Innovation Workshop Session 4: 21 st Century Learning Dimensions

2 By the end of this session you will: Know which six dimensions of 21 st Century Learning are worth aiming to include in your Learning Activities Have a deeper understanding of these dimensions Have looked at some Learning Activities to see how they have incorporated the dimensions. Tweet about it! Which Learning Dimension s do you think are the most important? Which ones are the most challenging to include? #msedu

Collaboration Students work together to… Discuss an issue Solve a problem Create a product Students share responsibility for the outcome – they collectively own the process and the product. Students make substantive (meaningful) decisions – ones that shape the content and product – with other people

Knowledge Construction Happens when students: go beyond just reproducing knowledge generate ideas and understandings that are new to them (at their age or level) interpret, analyse, synthesize, or evaluate information or ideas (use higher order thinking skills) These activities should take the bulk of the time and count for a substantial portion of the marks in a true knowledge construction activity.

Use of ICT Big ideas: Students use ICT to complete all or part of the learning activity. Use of ICT helps knowledge building to take place The activity would be impossible or impractical without the use of the ICT. Do students use ICT to support knowledge building? Is ICT necessary for the knowledge building to take place? The teacher’s use of ICT to present materials does not count - students need to have control over the ICT use themselves.

Would these activities be possible or practical without ICT? Six and seven year olds collected eight tons of waste in six weeks. They used social media to get the message out and Skype to communicate. Using the internet to research recycling, a wiki to collate findings creating their own e-books generated excitement and understanding for the recycling drive. Grade 8 + 9s have got people from 11 countries spending an hour each to record and upload stories as MP3 files that can be played for blind children to listen to. They are collecting stories in a range of languages and across cultures. Grade ten learners used a cell phone app to plot functions so that they could focus on analysing the effects of changing the variables. Using the app made it quick and easy to plot lots of functions – so more time could be spent on the analysis.

Comparing two Learning Activities: 5 minute activity! Look at the two Learning Activities that involved learners creating AutoCollages on the next slide anddiscuss these questions in pairs Knowledge Building Which of the activities uses the AutoCollage activity to build knowledge? Use of ICT Has each AutoCollage activity been an effective use of ICT as a teaching tool? Collaboration Are these projects collaborative? How could the teachers have made them collaborative activities?

Mathe City Grade 5 learners built a model of ‘MATHECITY’ that integrated Geometry content. Learners folded nets of 3D shapes to form buildings and decorated these using tessellations created using MS Paint. Here an AutoCollage is used to start a discussion on tessellations and then learners are required to make their own AutoCollage using photos of tessellations that they photograph or find online. Lazily Learning Learners watch their favorite television programs and compare and contrast their conclusions with learners from the United States. Secondly they draw up time management tables and share these. Thirdly they create posters and act out puppet shows, dramas, poems and songs on different subject content as alternative entertainment to watching TV. Here learners practice making an AutoCollage.

Self-Regulation Is the learning activity long-term? Do students plan and assess their own work, and revise their work based on feedback? Self-regulation happens when learners: Have at least a few lessons to work on something Know the goals and criteria (e.g. rubric) in advance plan their own work: who, when, how, where Get feedback and can make changes before final submission

Skilled Communication Are students required to communicate their own ideas regarding a concept or issue? Must their communication be supported with evidence and designed with a particular audience in mind? Skilled-communication happens when learners: Produce extended communication (a video, a few paragraph, a podcast – not a tweet or SMS) Produce multi-modal texts that are stronger than one form of communication would be on its own (e.g. a photo in a blog post, some text within a video) Provide evidence to support their claims Shape their text for a specific audience (e.g. their city council or school SGB, not “people on the internet” or just the teacher.

Real-World Problem Solving and Innovation Does the learning activity require solving authentic, real-world problems? Are students’ solutions implemented in the real world? Happens when learners: complete tasks for which they do NOT already know a response or solution work on solving real problems implement their ideas, designs or solutions for audiences outside the classroom

Comparing two Learning Activities: 5 minute activity! Look at the two Learning Activities that involved learners using MovieMaker on the next slide and discuss these questions in pairs Self-Regulation How could these teachers have ensured some self-regulation in their activities? Skilled Communication Were the texts that were produced examples of skilled communication? Real-World Problem Solving and Innovation Are the activities solving real problems? Could they have been implemented and shared with an audience outside of the classroom?

How aware is our community about HIV/Aids? Grade 9 students engage with the topic of HIV/Aids by selecting an angle for their research – anything including stigmas to transmission to prevention. They were then required to use Moviemaker to make an infomercial that could be used to educate others about their findings. Fun with Class Music Groups of grade sevens wrote stories and selected songs to enhance their plots. They performed the songs, recorded them with their cell-phones and imported the songs into their stories using Moviemaker. They also viewed a soundless video clip and added in the sound based on their interpretation of the clip – learning how to use music to manipulate mood.

20 minute activity: Explore great 21CLD Learning Activities In pairs or groups of three select one of these sample Learning Activities to look at. Why is the Learning Activity a good example of the Learning Dimension it represents? What other dimensions does it do well? See great 21CLD learning activity examples

Something to do after the workshop Find out more about 21 st Century Learning Design