Saturday, May 18, 2013

Starting out

I joined the global education conference (http://www.globaleducationconference.com/) because I like the idea of being able to talk to educators around the world about the environmental and science issues they are facing in their own home towns.
 
My thoughts about PBL so far:
Technology for me is something that can be very useful, but it is not something I enjoy in and of itself. I appreciate the technology that gives me a wonderful digital camera, so I can go out on a hike and take beautiful pictures of spring flowers. I appreciate the technology that allows someone in Kentucky to share their own spring flowers with me over the internet.  
For me, the three mediums that have me most excited are videos, blogs, and internet databases that allow people from all over to come together to share information.
I spent a month and a half in Australia, and one of the projects I completed was a nature documentary short. I think something like that would be a wonderful project for students, as it combines audio, visual, and kinesthetic learning, and, if done right, ensures the students know what they are talking about, and gives them something they can show off at the end. As a class, we actually produced 5 videos, and at the start of our student research conference we held a film showing of all 5. It gave parents and friends something tangible that they could understand about what we were doing over in Australia, and it made sure all of us were doing the proper amount of research and exploring. To this day I can still tell people a ridiculous amount of information about wallabies.
 
urls to the videos
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vJ4I7ohO9I&list=PL01vH_Q_xyH4LYspRtZyDYWJg0ntP08Qm&index=57
 

2 comments:

  1. Hola Jenna, I love the idea of doing projects that can help the community or connect the community. I understand your point of view about technology, and sincerely that is something that makes me anxious while trying to do new and amaizing things like building up a web page. In my case, I want to do the new tricks and apply it to my class, but it takes time and lots of patience. Actually collaboration with students and colleges works a lot because you can ended learning even more tricks! Ana Ratliff.

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  2. Jenna, it sounds like you already have wonderful firsthand knowledge of PBL. I loved watching the videos that you and your students created in Australia. I feel the same way you do about technology, I love pictures and videos and I am beginning to really enjoy blogging, but I have been intimidated with building web sites and other online social networking accounts. I look forward to learning more about your project this term.

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