Student Centered, Problem Solving, Authentic Tasks

Southern is moving toward a more problem solving, authentic tasks.  The Southern Regional Assessment Committee has been very active in providing leadership and training in the creation of authentic tasks and rubrics.  Increasingly, students are presented with real world problem solving situations. 

During the 1999-2000 School year our focus is on the development of web based projects using the theories of the OII and Tom March.  Two tools used in the creation of these products, as well as ongoing professional development, are  Filamentality and Web-and-Flow.

Here are projects created as a the outcomes of workshops one or more of our core workshops.

Hotlists are created as a product of "Working the Web for Education"
Knowledge Hunts are produced as part of "Basic Web Activity Design"
WebQuests are part of "Advanced Web Activity Creation"

Discrimination Hotlist
Napoleon Knowledge Hunt
Shakespeare WebQuest
Genetics WebQuest
Pinelands WebQuest
Human Rights WebQuest
Violence in Schools Knowledge Hunt

One important feature of these tools and the products created is that they allow the teacher to:

1) Create an online activity quickly with minimal focus on the technology and maximum focus on the curriculum.
2) Come back and edit work any time to constantly improve the lesson
3) Start with one collection of resources and use them to create a variety of types of  lessons based on classroom objectives.

For example, the links below show how show how a teacher might use a single collection of resource about migrant workers to create some different activities.  By selecting with resources to use and by selecting the proper template, a teacher can create an activity that allows the class to explore the topic freely (Hotlist), develop some factual knowledge and synthesize information to answer a critical thinking question (Knowledge Hunt), or to examine an issue from different perspectives and develop insights into problems and their solutions (Insight Reflector).

Hotlist on Migrant Workers
Migrant Worker Knowledge Hunt
Migrant Worker Insight Reflector
 

At the same time, there is a concerted effort to develop cross curricular ties.  The program began with a focus on Math and Science.  Teachers from the two disciplines collaborated in a number of initiatives outlined in Karlheinz Haas's article in the January 2000 issue of Multimedia Schools Magazine.

Below are a few examples of activities and projects created between 1996 and 1998.

In the Geometry Minimal Distance Project written by Marie Scott, students determine the best location of the new bus depot. Marie's project crosses curriculum lines by requiring students to learn about everything from environmental and zoning concerns, on through the geometry and map skills necessary to compute the most central location.

The district has developed and is about to adopt a new Student Research  Manual.  That manual will be placed on the Southern web site when it is officially adopted.  In support of that manual and as a guide for their students, Nancy Stephan and Karen Bingert created a set of Research Rubrics offered here.

This task and many others are an outgrowth of work by our assessment committee, individual teachers and our association with CLASS.

A good research process often results in a good research project, but when technology comes into the picture, students begin to see the fruits of their labor in ways they never imagined.  One of the first web based research projects to come out of Southern Regional, did so in early 1996.  Because of its early indexing on the web and the quality of the work, the project became one of the most visited pages on the Southern web site.  Even today it is receiving about 450 visits each week.

Web Based Curriculum and Problem Solving

When students use technology to do things that can't otherwise be done, they are not only making the best use of the technology, they have the potential of affecting the lives of others and transforming education in the classroom.  The Etajima project, in which Southern Regional students and teachers undertook to identify ten Japanese children from a 50 year old photo, is one such project.  The story stretches over a ten month period and ended in a video conference that was covered by Japanese TV and changed the lives of everyone involved. 

In another project, students worked with author/historian Marquetta Goodwine to learn about the plight of the Gullah Geechee culture in the Sea Islands off the coast of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  They created a web site and petition that is active in the fight to have some of the islands declared national historic sites.

Two more students noticed that our local hospital had a one page, four word web site.  They contacted and met with hospital officials and staff, gathered material from their PR department and created a web site for the Southern Ocean County Hospital.

After the publicity from the Etajima project, I received a call from an a 92 year-old ex-GI who had pictures from WWI to share.  Two of our students met with him and created the Photo Journals of Ed Scwartz.