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44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning by Ted Panitz
http://mathforum.org/epigone/cl/testaaa/em6c8z0l8c2c@forum.s
warthmore.edu
A very complete list of benefits observed in classrooms using various forms of collaborative learning.
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A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning
http://www.k12reform.com/foundation/pbl/research/summary.pdf
This pdf document contains a definition of project-based learning (PBL) and information about the following: the underpinnings of PBL research and practice, evaluative research on the effectiveness of PBL, the role of student characteristics in PBL, implementation research, challenges associated with enacting PBL, intervention research, and research on improving the effectiveness of PBL. The document is inclusive rather than selective.
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A Successful Model for School Improvement
http://4teachers.org/keynotes/lawrence/
In this Web-based article, Dr. Judith Lawrence describes the successful staff development efforts of Orange School District, New Jersey, to implement technology into every aspect of the curriculum.
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Accelerated Schools Project
http://www.acceleratedschools.net/
The Accelerated Schools Project is a constructivist comprehensive school reform program that treats all children as gifted and builds on their strengths through enrichment strategies, independent research, problem solving, science, writing, music, and art. This Web site provides general information about the program, updates on training and conferences, related resources, and links to other useful Web sites.
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Alternative Instructional Strategies: Critical, Creative, Cooperative, Motivational
http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/
Material and resources to support a course on learner-centered teaching taught by Dr. Curtis J. Bonk, Department of Educational Psychology, School of Education, Indiana University. Includes all the readings, PowerPoint presentations of content, student work, and technology links.
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An Investigation of Heroism through the Holocaust and the Underground Railroad
http://knowledgeloom.org/gmott/resources/frieslerunit.pdf
This 8th grade unit plan, created by teacher Janis Friesler, integrates language arts, social studies, and technology standards and supports cooperative, project-based learning. It won Co-nect Schools' 2001 National Project Contest.
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Constructivist Teaching Strategies
http://www.inform.umd.edu/UMS+State/UMD-Projects/MCTP/Essays
/Strategies.txt
This article, written by Graham Dettrick of Monash University in Australia, features inquiry learning. The stress is upon teacher-designed situations in which pupils employ procedures research scientists use to recognize problems, ask questions, apply investigational procedures, and provide consistent descriptions, predictions, and explanations which are compatible with shared experience of the physical world.
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Count Us In Games
http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/default.htm
Count Us In Games target basic understandings in mathematics. Skills include counting, identifying numbers, patterns, comparing and classifying, etc. Games can be played online or downloaded for use offline. Teacher materials are available for the topics covered.
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Design Online
http://www.edc.org/spotlight/Tech/imaginationp2.htm
Imagination Place sites in Australia and the United States use the Internet to engage girls in technology. Research shows that girls use technology as a social tool. This article features an online project that offers girls a chance to become innovators and designers, not just consumers of technology.
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Edtechnot.com
http://www.edtechnot.com/
This site might be called a meeting of ed tech leaders throughout the world. Its purpose is to bring those who are guiding technology use in schools together to discuss divergent opinions. The site includes information on plans, web logs, books, and ideas related to educational technology.
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EduHound
http://www.eduhound.com/
Visiting EduHound is like walking into a wonderful store filled with resources for teachers of all subjects and all levels. This collection of links developed by leaders from the THE Journal.
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Embed Technology Use in Content Specific Professional Development
http://www.techlearning.com/edge/;jsessionid=J3CT4GUPHK5DAQSNDBCSKHY
This tech tip from Technology & Learning magazine encourages those teaching teachers to use technology to do so within the context of the subject each teacher is teaching. Teachers must see how technology fits into their content areas.
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Explorathon AZ
http://explorathonaz.keeptheinternetfun.org/
The ExplorathonAZ site from the University of Arizona provides information and links about use of technologies by girls. The emphasis is upon keeping the Internet fun.
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Fablevision
http://www.fablevision.com
The Fablevision site provides a wealth of unique ideas and creative tools for educators, students, and parents. Included are free downloads of little books and posters, games, inspirational ideas, and library of educational materials that can be ordered. The delightful, whimsical drawings of artist Peter Reynolds enhance the educational materials available.
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From Black and White to Color: Technology, Professional Development and Changing Practice
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A4070.cfm
Even after technology training by their district, many of the teachers followed in this multi-part article in the THE Journal, were not using technologies efficiently in their classrooms. After helping the teachers with classroom management, constructivist techniques, and showing them how to use technologies with what they were teaching, significant improvement was observed.
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Graphic Organizers in Education
http://www.inspiration.com/vlearning/research/index.cfm
For a research report on the value of using graphic organizers in education, go to this site and download Graphic Organizers: A Review of Scientifically Based Research. The research was completed by The Institute for the Advancement of Research in Education (IARE) at the Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL). In the report, twenty-nine studies were identified and evaluated as scientifically based research (SBR). The studies provided evidence in support of the instructional effectiveness of the use of graphic organizers.
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Grazing the Net: Raising a Generation of Free Range Students
http://www.fno.org/grazing1.html
This two-part article in From Now On Educational Technology Journal emphasizes constructivist approaches to using technology in the classroom. Author Jamie McKenzie lists characteristics of constructivist education along with a model for school research.
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Higher-Order Thinking Strategies for the Classroom
http://members.aol.com/MattT10574/HigherOrderLiteracy.htm
A set of classroom-ready teaching strategies that promote higher-order thinking in students. A good background resource for thinking about universal design as it relates to learning preferences.
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How People Learn
http://bob.nap.edu/html/howpeople2/
The report/book "How People Learn" put together by Suzanne Donovan, John Bransford, and James Pellegrino for the National Research Council provides a concise conceptual framework for understanding learning (3 key findings are presented on the Web site) and implications for teaching based on these findings.
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Making Technology Happen
http://www.southern.org/pubs/MTH/makingtech.shtml
Making Technology Happen: Best Practices and Policies from Exemplary K-12 Schools, published by The Southern Growth Policy Board, addresses findings on best practices in the implementation of technology in schools. This online version of the book reviews how more than 200 exemplary schools are bringing technology into their classrooms. Areas of discussion include planning, training, providing technical support, re-engineering organizations, obtaining resources and evaluating how district, state and federal policies impact the process.
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On Constructivism
http://www.inform.umd.edu/UMS State/UMD-Projects/MCTP/Essays
/Constructivism.txt
According to this article by Susan Hanley, the traditional teacher-as-information giver, textbook-guided classroom has failed to bring about the desired outcome of producing thinking students. A much-heralded alternative is to change the focus of the classroom from teacher dominated to student-centered, using a constructivist approach. This article contains an overview of the constructivist approach, characteristics of constructivist teachers, information on assessment, and guidelines for beginning to use this method.
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Printable Crafts
http://www.dltk-kids.com/
This is a very useful site for preschool and elementary teachers, for it provides links to a variety of free craft resources that can be downloaded and used in lessons. Some of the categories include the ABCs and 123s, holidays, animals, countries, and friends.
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Reconstructors Solve Medical Mysteries
http://medmyst.rice.edu
Interactive online games can be a valuable tool for teachers. Rice University offers several in which students learn how infectious diseases are spread. Included with the games are teacher resources.
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Ride the Wave to Success in the Classroom
http://osi.fsu.edu/waveseries/wave17.pdf
This downloadable pdf. file contains successful strategies for the
management of learner-centered classroom. The content was created for the
Florida Department of Education Office of School Improvement.
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Role of Gender in the Design of Electronic Learning Environments for Children
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/bennett.htm
This research article from Technology and Learning Magazine explains that girls thrive in an environment of social interaction and problem-solving and relates this fact to use of technologies with girls. For example, Imagine Place in KAHootZ is a perfect tool for understanding and creating new virtual environments for girls. The curriculum offers girls opportunities to create, invent, talk, and share ideas with peers.
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Scoring Rubrics
http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/projects/yep/endo
yrub/yeprub.html
Samples of rubrics that support multiple assessment measures.
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Social Studies Teachers and Technology
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~z06gkd/techproj/techproject2/
Reform efforts in the social studies have stressed a need to change the manner in which social studies has been taught and learned. One especially effective way to actively involve students in these activities is to incorporate technology into the social studies classroom. This paper provides activities developed in an attempt to integrate technology into the social studies curriculum while at the same time, encouraging skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, collaboration, creativity, and experience using various technological tools.
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Student Learning and the Meyer-Briggs Type Indicator
http://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html
This article from Georgia State University discusses briefly (1) the four dimensions underlying the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and (2) several teaching approaches that will appeal to different MBTI profiles. The 126 item Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Form G, is the most reliable method for assessing student learning style. The MBTI provides data on four sets of preferences. These preferences result in 16 learning styles, or types. Teaching strategies for each type are discussed.
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Students Teaching Students with Technology
http://techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/hildreth.htm
This article from Technology and Learning magazine offers one teacher's perspective on integrating technology into art classes, as well as interdisciplinary art and social studies classes. She recognized that especially for students not planning a career in the arts, collaborative learning becomes an extremely valid and productive methodology when it is combined with technology.
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SWAT Savvy: A Model for Effective Classroom Technology Using Student Experts
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/bryan.htm
Overwhelmed by technology? Learn how to call in the SWAT (Student Workers Applying Technology) team! This article from Technology and Learning magazine outlines one teacher's successful use of student experts to promote and organize the use of technology in her classroom.
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Synergy Learning
http://www.synergylearning.org
Synergy Learning is a comprehensive site covering math, science, and design technology for Grades K-8. Many computer-using educators will be familiar with its magazine Connect®. Archives from the magazine, information on inquiry learning, a sample magazine issue, and resources for science labs are available on the site. Synergy Learning offers support materials through free online information, summer institutes and workshops, and magazine subscriptions.
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Technology for Learning: How Does Technology Support Inquiry?
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/classroom/connect
/coulter.html
This article from Synergy Learning's Connect Magazine features information on how technology can help with inquiry learning. The emphasis is not upon technology, however, but rather upon the teacher and the classroom environment for learning that the teacher creates.
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The Best Web Quests
http://bestwebquests.com/default.asp
Many teachers like to add webquests to their package of teaching tools. To help them, this site features a chart of webquests that can be accessed by subject and grade level. Information is also available on what makes a good webquest activity for students.
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The Project Approach in Elementary and Early Childhood Education
http://www.project-approach.com/default.htm
The Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies which enable teachers to guide children through in-depth studies of real world topics. This site provides an overview of the philosophy and techniques for implementing this approach.
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Transforming Learning Through Technology
http://www.mff.org/publications/publications.taf?page=266
With investments in learning technology reaching $5.4 billion this year comes an important question: Does education technology work? This 1999, 75-page publication by The Milken Exchange on Education Technology and Peter D. Hart Research Associates outlines a vision for states that is educationally sound and technologically advanced, and aims to lead to a better system of learning. It features a series of writers, from educational psychologist Barbara Means of the Center for Technology in Learning (SRI International) to mathematician and MIT professor Seymour Papert, who envisions school as "a place where students learn, in large part, by working on projects that come out of their own
interests -- their own visions of a place where they want to be, a thing they want to make, or a subject they want to explore. Adding technology to the equation makes possible projects that are both very difficult and very engaging."
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Using the Web to Design Online Courses
http://www.umuc.edu/virtualteaching/module1/mod1.html
This resource provides information about the selection and use of Web-based media, such as text, audio, video, still images, animated graphics, applets, and scripts, to accomplish a number of different learning strategies. It assists faculty in creating and using Web-based media in ways that are appropriate for their students' learning experiences. Includes examples (some video/audio) of how teachers from a range of disciplines have integrated Web-based media in their teaching and associate those examples with particular teaching/learning strategies.
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What's Basic: A Constructivist's View
http://www.kidsource.com/tobbs/articles/whatsbasic.html
By Thomas C. O'Brien of Southern Illinois University, this is a thorough discussion of Constructivist Learning Theory and its implications and application in teaching and learning. Intriguing activities are included.
