Standard 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)
Artifacts:Engaged Learning Project
Reflections:
For this standard the artifact that best exemplifies authentic learning is the engaged learning project that I created with a peer teacher for an International Baccalaureate class in the new IB Career Pathway Diploma program at Marietta High School. In this project, students were learning about ethics and decision making as it applies to them personally, professionally, culturally, and globally. The culminating project for this diploma program is a paper and project in which the student addresses an ethical dilemma in his or her career pathway. This engaged learning project was created as a webquest on Weebly. The engaged learning project we created contained videos, news articles, interactive games and journal articles demonstrating personal, professional, cultural, and global ethical decision making. This webquest format gave the students the opportunity to direct their learning and engage in role-play that required them to make difficult, real-world decisions. Students were required to complete reflective blogs and engage in active discussions with their peers and teachers online and in class along the way. The end result was to give them the knowledge they needed to approach their career pathway ethical dilemma from the real world and apply their learning from the webquest.
This artifact demonstrates the mastery of modeling and facilitating the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in an authentic learning experience in several ways. This project utilizes digital tools to both house the learning and to initiate the learning. Weebly is used in a webquest platform for the students to direct their learning and engage with the various digital learning tools that have been placed in a scaffolded learning environment. These tools and format facilitated the authentic learning experience that encouraged the students to focus their learning on the ethical areas that best meets their needs and interests. Various types of digital media were included in each area of the webquest to ensure that student learning occurred across all levels of learning and career pathways. An example of modeling and facilitating an authentic experience produced in this engaged learning project can be seen in watching one of our students follow the steps of the webquest to view, read, and engage with digital tools that allow him/her to learn in various stages what ethical dilemmas are; what they look like both personally, professionally, and globally; and how others have approached and resolved ethical dilemmas in their lives.
Completing this artifact and implementing it with a class last spring, I found that I there were several things that I would like to work with the teacher to change. First, while the students worked through the webquest at their own pace and some really did get excited about areas that applied to their career pathways, I found that many students at times needed more direction and possibly more formative check points along the way. The second thing I would like to look into adding another component to the webquest that would encourage the students and give them opportunities to correspond with representatives in their career pathway. Eliciting conversations between the students and professionals could contribute to the authenticity of this project. Overall I found this project was a terrific success, the students used the digital resources provided and engaged in authentic learning that prepared them to move onto their culminating project and address the ethical dilemmas from their career pathways.
The work that went into creating and implementing this artifact impacted student learning in this classroom. There was a great deal of depth about the topic of ethics included in this webquest and by illustrating all the areas we wanted in various formats, I feel that the students were able to learn the content more thoroughly. The students are now working on their final ethical dilemma papers and projects, the learning created during these activities in the webquest will be displayed in those papers.
For this standard the artifact that best exemplifies authentic learning is the engaged learning project that I created with a peer teacher for an International Baccalaureate class in the new IB Career Pathway Diploma program at Marietta High School. In this project, students were learning about ethics and decision making as it applies to them personally, professionally, culturally, and globally. The culminating project for this diploma program is a paper and project in which the student addresses an ethical dilemma in his or her career pathway. This engaged learning project was created as a webquest on Weebly. The engaged learning project we created contained videos, news articles, interactive games and journal articles demonstrating personal, professional, cultural, and global ethical decision making. This webquest format gave the students the opportunity to direct their learning and engage in role-play that required them to make difficult, real-world decisions. Students were required to complete reflective blogs and engage in active discussions with their peers and teachers online and in class along the way. The end result was to give them the knowledge they needed to approach their career pathway ethical dilemma from the real world and apply their learning from the webquest.
This artifact demonstrates the mastery of modeling and facilitating the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in an authentic learning experience in several ways. This project utilizes digital tools to both house the learning and to initiate the learning. Weebly is used in a webquest platform for the students to direct their learning and engage with the various digital learning tools that have been placed in a scaffolded learning environment. These tools and format facilitated the authentic learning experience that encouraged the students to focus their learning on the ethical areas that best meets their needs and interests. Various types of digital media were included in each area of the webquest to ensure that student learning occurred across all levels of learning and career pathways. An example of modeling and facilitating an authentic experience produced in this engaged learning project can be seen in watching one of our students follow the steps of the webquest to view, read, and engage with digital tools that allow him/her to learn in various stages what ethical dilemmas are; what they look like both personally, professionally, and globally; and how others have approached and resolved ethical dilemmas in their lives.
Completing this artifact and implementing it with a class last spring, I found that I there were several things that I would like to work with the teacher to change. First, while the students worked through the webquest at their own pace and some really did get excited about areas that applied to their career pathways, I found that many students at times needed more direction and possibly more formative check points along the way. The second thing I would like to look into adding another component to the webquest that would encourage the students and give them opportunities to correspond with representatives in their career pathway. Eliciting conversations between the students and professionals could contribute to the authenticity of this project. Overall I found this project was a terrific success, the students used the digital resources provided and engaged in authentic learning that prepared them to move onto their culminating project and address the ethical dilemmas from their career pathways.
The work that went into creating and implementing this artifact impacted student learning in this classroom. There was a great deal of depth about the topic of ethics included in this webquest and by illustrating all the areas we wanted in various formats, I feel that the students were able to learn the content more thoroughly. The students are now working on their final ethical dilemma papers and projects, the learning created during these activities in the webquest will be displayed in those papers.