Anthony Maddox is a member of the HP Catalyst Academy and his work as per STEMx came through his working experience at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education and Engineering. Anthony is a licensed Engineer. He created a course on internet and engineering to teach K-9 and K-12 kids on the subject. The course- Thinking like an Engineer: Teaching and Learning Pre-College Engineering- was structured to run for some weeks. Week 1 was on Engineering Design, Problem Solving, Designs, Design Features and Context- Next Generation Science Standards. The processes employed in the teaching of science can also be applied to the field of engineering. Science is driven by phenomena and Engineering is centered on solving problems. The types of problems encountered were closed and open-ended problems, which all numerous ways of reaching the solutions. In terms of the Designs, there are Multimedia Portfolios for K-12 Education, Lessons, Unit or Program Plans then Proposals for Support. The Design Features center on Iteration- Refinement/Redesign, Design Cycle and Solutions- "Families"-based on solutions, Constraints/Specifications, Decisions. Next Generation Science Standards include Science and Engineering Practices, K-12 Engineering Standards, Inquiry-Based Learning and Project-Based Learning.
Week 2 is on STEM Interconnectedness as related to STEM and STEM(x), STEM and STEM(x) Integration, Thinking Maps, Rigorous Pedagogical Dissemination of Information. Week 3- Engineering Habits of Mind refers to the Values, Attitudes, Thinking Skills and Framework for 21st Century Thinking. Values, Attitudes, Thinking Skills relates to Creativity, Optimism and Collaboration. The Framework for 21st Century Learning as relates to K-12 education, touches on Core Subjects and Themes, Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media and Technology Skills, and Life and Career Skills. Week 4 of the education program is about Design Review, which centers on More Engineering "Habits of Mind," Launch or "Rollout" of the Design and Soft Systems Methodology. The three additional habits of mind in K-12 education are Systems Thinking, Communication and Ethics. Launching or "Rollout" is simply about Testing and Measurement, Innovation and Beneficiaries ("Clients"). Soft Systems Methodology, used in United Kingdom has been used for over forty years. It is about Action Research, Individual and Groups, Perceived Words, Discourse, Created Meanings, "Assemblies" and Purposeful Action. Meta means above and beyond and across. Meta-disciplines bring everything together.
Samantha Becker is a Senior Director of communication for the New Media Consortium (NMC), which provides attention to colleges, schools and not-for-profits. It uses social media for formal and informal education. The HP Catalyst Academy is a federated network of mini-courses. Mini-courses challenge traditional skills-based approaches to information literacy by recognizing related literacy types and emerging technologies like video. They also encourage Critical Thinking: Discussion forums to every assignment post- peer feedback loop. The other link to metaliteracy is supporting the acquisition, production, and sharing of knowledge in collaborative online communities. Betty Hurley-Dasgupta's presentation was related to exploring ePortfolios for STEM learning. According to the Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, 2008, the best schools don't offer the curriculum that includes the must have skills of the future which are:
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Collaboration across networks and leading
- Agility and Adaptability
- Initiative and entrepreneurialism
- Effective oral and written communication
- Accessing and analyzing information
- Curiosity and imagination
ePortfolios encourage deep thinking as the focus is on what is signified, relates previous knowledge to new knowledge, relates knowledge from different courses. It also focuses on relating and distin,guishing evidence and argument, organizing and structuring content into coherent whole and internal emphasis from within the student. The focus of surface learning is on the signs or on the learning signifier of something else, on unrelated parts of the task, information for assessment is simply memorized, facts and concepts are associated unreflectively, principles are not distinguished from examples. In addition task is treated as an external imposition. Emphasis is external, from demand of assessment (Ramsden, 1988) as cited in Atherton, 2005.
The model for learning is centered mainly on the learner in dialogue and it is directly related with experience and activity, documenting , managing and planning, sharing and communication, conceptualizing and making association with previous knowledge, publishing and getting some feedback, repurposing and synthesizing information. Helen Barret is considered the grandmother of ePortfolios, which has e-dentity at its core with digital stories, digital archives, blogs, images, bookmarks, podcasts, social network, wiki directly relating to it. Journaling involves reflective journals employed by educational instructors to deepen the quality of students learning by promoting critical thinking, encouraging a questioning attitude to enable students understand their own learning growth processes (metacognition), strengthening active involvement in learning through personal ownership of learning experience (Boud, 2001; Moon, 1999). Reflective journaling has immensely contributed to the exercise of voice (Patterson and Jones, 2001), and the narrative nature of journaling has been shown to contribute to development of a professional identity ( Blevins, 2007; Redman, 2005). Learners in the digital age are required to critical skills for the 21st Century such as: critical thinking, communication, innovation, collaboration. In addition, ePortfolios provide an environment for: reflection (journaling), formative assessment, learner-created work. ePortfolios are being used at different levels; Weebly is being used by K-12 as well as very simple ePortfolio systems, profile pages and journals.
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