Using Web 2.0 Technology in Project based Learning
Project Based Learning can be defined as an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom.
Integration of technology is an integral part of project based learning, because technology is an integral part of life outside the classroom as revealed in this part of the definition – “types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom.”
Strategies for Integrating Technology in Project based Learning
The following is an aggregate of free Web 2.0 resources for use in project based learning.
Book Trailer Videos
Students can create a book trailer for trade books such as the “Math Curse” by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith or the “Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle to intrigue others about reading the book. Students use video or digital images to represent a portion of the story and then turn it into a movie using:
- Photo Story 3 - converting photos into slideshow
- Windows Movie Maker - creating digital movies
- iMovie - creating movies
- Animoto - creating videos
- Netvibes - blogs, videos, and photos
- Kerpoof - illustrate writing and videos
- Fluxtime - animated videos
- Fanfiction - creating videos
- Screentoaster - creating videos
Interactive Posters/Presentations
Students create an interactive poster about a specific event in science or math history, scientist, mathematicians, and math or science concepts. Their interactive poster includes photos, videos, documents, and other information. Students create this interactive poster using:
- Glogster - interactive posters using video, music, and documents
- Flickr - image sharing
- Google Docs - spreadsheets, wordprocessing, surveys, and presentations
- Open Office - spreadsheets, wordprocessing, and presentations
- Zoho - spreadsheets, wordprocesssing, and presentations
- Animoto - videos
- VoiceThread - images, documents, and videos
- Netvibes - blogs, videos, and photos
- ccMixter - music
- Wordle - vocabulary cloud
- Kerpoof - illustrate writing and videos
- Fluxtime - animated videos
Podcasts – Audio/Video
Students use digital images to create a vocabulary review for topics in science or math. Then they can be turned into audio or video Podcasts. Students create this podcasts using:
- Audacity - audio recorder and editor
- iTunes - music, videos, and podcasting
- Garageband - audio editing and recording
- Podsafe Audio - music
- Netvibes - blogs, videos, and photos
- ccMixter - music for video
- Kerpooof - videos
- Fluxtime - animated videos
- Screentoaster - videos
Slideshows
Students use digital images to create a vocabulary review for topics in science or math. Then they can be turned into audio or video Podcasts. Students create this podcasts using:
- Slideshare - powerpoint presentations and documents
- Slidesix - powerpoint presentations, audio, and video
- Slideboom - powerpoint presentations
- Slideroll - photos
- VoiceThread - images, documents, and videos
- Wordle - vocabulary cloud
- ccMixter - music
Collaborative Sharing
These projects can be shared within the class and others outside the classroom using:
- Class Wiki – All
- Skype – Book Trailers and Presentations
- Twitter - All
- Class Blog – All
- VoiceThread – Interactive Posters/Presentations
- Stupeflix Studio – Videos
- Flixtime – Videos
- SchoolTube – Videos and Podcasts
- Jing – All
- Ning – All
- iPhone – Podcasts
- iPod Touch – Podcasts
- Diigo – All
- Stumble Upon – All
- Delicious - All
- YouTube - Videos
- Vimeo - Videos
Using Web 2.0 tools in support of student learning in math and science accomplishes two things.
- First – these tools take advantage of prior knowledge and experiences with digital tools for these digital citizens.
- Second – these tools allow students to complete project based learning using real world applications.
Science Experimental Design
The importance of experimental design in science is that helps students infer about causes or relationships, as opposed to simply describe what happened in a canned experiment.
As students learn to develop their own experimental design they must be able to answer the most important question of all regarding the design process.
Essentially, they are determining a driving question and creating a science experiment to help find an answer for the question. This includes identifying and answering questions that their design does not answer.
Experimental Design Process
Driving Question – students must learn to not ask questions that result in a simple yes or no answer.Experimental design questions must be cause and effect, along with being open-ended.
An example:
- What is the impact of acid rain on the growth rate of dandelions during spring?
Variables – once students have identified the driving question for an experiment, the next step in the design process is to identify variables.
These include:
- Independent Variable – is what is manipulated or the treatment in an experiment.
- Dependent Variable – is what is observed from the effects of manipulating the treatment in an experiment.
- Control Variables – are factors that remain constant throughout an experiment.
- Extraneous Variables – influence the relationship between the independent and dependent variables of an experiment, which the student has no control over. These are variables influence the outcome of an experiment and are undesirable because they add error to an experiment.
Hypothesis – the next step in the design process is developing a hypothesis to determine if the experimental design is testable; i.e., are the independent and dependent variables measurable.
Here is a hypothesis checklist:
- Is the hypothesis based on information contained in driving question?
- Does the hypothesis include the independent and dependent variable?
- Is the hypothesis worded so that it can be tested in the experiment?
Hypothesis examples are:
- Raising the temperature of a cup of water (temperature is the independent variable) will increase the amount of sugar that dissolves (the amount of sugar is the dependent variable).
- If a plant receives fertilizer (fertilizer is the independent variable), then it will grow to be bigger than a plant that does not receive fertilizer (plant size is the dependent variable).
Impact of Using the Experimental Design Process
Now students can make a personal connection to scientific investigation process. A personal connection is essential to internalizing new knowledge and ways of learning. The key attributes of students gain from this process is:
- learning how to design research
- learning how to ask questions
- internalizing new knowledge
- realizing that findings depend on experimental design
- increasing their level of understanding of science
- learning how to investigate like scientists
Additional Resources
Understanding Scientific Inquiry
Experimental Design
Web-Based Learnng Centers
For a web-based learning to be truly effective it must be interactive. This means that it is not just a reformatted canned science lesson or math worksheets placed on the web.
The web-based activity is inquiry-based and incorporates the full features available on the web – interactivity between computer and student.
The learning activity must engage student critical thinking skills by using the inquiry process.
Scientific Inquiry: Web-Based Learning Centers
Web-based science and math learning centers are ideal for group inquiry-based activities using interactive online resources and in class supporting materials in designated stations.
These stations are designed to support as many learning styles as possible within the context of the learning center.
Web-based learning centers work with one or multiple computers; of course more computers are better.
Creating a web-based learning center stations for students requires the following setup:
- one or more computers
- hands-on/minds-on science investigations
- print resources
The best designed web-based learning centers in science and math focus on one specific scientific concept at a time, such as:
- five senses
- animal cells
- anatomy
- cloud types
- energy
- geometric shapes
- symmetry
- graphing
- equations
Sample web-based learning center using the Water Cycle include:
- One station containing books on the water cycle
- One or more computer station(s) with two or three predetermined interactive websites for students’ to research water cycle.
- One minds-on investigation station that allow students to visualize the water cycle in action and help answer questions they developed (developed prior to and during investigation)
- One hands-on/minds-on station that allow students to design a simple experiment to complete additional research
- One or more stations for analyzing findings
- One or more stations for preparation of presentation of findings using education technology tools
Before students begin the learning center, students determine questions they want answered regarding the water cycle.
Online Learning: Technology Based Resources
Select a concept and then find two or three web-based resources to support student interactivity with the concept.
There are many options to find resources and directories that support this effort, examples are:
Problem Based Learning in Science
Problem Based Learning in Math
