PBL and technology

PBL's can be enhanced through technology as students working on a project in a school can work with another school through Skype, or on cloud as the the project would be available on open content. Mobile technologies can help find answers, do research, connect with specialists in the field and further, make podcasts and movies.

PBL definately can be used in a foreign language classroom. For example, students could do a  project  on water conservation by skyping with a school in Peru or Ecuador where they would not only utilize language skills but also learn about the culture and additionally environmental management. One project idea would be to come up with a viable solution to a water problem in Mumbai.

PLC's a norm at the school

The need of the hour at ASB is  more collaboration amongst faculty members. Firstly, there needs to be collaboration beyond physical barriers, such that teachers do not teach in total isolation. To achieve this, the teachers need to have time built in their busy teaching schedules to give them time to collaborate regularly.  Revolutionary ideas could develop in just additional two blocks every week only for collaboration in their PLC's.  Secondly, as it is a small school, it is the prerogative of the leadership to think of innovative ways to incorporate discussion about ideas on education and administration in every aspect within the school rather than restricting it to solely formal discussion . One way of achieving this is through looking at developing more common assessments and curriculum which is a learning ladder right from elementary to the high school. The technology is in place but there needs to be a  concerted effort to use this technology to effectively collaborate.

Metiri's group framework

According to Metiri's group framework of learning, students become engaged and motivated 21st century learners when the environment promotes innovations revolving around visualization, democratization of knowledge and participatory and collaborative learning.

While ASB is on the road to achieving this vision, it has not reached the finishing line yet.The school is very committed to the twenty first century framework, as evidenced through our mission. I think we have the infrastructure and the tech support. There are certain steps which need to be taken:

• Students are collaborating  but I think for a true democratization of knowledge this collaboration should also be encouraged through different grades and different levels.Good collaboration is happening at the elementary level through the PYP program and some projects in  middle school like the justice project. At the high school level more effort needs to put in to have interdisciplinary units especially for grade 9 & 10 students.
• To be able to respond to the needs of the 21st century the school needs to encourage and look create  more real world connections. For example, when learning about water pollution it would be constructive to undertake a hands on project on cleaning the water which will have a real life connection and help the community.
• The school has taken some steps towards collaborative learning through conferences like ASB unplugged, but there needs to be a concerted effort towards collaboration in everyday teaching in real and virtual space
• We need to rethink how the classrooms are built and have glass walls, which would go some way towards encouraging more project based learning
• The school has the desire to imbibe 21st century skills in all it students. While there are many initiatives to achieve these lofty goals, it is important to evaluate how prepared we really are.  To do this the faculty needs to have sufficient incubation time to implement new initiatives while participating in comprehensive Professional Development to acquire and understand these skills.

An educator of the 21st century

According to Andrew Church "the 21st century teachers are characterized by certain holistic and student centered features", some of the skills mentioned are teachers need to be  "adapters, communicators,learners, collaborators, visionaries, risk takers, leaders and role models". This is a tall order for a single human being, which is why one of the most important skills of the 21st century is collaboration. Though I have been colloborating in my department and EAL department, I need to expand this beyond school borders. This collaboration needs to be on sharing assessments, lesson plans and setting up connection through Skype for regular interaction with another school/schools.
Learning a language is an important 21st century learning skill in itself, but I am the first to admit that I need to inject some more creativity into my teaching process. Hence,  I am trying to present the same information in different ways.I am also interested in the use of social networks, which I think can be very beneficial to a foreign language class.
I have made a concerted effort this year to be more a facilitator than a teacher, encouraging my students to work together and using google docs. I have tried to diversify the form of information in my classes by incorporating youtube videos. While these are important steps I want to take this a step further so as to teach students by incorporating more technology and fulfill the needs of a technological society that is constantly in flux.
Additionally I have to take initiative to be proactive towards including cyberethics concepts in my lessons. Another area which I need to work on is interdisciplinary thematic units for grades 9 and 10. I have already taken a big step forward by contacting a school in the UK who have succesfully revised their curriculum, but I am not averse to working more on the same.



 References:

Church, A in http://educationaltech-med.blogspot.com/2011/01/21st-century-skills-teachers-should.html

Tecnologies to reach the goal

"Necesity is the mother of invention." The aforementioned famous idiom comes to mind when you think of challenges which educators and the field of education faces everyday, due to ever changing technology environments. Some of the challenges involve learning at any time or anywhere and personalized learning to minimizing costs of providing learning opportunities and benefits to a maximum number of learners. Some technologies to consider are:

• Cloud computing - In this case the normal functions of management, storage, back ups etc. are managed through the web. These reduce costs for the institutions and also make them available anywhere as a specific server is not needed. However, this means that security and privacy may be an issue. In order to protect the client's privacy clear set rules and regulations are needed but again privacy issues spring up in many cases in digital space
• Mobile technologies- Today mobiles have reached where even railway networks have not. To facilitate learning for all, the use of mobile applications for learning has to be maximized. Today mobiles have multifarious applications, including photography and music. Soon mobiles need to be adopted as a tool for educating and learning. To bring about this change,there must be a paradigm shift facilitated by educators.
• Game based learning- Educators find it very difficult to motivate students. There has been a lot of research done on motivation of students and differentiation to encourage motivaton and engagement. Today's school going student who is a digital native is looking for new ways to learn, as with the overload of easily available information, simplistic methods do not suffice to keep them engaged. This is where game based learning can play an important role. More research needs to be done on game based learning and its educational value. I believe this will be the most important tool for learning in the future.
• Open content-In this case the content is shared through digital space leading to collaboration, sharing and learning. There is a need for a development of web based learning tools in all the disciplines. These web based learning has to include videos and presentations as today's students are more interested in moving images and visuals rather than plain text.

These are some of the technologies which can be adopted to overcome the challenges posed today but again this is is just a glimpse.