Facilitating the Future

Five Foundations to Successful Integration of Transparent Technologies. 

Collaborative Learning answers the question:

How can I integrate transparent technology

with just a  few computers per classroom?

1.  A Collaborative Learning Environment.

All classrooms can not have, will not have, and more than likely should not have a computer for every student.   Strategies that promote effective use of technology and  reflective, deep, communication and negotiation skills in students are essential.  Successful practices require students to demonstrate interaction with others through visioning, planning, conspiring, creating, and defending a final artifact (project).  Placing students directly in front of a computer monitor without regard to human interaction and collaboration may hamper vital forms of communication and literacy skills. 

A collaborative classroom promotes these vital assets:

• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Resource Management
• System Evaluation
• Product Enhancement
• Community Duty
• Communication Skills -- Listening, Reflecting, Negotiating, Deliberating, Defending, Documenting, etc.
• Compassion, Point-of-view, Empathy

A collaborative classroom promotes integration of all types of tools -- manipulatives, enrichments,   supplemental, and technology by defining the purpose of the tool in respect to each student's individual role.  When the student assumes the role of   "scribe" the computer's assists in documenting student productivity and thought processes.  As a "resource manager", the student can access vital on-line resources.  As a "time manager", the student can log project schedules, time-lines, and deadlines.  As a "reporter or producer", the student can create meaningful presentations focused on a particular audience and key issues.

Integration of transparent technologies can easily become a reality in a collaborative learning environment.

Character-building answers the question:

How do I manage a collaborative classroom?

2.  A Character-building Environment.

Allowing students to work independently and with more internal initiative is challenging even to experienced facilitators.  Teaching, modeling, and holding students accountable for basic character traits allows students to exhibit integrity as mature self-directed learners.   The SCANS competencies and Character Counts! curriculum are vital tools to assure student progress in a learner-centered classroom.  Rarely taught explicitly, the lack of these traits are more often the cause of dissatisfactory behavior.

SCANS Competencies include:

• time management
• resource management
• teamwork
• peer tutoring
• productivity

Character Counts! 6 Pillars of Good Character are:

• Trustworthiness
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Fairness
• Caring
• Citizenship

Project-based answers the question:

What do children want to be able to do?

3. Project-based Curriculum.

One day an elementary student returned home from school after having learned about the characteristics and habitat of the tiny Texas blue bird.  They had learned that the blue bird's habitat was endangered.  The child had learned that by building a bird house and placing it on a stand about four feet off the ground, blue birds might actual nest there.  Turning to his father, the child said excitedly, "Let's build a bird house!"

The father agreed and took the child to the garage where he patiently guided the child through safety and measuring techniques, sawing with a hand tool, hammering nails, and using an electric screw driver.   The bird house was built with excitement and anticipation.  It had a real world purpose and there was passion in the building of it.

How different that scene might have been had the father come home one day and said, "Now son, today I am going to teach you safety techniques with power and hand tools.  Tomorrow  we will learn how to measure and cut wood.  Then, after many hours of practicing hammering nails, I will let you use the electric screw driver to set some wood screws."

Isolated skills-building, kill-and-drill, worksheets or software can work in the same manner of this latter example, while project-based learning provides:

• Real-world application of newly acquired knowledge and skills
• Integrated skills rather than isolating them
• Longer processing time for enriching learning experiences
• Students hands-on experience
• Learner-centered and learner-driven curriculum
• Opportunities to develop teamwork, expertise and professional values &  traits
• Student guidance through re-thinking, re-evaluating, and redesign -- producing better quality artifacts
• Intrinsic motivation and satisfaction
• Criteria for mastery through exhibition or demonstration

Authentic Assessment using Objective-based criteria, Interviews, and portfolios --answers the question: How do I assess project-based curriculum?

4.  Authentic Assessment.

Do you remember the days when:

You were given 25 math problems for homework.  You did your best to work them and place the correct answer on a blank provided.  The next day swapped papers with another student who graded your paper as the teacher called out the correct answers. A red giant "X" was placed over any incorrect answer and your average was taken by some magical process then a letter grade placed on your paper? 

In those days:

What was the difference (besides a few percentage points) between a student who made a 68% on that type of paper and a student who made a 70%?  or 74%?  What was the difference in understanding or ability?  For that application which student was more adept at using mathematics in a real-world setting?  Does an 80% or an 88% tell anyone what the child is ready or capable of learning next?

Authentic Assessment allows students and facilitators to better assess student mastery, student progress and student need.  Students may become better managers of their own time and energy when they better understand the specific criteria they are striving to achieve.  Breaking processes down into achievable goals properly guides students and gives them direction for success.  Specifically stating what is to be demonstrated, within what limits, during what period of time, and at what level of mastery is necessary to build meaningful rubrics for measuring authentic success.

Interviewing students in formative evaluations allows both the facilitator and the student to address important issues and redefine growth plans.  This type of one-on-one follow-up refines previously set goals by allowing students to reflect, edit, perfect, and redesign current products.  This type of reflection assists in building better quality artifacts.  Students should be challenged during an interview process to engage in exploring, questioning, explaining, deliberating, and defending their work.

Portfolios allow students to appraise their own growth using concrete examples of work done over a period of time.   For evaluation purposes, it is best to have guidelines for what the artifacts in a portfolio should demonstrate (rubric).  Portfolios most often demonstrate one or all of these three things:

• Effort -- in knowledge, organization, management and communication skills -- including drafts to show the stages of development
• Progress -- convincing evidence that growth has taken place
• Achievement -- samples of   best work.

Project-based curriculum should follow the practice of collecting multiple assessments during each phase of productivity --- research, planning, design, implementation, formative evaluation, re-design (editing), and summative evaluation. 

 

Artifacts produced during project-based learning should be nurtured on a continuous basis by multiple formative assessments from  facilitator, peers, and the student. These assessments are accompanied by an individual student growth plan -- what a student is to achieve before the next interview or evaluation.

 

Giving a single grade at the end of a project is an opinion....not an evaluation. It is your opinion that the student created the project and/or actually learned anything. 

 

3 Rules for Assessing (grading)

(1) NEVER accept a student's first attempt! It will always be the worst attempt.  Plan for and manage  the process of growth and professional productivity.

(2) ALWAYS allow a student to edit, revise or perfect -- this is the process where the most learning takes place.

Do you remember the first time you took a test from a college professor that you had never taken before?  You were very "up-tight" about what kind of test he/she would give and really didn't know what to expect.  Once the test was returned, you said to yourself, "Oh, I KNEW that...I just didn't know what he/she wanted on that question."  You actually learned more about the professor, the class, and the expectations AFTER the assessment was over.

 

Well, that is exactly the same consideration we should give our students.  Let them get through the assessment -- then the "light bulbs" turn on and somebody is "home", learning takes place and skills are acquired.  We need to drop the "GOTCHA!" mentality that teachers have often have had in the past.  We need to nurture learning and stop believing that our assessments are "divine."

(3) NEVER accept anything that a student isn't proud of or isn't as perfect as possible! 

I knew a Senior English teacher once who had students turn in their major research papers at the end of the school year for a major final exam grade.  I cleaned out that teacher's room later the next year and found all those research papers....never graded.  Of course, that was a sin against all the students in the class, but even worse, the opportunity to get the paper back, edit it, refine it, word mill it, tweak it, learn from mistakes, and create a product they were proud to produce was totally lost.

Levels of Mastery answer the question:

What is it that we would like the student to be able to do?

5.  5 Levels of Mastery.

Honestly dealing with success at a mastery level appropriate for the learner involves taking into consideration the learners past experiences, achievements, and skills.  The 5 Levels of Mastery allow students and facilitators to create objectives at the appropriate level of mastery for accurate and authentic assessment of student progress while at the same time identifying the next level of  mastery.

Assessment must address knowledge and skill growth in relation to the individual student.

RESOURCES:

TIF TECH TRAINING

TA Modules

TA Scope & Sequence

ENGAGED LEARNER MODEL (Homework)

STaR Chart Self-Diagnostic Tool

EMERGING PRACTICES