|
Well Centered Home Resources Standards Inspiration About the Author |
Research into Centers Based Instruction
Incorporating technology, small groups, independent accountability, and projects into everyday learning.
|
|
The researcher has long felt a need to bring technology into her classroom and incorporate it into our daily schedule, but it wasn’t until this year that her site has begun to receive the support necessary to begin to make this happen. Last spring her site was informed that they would be embarking on a journey to lay the groundwork for a new model of elementary schools based on models already in place at the secondary levels.
They were to become a part of the New Tech Network of schools and charged with restructuring our classroom to meet the needs of 21st century learners based on the research that supported the effectiveness of Project Based Learning and Technology integration in the classroom.
This program, while containing new approaches, was only a continuation of what they had already begun the year before, with the implementation of PBL. During this initial year of PBL, the researcher and her colleagues worked on acquainting students with the fundamentals of using the web as a research tool.
They have continued to build structured practices around this skill, as well as presentation software skills during this academic year. The next step was to begin to explore the use of apps and web based curriculum and games in my classroom. This felt like a daunting task and was poorly structured at first. The researcher would download an app, have students use it and then interview them about their experiences. This process was time consuming and ineffective. She decided that she needed to have a longer and more controlled evaluation of a site.
The researcher had seen a demonstration of MobyMax at the fall CUE and so I decided to investigate the online curriculum site.
It was her hope that from this study, she would learn the value of this site in order to improve Language Arts instruction and will be able to share this information with my Professional Learning Community.
They were to become a part of the New Tech Network of schools and charged with restructuring our classroom to meet the needs of 21st century learners based on the research that supported the effectiveness of Project Based Learning and Technology integration in the classroom.
This program, while containing new approaches, was only a continuation of what they had already begun the year before, with the implementation of PBL. During this initial year of PBL, the researcher and her colleagues worked on acquainting students with the fundamentals of using the web as a research tool.
They have continued to build structured practices around this skill, as well as presentation software skills during this academic year. The next step was to begin to explore the use of apps and web based curriculum and games in my classroom. This felt like a daunting task and was poorly structured at first. The researcher would download an app, have students use it and then interview them about their experiences. This process was time consuming and ineffective. She decided that she needed to have a longer and more controlled evaluation of a site.
The researcher had seen a demonstration of MobyMax at the fall CUE and so I decided to investigate the online curriculum site.
It was her hope that from this study, she would learn the value of this site in order to improve Language Arts instruction and will be able to share this information with my Professional Learning Community.
The following recounts the work the researcher has done, click below to access the paper.