Reading Reflection #3

      When thinking of a big idea for a project we as teachers need to consider what it is that we want our students to walk away with from completing a project.  It is important to understand why certain concepts are relevant and important for students to learn.  It is also important to keep in mind how the big idea can be related to real life situations.  Having a big ideas can provide an opportunity to collaborate with fellow teachers and also for teachers themselves to learn some new skills and information.

      There are three categories of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives that are very relevant to project-based learning.  These three categories are Analyze, Evaluate, and Create.  These three categories are considered to be higher-order thinking skills, which give students more of a challenge when trying to achieve through a project.  These words can be used in instruction to students on what they should be doing as a part of their project.

      21st-Century literacies are crucial for students to have in order to be living in a 21st-Century world. Essentially, the literacies come down to learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens.  This is where PBL projects become helpful for students, as they provide real world experiences which in turn help students develop these 21st-Century literacies.  Teachers should collaborate with specialists in their school when planning lessons and projects that direct students toward developing 21st-Century literacies.  

      There are eight essential learning functions including 1. Ubiquity: Learning inside and outside the classroom, and all the time, 2. Deep learning, 3. Making things visible and discussable, 4. Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community, 5. Collaboration - teaching and learning with others, 6. Research, 7. Project management: Planning and organization, 8. Reflection and iteration.  Ubiquity essentially addresses students abilities to learn anywhere and everywhere.  Teachers can provide students with mobile learning tools in order to help them achieve this.  Deep learning addresses the issue of trying to steer students away from "filtered" information on the Internet, and more towards information that they have to go through and decipher on their own, such as historical documents.  Making things visible and discussable can be helpful for students.  Many times if a student can visualize something it will help them to better understand it, and visible objects such as photos serve as a means of conversation starting.  The fourth learning function talks about how students can use the Internet  as a way to express their ideas.  One way of accomplishing this would be an interactive blog.  Collaboration involves working with other people, whether it be in person, over the phone or over the Internet.  Research is very important.  Students can get caught up in a lot of useless information while researching.  It is important that they find a way to filter through and find relevant information.  Project management is really a great tool to have throughout life.  Project management includes being able to manage time, sources, and parts of projects for the final product.  Reflection and iteration is important for students.  For students to be able to reflect on their work is essential because it gives them an opportunity to see where improvements could be made in the future.

      Many of these topics pertain to our semester long project.  We are essentially created a project based off of a big idea that will have several components to it.  When creating our lesson for the students we need to keep all the essential learning functions in mind, and not only for the lesson we are planning but for us as a group.  One of the learning functions that really pertains to our group is project management.  There are many aspects of this project which means it needs to be organized and taken care of.