology the process of finding the proper feedstock and work on creating a lab activity that would allow them to make biofuel specific to it.

In reviewing some of the strategies the go along with instructional models Jones, Valdez, Nowakowski, & Rasmussen (1994) have stated that “ group summarizing, exploring multiple perspectives, using techniques for building upon prior knowledge, and brainstorming” have been found to stimulate the learner. Of these I find building up prior knowledge to be somewhat challenging because unless you pretest the students you don’t seldom have students at the same level of knowledge so you have re-teach the fundamentals before tackling new material.

The final engaging principal is assessment of the engaged learner. This type of assessment is where the instructor might interview or observe the students completing a task. It is similar to how employers examine workers in performance evaluations. As the teacher you should create opportunities to examine your students completing a project, maybe at first using a rubric and then moving onto asking the students questions about what they have learned. Furthermore, you could have the engaged learner teach his or her classmates what they have studied or design a lesson that has students teaching students. In my own instruction I tend to step back and let students work together to figure out problems to teach each other. I find the students will achieve the objective. One area that I am continually working on is developing rubrics that account for performance. To excite the engaged learner I should have the students develop a rubric for a project and record the results.

In conclusion, the concept of teaching to the engaged learner has numerous possibilities if you can filter through your student’s strengths and weaknesses. By determining what they excel at early you can then curve your lessons to fit the problem-solver or group worker that is self driven and needs a facilitator more than a demanding teacher.





Works Cited

Jones, B., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J., & Rasmussen, C. (1994). North. Retrieved August 31, 2010, from Learning Points Associates: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/engaged.htm

Teaching With 21st Tools & Some Reflections

This blog is dedicated to technology tools for educators and my reflections on some of those tools. Feel free to bookmark this blog and use the tools below to help build your curriculum and engage your students with the use of technology.




Online Searches and Bookmarking:


This free online service allows educators to add a list of favorite websites and create folders to save them in. Unlike adding links to your “Favorites” I like the idea of adding symbols to sites to indicate how much you like them and that this can be a backup server that can be accessed anytime you are away from your personal computer. One of the perks iKeepbookmarks has is a Form page that allows the user to discuss topics with other users.

Ikeepbookmarks. (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com/


For my classroom:

• Have students research a topic related to energy and categorize all the websites they found by using the symbols for likes and dislikes.


This free online service allows educators to archive bookmarks, copy and save text from documents like pdfs, and highlight and clip pictures that you have found interesting. One item that I found interesting was that you could take snapshots of the pages you viewed and tag them so it is easy to find them within your personal folder. It is very easy to share your material with others and like the other service you can access it anywhere the internet is available.

Diigo. (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.diigo.com/


In my classroom:

• Have students complete a report together as a team whereas they will use all functions to save pictures, tags them, and submit documentation.



Working Together on Documents:


This free online service provides educators the opportunity to discuss and share documents in real time. One advantage is you can control who sees your documents. By using GoogleDocs you will be able to have others edit all types of documents and respond to your questions in a chat format.


Googledocs. (n.d). Retrieved from

http://docs.google.com/


In my classroom:

Provide students with an assignment were they will have to edit it and setup access to their teammates to view and respond too.


Websites For All Types of Teachers:


1. This website is a way for teachers to make up quizzes for their students to take. This site allows you to create, administer, and view results for a particular quiz.

Center for Advance Learning Technologies. (2008). Retrieved from

http://quizstar.4teachers.org/



2. This website is to the History Channel which contains the Modern Marvels television series. They have numerous videos with lessons plans on subjects like distillation and Renewable Fuels.


A&E Television Networks. (2010). Retrieved from

http://shop.history.com/?pagemax=all&v=history_subject_science-and-technology_modern-marvels



3. This website is to the Center for the Advancement of Process Technology. They have online resources such as asking experts and other teacher’s questions, lesson plans, and updated news on the industry. I show the students job openings and scholarships usually.

College of the Mainland. (2003-2010). Retrieved from

http://captech.org//

4. This website is to o-net, which is great source to show students that are building resumes. The site by the U.S. Department of Labor list different skills for every job in the US. It shows students what industry is looking for and the abilities needed to do the job.


Department of Labor. (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://online.onetcenter.org/



5. This link can be used when writing objectives. It is based on Bloom's and real easy to copy and paste objectives into documents.


Radiojames. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.radiojames.com/ObjectivesBuilder/



Social Networking Tools:

• Wimba Inc. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.wimba.com/


Reflection:


Some of its features are audio and video conferences, application sharing, and instant school notifications. A student only needs to download Wimba and build a profile. Once they have done that they will see their classes listed and can view which classmates are online to chat. It potential benefit to education is enormous. From a teaching standpoint you can have online office hours and send IM to your whole class and discuss questions at anytime. From a student’s standpoint it opens up dialog on the weekends, nights, and non class hours to help build relationships and conduct tutoring if needed.



For my classroom:

I would have students setup an account and post office hours for myself to help students during those hours.


• LinkeIn Corporation. (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.linkedin.com/home?trk=hb_home

This network is aimed at the young professional that wants to build a page that contains business and personal contacts. You can make your profile fit your personality or job description. The network contacts you to others that are linked to people you now as a way to build relationships on the professional level.


• YouTube, LCC. (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/

This social network has thousands of video clips that individuals have posted and the public can view. My students enjoy YouTube and very regularly point out video clips they have seen, not always educational though. It is easy to access and to search for topics.


In my classroom:

Have the students find specific clips related to topics to begin a project that will be presented to the class.


Podcasting In A Classroom Environment:


• Apple Inc. (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html


Apple provides steps on how to setup and get your podcasting broadcasting to the world. I had some problems with the extension file but once I figured that out it was really simple. I would recommend it to teachers as a way to communicate to the iTunes generation.


In my classroom:

Some of the positive uses for my students would be on the days they miss class they could listen to my podcast and take notes from them without trying to track down a classmate. Students would learn some responsibility by going out and finding the lecture and being prepared for the next class. Also, by using an audio podcast students would develop better listening skills. Students would learn that technology can be user friendly and might express interest in creating their own podcast for class projects.

Wimba

Well, I just spent 3 hours researching Wimba on the web and I am very impressed with it.  We have some training coming up at BSC so I will try to attend.  What I like about Wimba is you can IM all your students and setup online office hours.

EDUC 675 Jedi Knights

Hello Team,

Blogs are really easy to setup and can be a lot of fun.  As you can tell from a previous course I had we blogged on many educational topics.  Have a good day.

Blog #16: Hey Dad, Can I Have A Boy In My Room?

Alright, I know my title could have had a boy asking a mom but I tend to remember TV shows depicting the fathers as being a tad overprotective of their “little girls” when it came to their first date. Well, now parents have can one more thing to worry about when little Jonny and Sally go off to college, should my child have a roommate of the opposite sex?

The Associated Press is reporting that Columbia University will begin allowing men and women to live the same dorm room. Columbia University has traditionally been a more liberal leaning institution so this arrangement does not seem to bother many within the student body. One male student responded, “Yes, absolutely” when asked if he would consider living with a girl that was his friend. He repeated that response when asked if he would live with a female that wasn’t a friend. Similar answers were given by female students when asked the question with regards to male roommates.

The main force for this new dorm life is to make gays and lesbians “feel more comfortable” according to the reporter. The reporter did ask a gay male student his thoughts and he said, “I would feel more comfortable living with my girl friends then a my guy friends”.
Not all student’s agree with the change of policy on dorm living. Sada Ruffin commented, “I think allowing coed roommates you (Columbia) is condoning a certain behavior”. The only exception to the new gender neutral building is incoming freshman.

Columbia is not the first college or university to offer gender neutral housing. There are roughly thirty Higher Ed campuses that provide this type of living ,with Harvard allowing it if the student identifies themselves as transgender.

A question to my fellow bloggers:

1) Would it bother you if your son/daughter asked to live in gender neutral room with the opposite sex?

An ending thought:

1) Nowhere in the piece did the reporter even ask homosexuals IF they felt uncomfortable on the Columbian campus so I wonder if this isn’t a move by some campus to bring enrollments up.

2) Since the student is legally an adult is it up to the college to determine who they can and cannot live with it? I could see the parents stating their opinion if they are paying the tuition and rightfully so.

Blog #15: Express yourself in Oregon...well, not just yet.

Does your school enforce a dress code on you? Maybe it is business attire or maybe business causal or maybe just plain causal on jeans day. Whichever it is it is an issue that has a long history in the state of Oregon. Recently, in a USA Today article, House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, said he will push to "allow teachers to have the same religious free exercise rights as every other Oregonian" when legislators meet in February.


The issue at hand is a 1923 law that was put in place to keep Catholics from attending public school. The law was taken to the courts in 1986 and upheld by the Oregon Supreme Court. The ban outlaws the wearing of religious clothing or “garb”.

There are many interesting points to consider to this story. The first one is that the law is still in place and only 3 states of such bans on the books. Is your state one of them? The second item that caught my attention is that, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, which has long supported the ban, said the Legislature should not end it without enacting additional protections for Oregon students, according to the article. In a related issue the ACLU is fighting for the rights of students in Florida that were dismissed from school for wearing, “Islam is the Devil” t-shirts to class. The ACLU issued a statement that it is their right under the Bill of Rights and their freedom of speech, to wear such clothing. The Florida school district disagrees. We will see how that case plays out.

The last item that I found interesting in the Oregon case is that the “Oregon Education Association has not taken a position on the issue”, a spokeswoman said.

So what are your thoughts? If you were a teacher in Oregon which way would you push for? A ban on wearing religious clothing or no ban but I would assume then that teachers would have to follow some dress code. The dress code could be one that the students follow as many of you have said are in place at your schools OR it could be a professional contract stating what business causal is. I know from a previous blog by a classmate that some younger teachers don’t understand what business casual is but for the sake of agreement let us say they do.

I feel your employer has some rights to enforce a dress code on the staff and the students. I worked at a refinery and we had to wear safety boots, hard hats, and jeans or we wouldn’t have a job. It was a requirement that our company put in place. Why is it different in education? The district hires you to be a professional so why shouldn’t they be able to set the guidelines as to what they THINK a professional is? In this story I guess the people of Oregon are still trying to figure that out.

Blog 14: Advisor, “I need a fitness class to graduate.”

Do you remember which classes you needed to graduate from college? I do and physical education wasn’t one of them. In a aggressive move to curve the obsieity epdicmic facing the youth of our country, specifically the black community Lincoln Univeristy is requiring overweight students to take a fitness class. According to the USA Today article written by the AP, “Officials at historically black Lincoln University said Friday that the school is simply concerned about high rates of obesity and diabetes, especially in the African-American community”.

The requirement is a three credit fitness course that what put in place four years ago for all incoming freshman. It requires students to get tested for their body mass index, a measure of weight to height. If students are above a healthy weight then they are required to take a class that consist of , “Walking, aerobics, weight training and other physical activities, as well as information on nutrition, stress and sleep” said, James L. DeBoy, chairman of Lincoln's department of health, physical education and recreation.

In the article it stated that certain health experts agreed that something needed to be done but felt the move by the college is, “distasteful” because issues such as healthy choices in the vending machines could be addressed by the college.

Tiana Lawson, a 21-year-old senior, wrote in this week's edition of The Lincolnian, the student newspaper, that she "didn't come to Lincoln to be told that my weight is not in an acceptable range. I came here to get an education."

Again, I ask do you remember what requirements you had to take to graduate? Is this discrimination? Is this being proactive? Many colleges require students to take a diversity credit to enrich their minds so why not make requirements to improve the body?

I applauded this college for taking a stand on a sensitive issue, but I want to know what you think.