Tools for learning
In a work session with teachers several days ago, I shared with them three online tools that can be used to make lessons student-centered and student-active.
Blogmeister - Weblogging is becoming increasingly popular in schools. David Warlick has developed a rough, but useful interface that can allow students to blog in a safe environment. Class weblogs can be password protected. Teachers also have control over what posts are filtered. For teachers interested in experimenting with weblogging, it is an excellent starter tool.
RIBIT - RIBIT, which stands for “reusable, retrievable, reliable, ready-to-use Internet Based Inquiry Template,” is a tool that is designed to focus learners on broad, open-ended questions.
Once you register (for free), you have the ability to access a template in which you enter a guiding question along with Internet resources that learners can use to help them answer the question. There is also a link (a small one near the bottom of the page) that you can access to search IBI activities that others have created.
I think the tool can be useful, but it doesn’t do much if the user cannot create a good guiding question. There is even a ‘tip’ on creating a good guiding question:
RIBIT is designed to stimulate student insights, to give students an opportunty to think “without a net” and to draw their own conclusions. For this type of thinking to happen it’s important to use open-ended questions when creating IBIs. Open-ended questions cannot be answered by “yes” or “no”. Here are some examples of good IBI questions or guiding instructions:
* “How do the following items relate to one another?”
* “Make some sense of the following.”
* “Put yourself in the events described in the following links. How would you have acted and why?”Discussing good guiding questions or instructions for IBIs is difficult without knowing the topic and resources in the activity. Questions should be determined by the resources you select and the level of prior knowledge students have about the subject. But most of all, questions should find that optimal space between asking for something too specific and not giving students enough direction. There is a spirit to IBIs—students have to know what you’re asking of them which is to think on their own. If everyone understands this then successful IBIs and deep learning are just around the corner.
Megaconferencejr.com - This is a 12 hour videoconference day that will unite students from all over the world in engaging presentations on May 19. While the specific presentations have not yet been scheduled, schools can register and join any presentations that interest them anytime throughout the day. Presentations from last year are avaliable from the Megaconference web site.
Next entry: Constructivists
Previous entry: Poor Professional Development