Week 9: Finishing the lessons

I was so pleased and excited to see the curriculum units that people created. There went way beyond my expectations, both in terms of completeness and complexity. Some great examples of Web 2.0 tool use, including some at least partially developed their ideas (like the history game and the use of animation and sound to teach tones in Chinese--this is the first time I've actually understood that!), as well as great uses of Ning (which has caught on so quickly and which, with a deft hand, can be used almost as well as Moodle for an entire curriculum), very creative use of other people's resources (simulations in physics and games in Greek history), and tools that I didn't know existed (WizIQ). Every one had many good ideas embedded in it, plus there was a lot of good instructional design theory thrown in.

What they all--and we--lack was one environment that would embrace all the tools, making it so much easier to use them.

I had deliberately said that people should work in pairs because of past experience with the difficulties of coordinating larger groups in a short period of time, but the psychology of it led to larger groups. In addition, I saw the same problem that the high school kids have, which is that you have more problems if you don't get your entire group organized early (in other words, stragglers make it more difficult). That said, curriculum units, in the end, everyone seems to have managed well, although the smaller groups seem to have created slightly more coherent curriculum, probably because they did not have to split the work in the same way (i.e., they could work together more easily). I am therefore still inclined not to encourage larger groups, just because it adds to the burden.

One of the students wrote in her blog about what she has learned about working in groups from working in a big international company. That made me think that we could have benefited from her experience if I had thought about it beforehand--but I didn't put it all together. And that reminded me that one of the IB online teachers has each student lead one discussion forum each week, posing their own question for other students to answer. Some version of that might be possible--for instance, if a student had experience in some area that he/she felt would benefit other students. Perhaps the way to do this would be to solicit volunteers, not forcing people but allowed those who have experience the opportunity to pass it along.

Lots to think about.