Group Knowledge Building - Making Inquiry Work Part 2

Written by Lindsay Brooks, Instructional Coach at Percy Pegler

After a hands on experience, group knowledge building supports the idea we can build knowledge as a collective group.  “It serves to identify shared problems and gaps in understanding and to advance the understanding beyond the level of the most knowledgeable individual” (Scardamalia, 2002, p.12).  Group knowledge building can be applied K to 12.

Learners come together with the collective goal of idea improvement.   They share, pose questions, negotiate and refine their ideas.

You can build group knowledge by following the three stages:

Chiarotto, L. (2011). Natural Curiosity: A Resource for Teachers: Building Children's Understanding of the World Through Environmental Inquiry. Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Circles are a great way to eliminate hierarchy as all students can have an equal place in a circle and no one student takes precedence over another. The teacher is also viewed as a co-learner in the circle.  Knowledge building circles foster respect for all, which is a life skill.  Posing questions can help to clarify multiple points of view and respect the diverse contributions of individuals in a collaborative group session.

References

Chiarotto, L. (2011). Natural Curiosity: A Resource for Teachers: Building Children's Understanding of the World Through Environmental Inquiry. Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Kozak, S., & Elliott, S. (2011). Connecting the Dots. Learning for a Sustainable Future.

Scardamalia, M (2002). Collective Cognitive responsibility for the advancement of knowledge. In B. Smith (Ed). Liberal Education in a Knowledge Society (pp.67-98). Chicago, IL: Open Court

Coding for kids?

Hi all,

As we continue to move from content driven work to competency driven work, it sometimes becomes necessary to rethink how we teach the basics of, say, mathematics. The act of programming a computer may seem a little unreachable to us let alone our students.  Coding seems scary because we've been taught that it has to look like this:

And yet the act of writing code can involve a deep understanding of patterning, algebra, mathematical operations, number systems, shape, space, and even place value. It involves the processes of communication, visualization, reasoning and problem solving on a deep level. Most importantly it touches all 10 competencies of an Educated Albertan!

The good news is that MIT have created a programming environment that is accessible to students as young as Div II.  It is called Scratch and is available to students and teachers for free at http://scratch.mit.edu. Last week teachers joined us for a 45 minute introduction to using Scratch in Mathematics.  The recording is available below:

If you would like to explore how you can use this or tools like this, feel free to contact me.

Yours in .learning,

Doug

Making Authentic Inquiry Work - Part 1

Written by Lindsay Conrad, Instructional Coach at Percy Pegler

I was lucky enough to attend “Making Authentic Inquiry Work” sponsored by Natural Curiosity and Learning for a Sustainable Future. This was a great two-day inquiry institute where I learned about new resources and practical inquiry-based strategies to use in the classroom.

I would like to share two amazing resources with you:

Natural Curiosity is a teacher resource for building children’s understanding of the world through environmental inquiry.  Check out their website: http://www.naturalcuriosity.ca/

Under books they have a PDF downloadable version in both English and French of their handbook. This offers a guide to bring inquiry-based teaching practices into the classroom and how to make both the content and process of learning about the world more engaging and relevant to students. It gives many strategies and examples for how to make learning visible. Here is a quick link to the PDF versions:

http://www.naturalcuriosity.ca/pdf/NaturalCuriosityManual.pdf

Natural Curiosity is partnered with
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF).
LSF is a non-profit Canadian organization that was created to integrate sustainability education into Canada’s education system. Their belief is about creating a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable society of engaged citizens who think and act responsibly, today, and for generations to come .http://lsf-lst.ca

Their newest resource is called “Connecting the Dots.” It offers key-learning strategies that transform learning 
from Environmental Education to Citizenship and Sustainability

 Check out these great resources if you are interested in making inquiry work in your class!

Coming Soon Part 2 - Group knowledge building

What makes a 21st Century Mathematician Unique?

 

Hi All,

Are you looking for some practical, authentic, inquiry driven, game based experiences for your Div II-IV Mathematics students?  This 45 minute session will look at MITs "Scratch" game development environment.  Scratch facilitates learning about numeracy, shape and space, patterning and statistical concepts in Mathematics by engaging students in the building and sharing of interactive online games.  Students can create and share games with their peers and can even load them on their personal devices.  These skills also transfer to the robotics work currently happening in CTF/CTS classrooms.

Date: May 27, 2015
Time: 4:00pm – 4:45pm
Location: Right Here!
Registration: Visit https://plus.google.com/events/c8j4oam5s24vuod05nnptseo03c and click Yes for “I am planning to attend”.

Note: If this is your first FSD Webinar it is beneficial to watch the intro video currently located above.
Let me know if you have any questions,

Yours in Learning,
Doug

Hi all,

I'd like to take a moment to talk about a serious issue related to digital copyright. New legislation around "fair dealing" have made these waters difficult to navigate for a classroom teacher. So without further "ado" I'd like to share with you the law as it applies to digital content in education.

Digital Copyright and the Classroom:

1. What is NEVER okay?

1. Pirated resources (Constitutes theft): Content that has been removed from its original format ie: DVD, CD, iTunes, etc and shared publically (file sharing) or privately with individuals who did not pay for it: Typically these consist of
1. Software
2. Music
3. Movies
4. Other media
2. Content that someone else has pirated and placed on a public site such as YouTube. (For example a Bill Nye episode that someone has posted to YouTube).
3. Content sold in a digitally protected format - iTunes, Play, eBooks, Amazon, etc. - where you have used a program to remove the license lock (DRM). For example, if you purchase a movie from iTunes, use a program to “break” the lock so you can play it from your Moodle page, Google Drive or YouTube.
4. Content removed from its original media without permission - For example “ripping” music or movies from a CD or DVD (This includes “ripping” from YouTube).

2. What is SOMETIMES okay?

1. Play a legitimately purchased (bought by the school, by yourself) movie for your students, for educational purposes. (Note that sporting events, sleepovers, fundraisers etc. are covered through our IRC membership. Please contact Barbara Eagles at IMC if you want to confirm that a title is licensed for this).
1. Note: Although high definition streaming services such as Netflix or ShoMi are legal in these situations, they draw enough bandwidth to slow down the entire division internet. Please do not use these!
2. Legitimately hosted music videos from services like Vimeo can be used for educational purposes so long as they are played from their original website, however these are not covered through the IRC licenses.
2. Reproduce a work for educational purposes that is:
1. Not commercially available in Canada for a reasonable price
2. Cannot be located with reasonable effort (For example, a work produced in 1970 is no longer available for purchase in any format)
3. News and commentary used for educational purposes.
4. Create something new using a published work (sometimes referred to as a “Mashup”) as long as the work you’re using itself has not violated copyright. For example you can create a video using a piece of music you’ve purchased from itunes so long as you don’t have to remove the DRM lock to do it.

3. What is ALWAYS okay?

1. Play legitimately purchased music or other audio recording for your students.
2. Play, download and copy resources that are Creative Commons licensed. (http://search.creativecommons.org is an easy way to find these).
3. Play multi-media created and produced by FSD Staff and Students.

The University of British Columbia has a Comprehensive Site outlining copyright implications for Educational Institutions as per the Copyright Modernization Act (formerly bill C-11).

Legal Alternatives for Content:

• Creative Commons Search: http://search.creativecommons.org
• Search for content that is licensed under creative commons and therefore free to copy with attribution. Creative Commons Search looks for free content on a variety of search tools including Google, Flickr and ccMixter.
• 7-Digital: http://7digital.ca
• Music sold without DRM lock legitimately. Prices are similar to iTunes and Play, but can be used to create “mashups” legitimately. Refer to the purchase contract to determine the number of devices you are allowed to share to.
• Streaming Services purchased through IRC (Contact Barbara Eagles for passwords):
• Discovery Education: http://www.discoveryeducation.ca/Canada/
• Access Learning: http://www.accesslearning.com  
• Learn 360: http://learn360.com

Adaptive Technology to Go

Hi all,

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a session hosted by Bridges Canada introducing us to a variety of Adaptive Technology solutions. Specifically, these products fit into four main categories: text to speech products; voice recognition products; predictive text and a diagnostic tool. I'd like to take a moment to share a few of these and alternatives that you have access to right now. The video below will take you through each of these. See below for links and instructions.

Free Text to Speech:

• Read, Write Gold
• Select and Speak

Free Voice Recognition:

• Speech Recognition Docs Add On
• Dictation.io

Predictive Text

• Co:Writer - Cost

Diagnostic

• Protocol for Adaptations in Reading - Free