When I was looking for a video to post for out EL Video assignment, I looked at lots and lots of videos on Edutopia.org before deciding on a video. I saw many of the videos my classmates posted in their blogs, and passed them by. However, looking at them and reading their responses, I saw that there were lots of videos that demonstrated Engaged Learning. It helps to watch the videos and reading the responses! I learned a lot from viewing all the videos. They have given me great ideas and inspiration for getting back into the classroom in August!! I think that a lot of people can benefit from watching these videos like I did. The videos show what engaged learning looks like. These videos show how beneficial engaged learning activities are to students. I think many of these videos that we found were be perfect for professional development. I know that once I began watching the videos I became inspired to do more in my classroom, and showing these to other teachers will help inspire them! Hopefully!
The best video that I saw, that would be a great example for K-12 teachers to understand what technology-supported, standards-based, Engaged Learning looks like is the Introduction to Project-Based Learning video.
I found this video on LeTilia's blog. I remember passing it by on Edutopia, but when I watched it again, I found that it was a great example of engaged learning! It supports standards-based learning, and has a great use of technology! This video was strong in almost all the indicators of engaged learning. It is standards-based, and challenging. This activity requires the students to design, create, build and then present their project to their peers, parents, and engineers. It was authentic because the students were placed in a real-life scenario. The activity was student directed and collaborative in nature. Although this was a project for 9th graders, it's a project that can be modified for other grade levels, because they can design, create and build something else to fall in line with the standards. Technology is integrate throughout the entire project and it is a good example for how teachers can integrate technology in their lessons!
My Second choice video was the From Worms to Wall Street video. This video is great because it is more of a hands-on engaged learning activity. This video is also for more of a younger age/grade level than the previous video.
I found this video on Amy's blog. I chose this one as my second favorite because it shows how engaged learning can be done in the primary grades. This project is strong in almost all the indicators of engaged learning. However, like most of the videos I saw on Edutopia and my peer's blogs, there was a weakness in assessment. I think that this may be because as educators, we are constantly assessing. We assess when we begin a unit, to see how much our students know, we are assessing when our students are doing an activity and assisting those that we notice are struggling. When it comes to using technology, we are still assessing all the time, to make sure they understand how to use the technology. In this video, they created spreadsheets that could be used as assessments. However, there was no formal mention of assessments.
The patterns I noticed in the videos that I watched were that engaged learning requires that the students are doing most of the work, it's student directed. These engaged learning activities put the students in charge of their own learning, and makes what they are learning more meaningful. What I also noticed about almost all the videos of Engaged Learning was that they had some sort of real life connection, or real life role. I also noticed that in the ones that incorporated more technology the students seemed more engaged. I notice that in my own classroom. The activities that we do that uses technology, my students get more excited about! Even as simple as using the document camera to publish their writing! They all want to publish, where as in years before I had a document camera, they were not as excited about publishing their writing! It is possible to have an engaged lesson without technology, but the students will not be as engaged as they would be with the lesson that incorporates technology.
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