Week 4 - Self-Directed Learners and Differentiated Learning

An example of somewhat self-directed learning in our elementary schools are students who take classes online. A couple of our students receiving online math instruction in order to place them into middle school level classes. In fact, one of them, a 3rd grader, is actually doing 8th grade math.

PBL certainly involves a significant degree of self-directed learning. Although I haven't seen too many examples of this in the schools it is used to some degree in classrooms (and outside of them).

I think choice in learning can be a significant motivator if used appropriately. Reports and projects are most conducive to choice and self-directed learning in my opinion.

Designing lessons that allow for differentiated instruction is something that teachers are very familiar with. Teachers know that they need to allow for different learning styles and levels when teaching students.

The assignment note says to write about student centered assessment and how this module has added to my ideas about this. Well, I think student centered assessments implies that the individual learning styles of the students should be taken into account when assessing what students have learned. This is obvious and I don't think anyone would disagree. Making assessments student centered can also mean involving them in the process of creating assessments. This can lead to more motivation as a result of their increased involvement, but can also be a slippery slope if they are allowed too much input. I think it depends on your teaching style and your particular group of students.

In my teaching I do give assessments to gauge whether or not the students have acquired various library, information and research skills. I try to make the assessments somewhat active in that students sometimes have to move to different parts of the library or use what they have learned to find information in various sources. So there is some degree of student centeredness (made up that last word) to my lessons and units. I do make use of formative assessments, which may include worksheets, quizzes or just the demonstration of a skill. These are indicators that lead to the summative assessments. The summative assessments are of a similar style but are usually longer and the students have to complete them with less assistance.

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This class is going well so far. We have learned about some useful things, such as the moodle and the intel website. I think this might be the most valuable class yet since we are actually designing a unit to use. Honestly, I'm getting really burned out as far as these classes go. I'll make it through but it is a marathon. There are pros and cons to the condensed, accelerated nature of this cohort.

Specific digital divide issues that I see in my classroom:

At some of the schools it is very difficult to book time in the computer lab.

There is not always equipment available to use. Today I was hoping to use the smart board with a couple of classes but the school's two smartboards were already in use.