Project Description

The Questions:

The following is a description and the context for our project answering the question, how can we ensure learners are reflecting on their learning and sharing their knowledge in a way that minimizes their digital footprint?

Teachers have been asked to increase digital learning in the classroom and have been provided with tools like Google classroom but now we are starting to see growing concerns with privacy and the monetization of data. How can we increase digital literacy while protecting our learners?  

The Project:

We want to get learners to create a how-to-video to solidify and extend their knowledge by explaining a concept or idea. learners would document their learning in several segments. The first being the creation of initial ideas and the result of narrowing their focus on where to start. Subsequent segments would include a description of steps in building their first version followed by a story of testing their own project and reflecting on how they will modify their design. “learners must be instructed in monitoring their own performance in ways that ensure that reflective self-evaluation becomes an aspect of creation” Kritt, 1993. This documentation or journal piece of the project could be produced as a hand-written journal or as short video clips to be compiled in the final product.

We chose the grade five level because it is a level some of us teach and is in between the grade levels others of us teach. This, we hope, will give everyone within the group a little something that is relevant to their grade level to take away with them from this project to apply to their real life classroom. In addition, according to Flavell and Wellman, “By about fifth grade children begin to have metacognitive ability sufficient to realize when they are not understanding something” (as cited by Kritt, 1993). Also Zuckerman claimed that, “When the elementary school curriculum does not foster reflective development, other habits of intellectual work will be cultivated that later limit learners motivation for and access to self-learning” (2004, p.10).

We chose to begin with the grade five Science curriculum and Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies curriculum (ADST) as it best applied to the Rube Goldberg Machine project we envisioned for the “How-to-video” reflective learning. We chose the Rube Goldberg Machine project because it lends itself well to the curriculum, it is a very tactile and hands-on scientific inquiry that can be visually recorded well, and it is fun! Making, with careful design and scaffolding can be a powerful form of learning that inspires learners to continue researching and building at home (Becker, 2019). We soon realized that we could also incorporate a little English, Math, and Careers curriculum as well.

Background image: “Complex Simplicity” by Jonathan Knowles is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The Questions:

The following is a description and the context for our project answering the question, how can we ensure learners are reflecting on their learning and sharing their knowledge in a way that minimizes their digital footprint?

Teachers have been asked to increase digital learning in the classroom and have been provided with tools like Google classroom but now we are starting to see growing concerns with privacy and the monetization of data. How can we increase digital literacy while protecting our learners?  

The Project:

We want to get learners to create a how-to-video to solidify and extend their knowledge by explaining a concept or idea. learners would document their learning in several segments. The first being the creation of initial ideas and the result of narrowing their focus on where to start. Subsequent segments would include a description of steps in building their first version followed by a story of testing their own project and reflecting on how they will modify their design. “learners must be instructed in monitoring their own performance in ways that ensure that reflective self-evaluation becomes an aspect of creation” Kritt, 1993. This documentation or journal piece of the project could be produced as a hand-written journal or as short video clips to be compiled in the final product.

We chose the grade five level because it is a level some of us teach and is in between the grade levels others of us teach. This, we hope, will give everyone within the group a little something that is relevant to their grade level to take away with them from this project to apply to their real life classroom. In addition, according to Flavell and Wellman, “By about fifth grade children begin to have metacognitive ability sufficient to realize when they are not understanding something” (as cited by Kritt, 1993). Also Zuckerman claimed that, “When the elementary school curriculum does not foster reflective development, other habits of intellectual work will be cultivated that later limit learners motivation for and access to self-learning” (2004, p.10).

We chose to begin with the grade five Science curriculum and Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies curriculum (ADST) as it best applied to the Rube Goldberg Machine project we envisioned for the “How-to-video” reflective learning. We chose the Rube Goldberg Machine project because it lends itself well to the curriculum, it is a very tactile and hands-on scientific inquiry that can be visually recorded well, and it is fun! Making, with careful design and scaffolding can be a powerful form of learning that inspires learners to continue researching and building at home (Becker, 2019). We soon realized that we could also incorporate a little English, Math, and Careers curriculum as well.

Background image: “Complex Simplicity” by Jonathan Knowles is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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