Welcome to Unit 3!
We explore the idea of active learning. This concept includes students' freedom to make decisions about how they explore a topic, and their reflections on those learning experiences.
Overivew & Active Learning - Prof. Klopfer gets us started by defining active learning and explains why it can help students gain better understanding. Next, we will take a look at some technologies that can enable active learning
- Geniverse: Dr. Paul Horwitz introduces us to Geniverse, an online environment for learning genetics for high school biology. This first case study shows how simulations can be a tool to stimulate active learning.
- StarLogo Nova: Daniel Wendel presents StarLogo Nova, a tool that allows students to do simulated experiments. Wendy Huang tells us how StarLogo Nova is implemented in real classrooms.
- The Lifelong Kindergarten: Professor Mitchel Resnick, who we met earlier in the course, reflects on the evolution of constructionism and discusses a few projects from his lab.
- Constructionist Technologies: Professor Matthew Berland talks about projects he has worked on that are inspired by constructionism.
- Non-cognitive Skills: This unit includes a TED Talk by Professor Angela Duckworth. She reveals why grit and persistence are as important as content knowledge and skill building. Scot Osterweil describes his work on The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis and the process of designing activities to help students persist in the face of challenges.
- Overview and Active Learning
- Prof. Klopfer defines "simulation" and provides examples. Dr. Paul Horwitz, Senior Scientist at the Concord Consortium, introduces the Concord Consortium (its work and its philosophy) and details his own journey from being a physicist to creating educational technologies. He talks about how science is a "game" but isn't taught that way, and how this understanding has influenced his work.
- Get an introduction to Geniverse by watching the video..
- Paul describes the GenScope project and its affect on kids' motivation as well as their test scores. Professional development and a flexible curriculum were found to be essential as the project morphed into Biologica, and later Geniverse. In all iterations, implementation strategies were key areas to focus on.
- Paul talks more generally about why educational technology and simulations are important for science learning, in terms of both content and practices. He also discusses strategies for facilitating group reflection and making connections to the real world. This segment is a bonus.
- Daniel Wendel, a project manager/software developer in Eric's lab, talks about the affordances of StarLogo software and the wide variety of agent-based systems that can be built with it. He describes the software design, curriculum designs, and moments of learning that students have had while working with it.
- Wendy Huang, a curriculum developer and program manager at Eric's lab, talks about the many ways in which teachers and students are utilizing StarLogo Nova, from presenting simulations, to modifying them, to creating them. She describes some of the most effective teacher training methods and implementation approaches that enable use of the StarLogo technology into classrooms.
- sWendy Huang, a curriculum developer and program manager at Eric's lab, talks about the many ways in which teachers and students are utilizing StarLogo Nova, from presenting simulations, to modifying them, to creating them. She describes some of the most effective teacher training methods and implementation approaches that enable use of the StarLogo technology into classrooms.
- Angela Lee Duckworth, now a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, shares her experience teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.
- Judy Perry talks with Scot Osterweil about how non-cognitive skills can be learned through play given the right factors. He connects active learning and the acquisition of skills to the overall experience of games.