2.3 Authentic Learning
Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in authentic learning experiences. (PSC 2.3/ISTE 2c)
Artifact: ITEC 7400 - Engaged Learning Project
This artifact was created for an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) Year 1 (6th Grade) class who were learning mapping skills in a local and global context. The Year 1 team and myself created this artifact to address developing cartographic skills, including a fieldtrip to the local Garden Hills neighborhood. This artifact is aligned to Standard 2.3 Authentic Learning, as the students were given the opportunity to use a wide range of digital tools and resources during, and after a real-life, authentic learning experience.
In this Unit of Inquiry, students were presented with the Statement of Inquiry to center their thinking round the Key Concept of a system. The Statement of Inquiry “Systems lend themselves to the practice of people understanding the world through networks and processes at various scales” honed into the more subject specific Related Concepts of processes, networks and scale.
To make learning authentic it must have a real world context. The students in Year 1 Geography learn map skills (using traditional maps, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensed images) to understand the world around them. Mastery is demanded in very explicit geographical terms (grid referencing, coordinates, ordinal points, contouring, topographic mapping and scale). While mastery of these skills is assessed in class summative assessments, students are also given an opportunity to demonstrate their mastery in a real-world context to give them an authentic learning experience. A full afternoon is spent in the local Garden Hills neighborhood, where the students (who are instructed in four different languages – German, Spanish, French and English), create a digital map of this area in their language of instruction, with the aim that it might be used by a tourist or a visitor to the Garden Hills area.
To make this authentic to a real-life situation, students engage in a GRASP’s activity whereby they are given a:
Goal: To create an online walking trail map of the Garden Hills area around Atlanta International School.
Role: A digital cartographer for the city of Atlanta.
Audience: New families moving into the Garden Hills neighborhood.
Situation: Students will be presented with the problem that new families move into Garden Hills all the time. They need a walking map to navigate to important places on their arrival. Many of these families may not speak English as a first language.
Product: Students will use Google Maps to create an online interactive map that they can share with the community from the school website. This should include original text, directions (from a field-visit walk of the area from which they will gather data), photographs and a movie. The product will be in four different languages – French, German, Spanish and English
Standards and criteria for assessment: Using the criteria for assessment (task specific rubric designed for the assignment) from the MYP Individuals and Societies Guide 2014 Criterion B – Investigating, Criterion C – Communicating and Criterion D – Thinking Critically.
This Unit of Inquiry is highly authentic as the students take very distinct learning in a classroom setting and apply to a real-life scenario that is local to their learning experience. The students not only make paper field notes and take pictures during their trip to augment their digital maps, but also use Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology through use of apps on their smart phones that can be uploaded or linked to their Google Map, for example MapMyRun. Students synthesize their data and findings to create their online maps using Google Maps.
Using this kind of approach to learning generated many reflections for the Year 1 teaching team. The organization of a field trip in a busy schedule is difficult and requires planning – and walking ninety students around a neighborhood requires many chaperones as there are some streets that do not have sidewalks. A safety assessment study was completed beforehand and careful planning of the fieldtrip was required. However, the maps produced were of a high quality; although some students struggled with creating their map online and articulated that they would prefer to draw by hand. Others attempted to create their maps using Mind Craft. The latter was allowed in this particular Unit of Inquiry but, on reflection, will not be included from this point in the future teaching of the Unit of Inquiry, as the students that elected this approach to showing their learning got more involved in the gaming side of the application than the objective of understanding mapping skills in a real life setting. Some students reflected that they would like to add the component of Geocaching to their maps as their smart devices detected several caches in the area. The Year 1 team has since added this to the Unit of Inquiry as an optional outcome for the student map.
This particular artifact really helped to hone the movement of student learning beyond the four walls of the school and, since this fieldtrip has been introduced, more faculty have been engaged in learning that takes place in real time off campus in the local Atlanta area, for example mapping streets in Decatur. The impact of this is constantly being assessed in a formative manner in terms of local media exposure (for example, the Northside Neighbor reported on our Year 1 fieldtrip), but can also be seen in more real terms as the students turn in their summative assessments that are finely honed to real-life objectives for learning.
In this Unit of Inquiry, students were presented with the Statement of Inquiry to center their thinking round the Key Concept of a system. The Statement of Inquiry “Systems lend themselves to the practice of people understanding the world through networks and processes at various scales” honed into the more subject specific Related Concepts of processes, networks and scale.
To make learning authentic it must have a real world context. The students in Year 1 Geography learn map skills (using traditional maps, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensed images) to understand the world around them. Mastery is demanded in very explicit geographical terms (grid referencing, coordinates, ordinal points, contouring, topographic mapping and scale). While mastery of these skills is assessed in class summative assessments, students are also given an opportunity to demonstrate their mastery in a real-world context to give them an authentic learning experience. A full afternoon is spent in the local Garden Hills neighborhood, where the students (who are instructed in four different languages – German, Spanish, French and English), create a digital map of this area in their language of instruction, with the aim that it might be used by a tourist or a visitor to the Garden Hills area.
To make this authentic to a real-life situation, students engage in a GRASP’s activity whereby they are given a:
Goal: To create an online walking trail map of the Garden Hills area around Atlanta International School.
Role: A digital cartographer for the city of Atlanta.
Audience: New families moving into the Garden Hills neighborhood.
Situation: Students will be presented with the problem that new families move into Garden Hills all the time. They need a walking map to navigate to important places on their arrival. Many of these families may not speak English as a first language.
Product: Students will use Google Maps to create an online interactive map that they can share with the community from the school website. This should include original text, directions (from a field-visit walk of the area from which they will gather data), photographs and a movie. The product will be in four different languages – French, German, Spanish and English
Standards and criteria for assessment: Using the criteria for assessment (task specific rubric designed for the assignment) from the MYP Individuals and Societies Guide 2014 Criterion B – Investigating, Criterion C – Communicating and Criterion D – Thinking Critically.
This Unit of Inquiry is highly authentic as the students take very distinct learning in a classroom setting and apply to a real-life scenario that is local to their learning experience. The students not only make paper field notes and take pictures during their trip to augment their digital maps, but also use Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology through use of apps on their smart phones that can be uploaded or linked to their Google Map, for example MapMyRun. Students synthesize their data and findings to create their online maps using Google Maps.
Using this kind of approach to learning generated many reflections for the Year 1 teaching team. The organization of a field trip in a busy schedule is difficult and requires planning – and walking ninety students around a neighborhood requires many chaperones as there are some streets that do not have sidewalks. A safety assessment study was completed beforehand and careful planning of the fieldtrip was required. However, the maps produced were of a high quality; although some students struggled with creating their map online and articulated that they would prefer to draw by hand. Others attempted to create their maps using Mind Craft. The latter was allowed in this particular Unit of Inquiry but, on reflection, will not be included from this point in the future teaching of the Unit of Inquiry, as the students that elected this approach to showing their learning got more involved in the gaming side of the application than the objective of understanding mapping skills in a real life setting. Some students reflected that they would like to add the component of Geocaching to their maps as their smart devices detected several caches in the area. The Year 1 team has since added this to the Unit of Inquiry as an optional outcome for the student map.
This particular artifact really helped to hone the movement of student learning beyond the four walls of the school and, since this fieldtrip has been introduced, more faculty have been engaged in learning that takes place in real time off campus in the local Atlanta area, for example mapping streets in Decatur. The impact of this is constantly being assessed in a formative manner in terms of local media exposure (for example, the Northside Neighbor reported on our Year 1 fieldtrip), but can also be seen in more real terms as the students turn in their summative assessments that are finely honed to real-life objectives for learning.