ETEC 510 Sustainable Education Final Project
description
Transcript of ETEC 510 Sustainable Education Final Project
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ETEC 510 Sustainable Education Final Project
Group members:
Brett Williams
Owen Summers
Michael Morris
Zain Yousaf Ali
Website: http://sustainablepractices.weebly.com/
Course Blog: http://sustainablecommunitiesproject.blogspot.ca.
Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2014
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Key Frameworks
As educators, we are in a position to initiate and facilitate change. Educators can
empower students by providing them with the necessary tools and experiences for recognizing
and solving environmental and resource management problems. By educating students on the
complicated issues that surround sustainability, educators can guide students through the process
of becoming active members of a community that is educated in sustainability. In order to meet
these aims, there are three fundamental goals that we feel are necessary to the design of our
online learning environment: 1) we wish to have students interact, share and build upon ideas as
they progress through the unit of study; 2) encourage students to move beyond interactions
within a digital environment to learn and interact with the physical environments that
characterize their communities; and 3) inspire students to initiate change in their own lives or
within the wider community. In order to guide us in the creation of an online learning
environment that achieves these goals, we will rely primarily on elements of place-based
learning within a social-constructivist framework.
At the core of constructivist pedagogy is the active involvement of the learner in
constructing his/her understanding of a concept, rather than being a passive recipient of
knowledge transmitted by an acknowledged expert on the topic (Prawat, 2008; Boisvert 1997;
Pritchard & Woollard, 2010). The work of John Dewey can be seen as largely influential in the
development of this concept of knowledge building. According to Neubert (2009), pragmatism,
or experientialism, is at the core of Deweys philosophy. Dewey articulated this belief by
defining two sets of experiences. Primary experiences, which are shaped by our direct
experiences, provide us with the tools in which to respond and act when we encounter elements
that are new or problematic, which Dewey refers to as secondary experiences. What occurs
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through reflection and interaction, therefore, is a kind of negotiation of knowledge as the
individual is challenged to hypothesize and test the reliability of this new knowledge with prior
funds of knowledge, a concept that Piaget would expand upon in his work on adaptation and
organization (Pass, 2004). In this way, learning can be seen as a kind of adaptation, as
individuals form new ideas through the act of problem-solving and inquiry.
Online learning communities, if designed effectively, can facilitate a method of social
interaction that allows students to clarify and build an understanding of important concepts
together through collaboration, discussion and collective knowledge building (Allen, 2005). As
with Dewey, learning through social interaction was of great importance to Vygotsky. Aspects of
Vygotskys (1978) theories of learning and sociocultural theory, therefore, provide an essential
framework for our design. Allen (2005) cites Vygotsky as an important influence in the
development of the Talk 2 Learn online platform, in particular how the platform encourages
knowledge building through social interaction, in addition to scaffolding structures that fall in
line with Vygotskys notion of the zone of proximal development. Allen (2005) explains that
while there have been several interpretations of what factors and influences are required for
learning to occur within this zone, it is generally agreed that learning does not occur in isolation,
but is facilitated through some form of mediation, whether that is through a teacher, peer mentor
or cultural and environmental factors.
A key feature of our design is the attempt to break down the barriers between digital and
physical environments and encourage students to become active agents in both realms. Place-
based learning, while a seemingly paradoxical framework in which to design an online learning
environment, nonetheless provides a useful method from which to meet some of our aims.
Scheurman et. al (2014), Johnson (2012) and McDonald (2003), stress that place-based learning
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exposes students to the importance of the relationship we have to our immediate environment. It
is also an effective method to encourage students to think critically about the connectivity of
their surrounding environment to others and vice versa. Additionally, Zandvliets (2012) study
stresses that place-based learning acknowledges that rich learning occurs in social contexts,
specifically when situated within environmental learning programs where students are given
opportunities to learn from one another, assume various roles at different points within the group,
and to be part of the problem solving process. As other place-based educational research, such as
that conducted by Warkentin (2011) suggests, what often springs from this approach is the value
placed upon the learning process, which students are capable of recognizing as they approach the
completion of a culminating task.
Intentions and Positions
Our intention is to design an online learning environment that introduces students to the
complex issues that surround sustainable living and development. We want students to build
upon their personal meaning of sustainability, to reflect upon how their choices in lifestyle and
those of their community affect the environment in which they live, and establish ways in which
they can work as individuals and as part of a larger community to improve the current condition
of their natural environment. Additionally, as sustainability requires a respect for all cultures and
recognition of the interdependence of people within a global community (BCME, 2008), we
intend for our design to promote knowledge-building and problem-solving by requiring students
to collaborate both with one-another and with various other members of their community.
Governments and scientists have recognized for some time the importance of educating
society toward sustainability. The global importance of education sustainable development
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(ESD) first emerged in 1992, when the Heads of State and Chiefs of Government met at the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCD) in Rio de Janeiro. The
conference gave rise to Agenda 21, a global consensus document, which provided suggestions
for actions to take place at international, national, regional and local levels to help address issues
in sustainability (UN, 1992).
Many of the suggestions described in Agenda 21 were used as a framework to develop
ESD guidelines for the formal education system in Canadas various provinces and territories.
Manitoba, for example, created the document Education for a Sustainable Future, which is an
ESD resource for the provinces curriculum developers, teachers, and administrators. The goal of
this resource was to serve as a guide for promoting sustainable living and environmental
responsibility in school communities (MET, 2000). Here in British Columbia, the Ministry of
Education (BCME) had established the Sustainability Education Framework (SEF). The aim of
the SEF was to promote leadership in adopting and advocating environmentally sustainable
practices and learning opportunities that support healthy, natural, social and economic
environments for current and future generations (BCME, 2008). The implementation of the SEF
into school culture aims to ensure that students, teachers, and administrators are being educated
in the basics of living sustainably, thereby helping them to understand that sustainable
development requires each individual to examine issues within the various contexts of their
culture, such as: economy, social justice, consumption and management of our environment
(BCME, 2008).
The goals of our project design are founded upon certain applicable objectives that were
proposed by the B.C. Ministry of Education in their Sustainability Education Framework (2008)
and are outlined as follows:
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1. Develop the foundation for an enduring sustainability education in
B.C. school communities[;]
2. Support comprehensive, cross-disciplinary classroom and external
learning opportunities related to climate change and sustainability
education[;]
3. Provide educational experiences for students to study climate
change[;]
4. Assist students to examine how human practices affect the
sustainability of populations and ecosystems[; and]
5. Use learning resources to empower students and school communities
to take action on climate change, and become sustainability
messengers.
Not only do our projects goals on sustainability align with those of our province, but they also
fit within the larger global context. For example, Agenda 21 from United Nations Conference on
Environment & Development recognizes the need, as a primary objective, to develop a better
understanding of the role of consumption and how to bring about more sustainable consumption
patterns(UN, 1992, p.19).
To achieve our projects goal of teaching sustainability by using an online framework, we
have decided to implement various types of technology including websites, weblogs, and digital
audio and video recording devices. We designed our learning space around a website and weblog
using Weebly and Blogger software respectively, which together would act as our LMS. Both
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software applications are free, easy for learners and instructors to access and use. In addition,
they allow students to display their ideas and findings to a larger community, thereby growing
public awareness to various sustainability issues. Websites designed by Weebly offer a number
of capabilities for designers to include discussion forums and multimedia affordances whereby
students and teachers can interact with one another in response to the material presented on the
various pages of the website. With the addition of the course blog, students also have the ability
to create links with the wider community by sharing their experiences, observations and
ultimately their action plans for promoting sustainable living. In accordance with Barab and
Duffys anthropological perspective of situated learning, these community-building tools could
be used to create a situated-learning, and socio-constructivist environment where the interaction
constitutes and is constituted by all of the components-individual, content, and context. There are
no clear boundaries between the development of knowledgeable skills and the development of
identities; both arise as individuals participate and both become central to the community of
practice (Barab & Duffy 2000. p.29).
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (2008), ICTs, such
as blogs and discussion forums, play an important role in advancing ESD by improving the ways
in which learners can interact with others, and by expanding their access to resources about
sustainability. Allowing our learners to interact with others within the learning community is of
paramount importance because it reinforces our goal of using a socio-constructivist and problem-
based framework. Visser (1999) supports the use of ICTs as a way of collaboration within a
problem-based learning environment, as it gives people the ability to effectively deal with and
resolve real-world scenarios. One of our programs essential learning activities shall require
students to explore, document, and report the condition of a given area of their community, as it
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relates to sustainability, by uploading pictures, videos, and corresponding descriptions onto a
weblog. Schrum & Solomon (2007) describe ways in which blogs can be used in online and
face-to-face learning environments to engage students with the course material. Other research
by Bull et al. (2003) showed that constructing online journals by using blogs that include photos
deepen the ideas presented to its readers.
Key Concepts and Contexts
Our learning tool has been designed to provide B.C. teachers with a starting point for
those who wish to offer students sustainability-focused content. It is an online learning resource
that aims to introduce students to the larger concepts surrounding education for sustainable
development. Four important topics of sustainability that our design will focus on are directly
related to topics proposed by the B.C. Ministry of Education in its curriculum framework for
sustainability, which include: 1) sustainability and conservation; 2) importance of resources in
society; 3) environmental responsibility and stewardship; and 4) environmental challenges and
sustainable solutions (BCME, 2010). Through participating in the activities within our learning
environment, students will construct and extend their knowledge and understandings of concepts
that apply to the topics mentioned above. Furthermore, due to the exploratory and collaborative
nature of many of the activities in the design, students will develop the skills required for
problem-solving, scientific investigation, and for communicating their ideas and findings.
The use of our online learning tool is a unit that could be integrated within several B.C.
high school courses. Our learning resource is predominantly an online tool, but it also contains
activities that demand students to interact with their natural environment where they will utilize
technology to document and report back on their experiences and observations. As many of the
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activities require students to explore their local surroundings to document the conditions of
particular environments and branch out to various members of their community with whom they
may be unfamiliar with, we feel that our learning environment fits best within a high school
context. In order to conduct field research, students require independence and autonomy, which
may make some activities impractical for younger age individuals. There are many subjects that
could benefit from using our tool in a typical B.C. high school. Sustainability concepts and
learning outcomes are found in several curriculum documents pertaining to various B.C.
Ministry of Education high school courses including Science 10, Sustainable Resources 11 and
12, and Social Studies 10 and 11 (BCME, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2008). Teachers wanting to use a
blended-learning approach within their classroom may find our project an excellent resource to
begin a unit on sustainable development.
Another reason why we feel that our educational tool is well-suited for high school
learners is many are comfortable and efficient in using information and communication
technologies. Research has shown that students are more likely to be engaged in their learning
when ICTs are used within a blended learning environment (Underwood, 2009; U.S. Dept. of
Education, 2009). The activities in our design, therefore, are built around using ICTs to support,
investigate, document, and collaborate, in accordance with these findings. That said, both Russell
(2006) and Ng & Nicholas (2010) stress that clear instructions, scaffolding and consistent
guidance are required throughout an online or blended course in order to effectively support
adolescent students who may not possess the technical expertise, maturity and/or intrinsic
motivation to be successful or actively involved in their own learning.
It is important to acknowledge that students may feel a certain degree of anxiety and
uncertainty when placed in a learning environment where the structure of the learning taking
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place is unfamiliar to their prior experience. Russells (2006) case study, which was conducted
on students between the ages of 16 and 18 who engaged in social research projects, showed that
students faced significant challenges when faced with having to adapt to different pedagogical
approaches from what they were generally exposed to. Informed by Jonassens (1999) model for
designing constructivist learning environments, Russell acknowledged the importance of
providing opportunities for students to feel invested in the learning activities as a means of
motivating students to engage in meaningful, problem-based activities. This, Jonassen (1999)
stresses, should provide students with interesting, relevant, and engaging problems to solve,
wherein a community of inquiry can evolve (Stodel et al. 2006).
Since much of the learning is intended to occur by encouraging students to negotiate their
understanding of core concepts through discussion and interaction with one another and their
environments, we have embedded a number of features within the design of our learning
community in the hopes that they will maximize student participation and create necessary
support structures. We also recognize the importance of supporting students who might not be
entirely familiar with the interface of our website LMS, nor how to navigate and utilize blogging
software such as Blogger. As such, the following list consists of design features that we have
included within our learning environment so that students will feel supported and comfortable
with the online tools they will be expected to use:
1) The creation of an introductory module that will have students generate expectations
themselves about how they should interact online, how they can support each other, how
they can respond effectively to others posts in order to generate discussions, etc. This
discussion will form the initial basis for community building.
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2) An ice-breaker activity as part of the introductory module that encourages students to
introduce themselves in a more personalized way through the course blog. Instructions
and an online tutorial that show how to use the blog space is also included, in addition to
suggestions on how to generate dialogue between blog users.
3) A concise checklist at the beginning of each module to help guide students through the
different activities, as well as reminders of minimal guidelines for participation in forum
and blog discussions during each module.
4) A Questions and Answers tab on our website menu for students to use should they
run into difficulties in using the technology that they are required to participate in during
the course.
Interactivities
Adaptability, collaboration and knowledge-building are concepts that we feel are
important features to build into our online learning environment. It is important that students
become active collaborators in the sharing of ideas and development of what will become the
core content of the course. Therefore, we focused our attention on developing strategies built into
the design of the LMS and the unit itself to facilitate scaffolding by the instructor and active
involvement amongst students in the learning process.
The layout of the core Weebly site is simple and streamlined with a central home page
containing a brief overview of the course objectives and how to begin navigating the website. To
the left of the central page is a vertical menu with links to the different modules, discussion
forum, course blog and other topics of interest. The links to each module contain initial questions
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to be considered and discussed during each week of the five-week unit, along with descriptions
of that weeks activities.
Discussions for each module will take place in the discussion forum, which is clearly
labeled and organized by topic and module. The aim of these discussions is to encourage
students to consider and share either what they already know about a given topic, or any new
insights and knowledge they have gained through their interactions with the content located
within the different modules. Students will then use this knowledge as a foundation for exploring
its relevancy to their immediate environment. Students will then document this exploratory task
via the course blog, which is accessible by all participants in the course.
Students will be required to contribute to the course blog each week as part of an activity
for each module. The blog will serve as a kind of online journal where students will share their
thoughts, images, videos and links to other online content they feel relates to concepts discussed
in the course. As an extension of our class community, students will be asked to read and
respond to at least three other blog posts each week. The course blog will be hosted via Blogger,
therefore, students will need to first set up an account through Google in order to gain posting
privileges on the course blog.
Course Modules
Each Module begins with a question (or questions) pertaining to a core concept of the
unit. This will often require students to explore on their own before attempting to address the
question, as vocabulary or the concept itself might be new to them. The important thing for
students to do here is to work towards an understanding of the concept through discovery and
discussion. Therefore, students will be invited to share their opinions, examples, and resources
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with one another through the discussion forum for that module. The role of the instructor will be
to help nudge students towards open discussion with one another by posing additional questions
and helping students to make connections with one anothers ideas. This will be an important
step in scaffolding the collaborative process with students by demonstrating how this might be
done. It is hoped that such an active role on the part of the instructor might taper off throughout
the course of the unit as students become more confident about managing the discussion
themselves.
Module 1
Module 1 is an introductory module that provides students with an overview of the unit,
how to utilize the online tools required to complete the unit, and begin the process of community
building within the online context. Halavais (2005) has noted that it is imperative for students to
familiarize themselves with any technology prior to engaging in any learning activities.
Furthermore, he recommends that teachers should avoid assuming that all students will have the
same level of comfort, background and expertise when it comes to its use. This introductory
module, therefore, was conceived as a means to address student concerns, specifically in regards
to their level of comfort and familiarity with the technology that they would be using, in addition
to how we might encourage students to begin interacting online in a meaningful way early on in
the unit.
Module 1 begins with a discussion on the following topic: How can we, as an online
community, interact meaningfully and respectfully online? This discussion invites students to be
actively involved in creating guidelines and strategies for generating discussion, interacting, and
supporting one another while participating in the discussion threads for each module. As
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Huffman (1998) remarks, this process of involving students in the process of assessment greatly
impacts their sense of empowerment, and subsequently their motivation to participate in learning
tasks in more meaningful ways. As a mediator, the instructor will collate comments and work
with students to refine these expectations in a manner that is clear and easy to follow. In essence,
students are being asked to determine what is expected in terms of the level of participation and
involvement and how this will be assessed.
Blog Activity: During this module, students will also be setting up an account through Google in
order to gain access to the course blog. An overview of the weekly blog assignment is provided,
as well as instructions and a tutorial on how to set up an account and create a new blog post.
For the Module 1 blog activity, students will create a blog post introducing themselves, their
hobbies and interests, and their perceptions on environmental issues.
Module 2
Module 2 consists of three learning activities that demands students to define and realize
the concept of sustainability. Rooted within a socio-cultural framework, this module demands
students to develop their own knowledge by reflecting upon their personal experiences and then
sharing and discussing them with others within the learning community. For example, the first
activity begins by asking students to reflect upon, develop, and share their answers to the
following questions on the Discussion Forum: (1) What does sustainability mean to you? (2)
What activities do you do in your daily life that contributes to your idea of sustainability? By
asking students to develop and share their own definitions of the word sustainability and how it
is manifested in their daily routines, we not only provide students with an opportunity to explore
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and reaffirm their own conceptions of the term, but also create a context for the word so that they
find it more relevant to their own personal culture. This activity coincides with suggestions by
Anderson in regards to interactivity, as he feels it is important that students are given
opportunities to interact with the content individually and in isolation, as well as with others in a
social, collaborative environment (Anderson, 2008).
The second activity of the module provides students with a list of links to a selection of
text and video/audio resources that contain other definitions of sustainability. These resources,
and the definitions of sustainability found within, were developed by reputable organizations
around the world that have had a long and important history developing sustainable practices.
Although many of our project's activities, including the culminating project, will focus on local
sustainability issues, we feel that it is important that students verse themselves with different
perspectives of sustainability, not only to broaden their knowledge, but also to increase their
awareness that it is a global initiative. After students finish reviewing the material, they are asked
to ponder three important questions that will help them analyze and synthesize the information.
This activity corresponds with implications that Phillips (1995) suggests are important for
constructivist learning, as answering these questions challenge students to rethink and reorganize
their own personal concept of sustainability that they discussed in the previous activity.
Blog Activity: The final activity of the module is a blog assignment that asks students to focus
on needs; a word that frequently arises in many definitions of sustainability as things people
must continually have in order to live happily and healthily. Once again we attempted to design
the activity using a constructivist approach by having students reflect upon their own knowledge
of what would constitute a need. Once they identify what they consider to be a need based upon
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their own personal experience, students are asked to analyze it to identify the materials and
processes that are used to produce it. The following step in the activity then challenges them to
deepen their understanding of their definition of sustainability by asking them if the materials
and processes used to create their chosen need would be considered sustainable. Students are
recommended to use any resources available to them such as, the internet, books, magazines, and
videos, to help them find information that may help them answer the questions above more easily
and accurately. Instructors should guide students during their research by suggesting different
types of resources that may help them with their inquiry and how they may go about accessing
them.
The final step of the activity asks students to post a blog within their Blogger on their
findings for the need that they chose. They can construct their blog in a way they feel best
conveys their discoveries, but it is suggested that students use some sort of image or video to
help make their blogs more visually appealing to other students and the greater public. This
sharing of knowledge by use of blogs represents a social constructivist approach towards
learning, as students are interacting with people in places other than the classroom, people who
live in different circumstances and different cultures. (It) provides an opportunity for students to
engage in expansive social networks, and by doing so become more self-aware and self-reliant
(Halavais, 2005, p. 1223, para. 3).
Module 3
Module 3 will begin with a discussion on the following question: What is an environment?
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As part of this exchange, students will again be asked to seek out examples of online resources
and media to share with others and help develop and understanding of what constitutes an
environment.
Blog Activity: During a week-long investigation, students will be asked to once again explore
their neighbourhood and wider community with a different objective than before. Students will
post daily findings on their online journal that serve to document what they discover, both
through research and from direct experiences exploring their surroundings. Relevant findings
could be in the form of photos and videos, links to relevant websites and online resources, and
written thoughts and observations about what they discovered. Information included should
provide insight on the following:
1) The native geography of the area - i.e. rivers, lakes, forests
2) The native plants and animals in the area.
3) How native features of the environment been shaped or affected by human development.
At the end of the week, students will be asked to write a reflection or post a video response, this
time commenting on how their perceptions of their surrounding environment have changed (or
stayed the same) after researching and observing the area in greater depth.
Module 4
Module 4 will begin with a discussion on the following question: What impacts do human
activities have on the landscape and environment?
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Discussion Activity: Students will then be asked to search for videos/images of places in the
world that have been drastically affected by human activities. Each student will choose to share
one example, describe what that environment was like before human development, and how it
has been shaped over time. Students will not provide personal opinion or commentary on their
own findings, instead, they will be asked to provide commentary on what others had posted.
Blog Activity: Each student will identify a feature of their community in which to investigate the
impact that development has had on that particular area. Students will investigate the causes for
this change, the consequences this change has had on the surrounding ecosystem, as well as the
benefits this development has had for human beings. As a final reflection for the week, students
will be asked to consider the responsibility and sustainability of this development by weighing
the gains of development against the consequences. Students will then share their findings within
the forum and have other students respond to the opinions raised by the student.
Culminating Project
The culminating project was designed to build on the previous modules and support
students through the process of taking action to improve a specific environmental sustainability
issue within their local community. They are required to form groups of 4-5 students and
complete the steps of an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP). The ESAP is a
downloadable word document with fillable fields that guides students through a series of tasks
and permits them to save and share the document within their group (suggestions on how to
effectively save the document are provided to them). A key characteristic of the ESAP is that it
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utilizes a guided discovery learning approach which not only empowers students to take action
but also provides them with an authentic learning experience.
According to Schunk (2012), guided discovery is more appropriate when the learning
process is important, such as with problem-solving activities that motivate students to learn and
acquire the requisite skill (pg.268). This is consistent with the aim of the culminating project
which is to teach students a process for taking environmental action that is not specific to one
type of issue and could be used beyond the classroom for future projects if desired. When using
guided discovery, educators must be sure to provide learners with the appropriate amount of
support. If too little support is provided then the students will not progress but if too much
support is provided then the lesson will become teacher dominated and lose its effectiveness.
The culminating project was created with this in mind, and steps were taken to ensure that
students are aware of the various sources of support available to them.
The initial source of support available to students is the ESAP word document. It is
divided into 5 steps each comprised of a series of easy-to-follow tasks which are to be completed
by the students. The ESAP document serves as a cognitive tool and acts as scaffolding for the
students. According to Jooligan (1999), cognitive tools provide hooks for introducing system
intelligence to support discovery learning without disrupting the nature of discovery (p.386).
The ESAP document accomplishes this by presenting a framework for taking action while also
giving students enough freedom to steer their learning in a direction that is relevant and
meaningful to them. Using the digital format rather than a paper-based guide enables the
students to conveniently edit and revise their action plan as well as share it with each other, and
the teacher, as needed. This is consistent with Jooligans (1999) definition of a cognitive tool: it
is an instrument that is part of the learning environment that supports or performs an
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identifiable cognitive process that is part of the complete learning experience by the learner
(p.389). The ESAP serves this purpose as it is an instrument for supporting the learner through
their action plan. In addition, it provides instruction for seeking support beyond what the ESAP
offers.
In addition to supporting the process of taking environmental action, the ESAP document
also contains instructions for how to effectively seek support when the students encounter
challenges. On page 3 of the ESAP, students are provided with a model that highlights 3 sources
of support available to them: peer support, community support, and, teacher support. These
sources of support reflect teaching methods that support guided discovery learning.
The first source that students are required to seek support from is through peer support.
Suggesting peer support takes advantage of peer assisted learning in which peers serve as active
agents in the learning process (Rohrbeck et al., 2003). According to Schunk (2012), Peer-
assisted learning has been shown to promote achievement and foster academic and social
motivation for learning (p.269). The students will seek help from members within their own and
other groups in order to find solutions. The purpose of this is to reduce teacher reliance and help
them recognize the resources that exist within their peers. Furthermore, increasing peer-to-peer
opportunities takes advantage of the motivational benefits of social interaction. The more that
the students successfully solve problems independently, the more likely they are to become
internally motivated to accomplish the goals of their ESAP.
If the students are unable to solve problems by consulting their peers, they are then
required to turn to the various communities they are part of or have access to (online discussion
boards, local business, residential communities, government agencies, First-Nations etc.).
According to Schunk (2012), effective guided discovery makes good use of social environments.
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This is why students are encouraged to become aware of the various communities that may offer
support. They are encouraged to become active members of these communities by doing things
such as helping others in discussion forums and making connections with local businesses. The
importance of contributing more than they take from these communities is emphasized. By
engaging with, and even helping, people in these communities prior to needing help, community
members will be more inclined to help. As active members of these communities they increase
the number of opportunities for cooperative learning and establish their own learning
community. Community learning can be very effective because it opens spaces for complexity
and diversity to be acknowledged and honored and for connections to be forged among the
people who make up a particular educational community (Mitchell & Sackney, 2011, p.6). By
gathering community support the students will recognize the value of creating a network of
contacts and become less dependent on their teacher.
When the students attempts to gather support from peers and communities are
unsuccessful, then the teacher will provide guidance. However, it is explained that the teacher
will first help them brainstorm other ways to seek peer or community support before striving to
answer specific answers. This is important because gathering peer and community support is
essential if the students plan to embark on future environmental projects outside of school.
Therefore, by guiding them to discover other ways for gathering support before providing them
with solutions reduces teacher reliance and increases the authenticity of the lesson. According to
Lombardi (2007), Authentic learning typically focuses on real-world, complex problems and
their solutions and it intentionally brings into play multiple disciplines, multiple perspectives,
ways of working, habits of mind, and community (p.3). By encouraging them to look for help
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from multiple sources, it is hoped that students will gain experience that could be applied to
future projects.
The culminating project uses guided discovery to create an authentic learning experience
that offers the students an opportunity to actively solve environmental sustainability issues. It is
designed to deter them from seeking answers from a teacher and instead recognize the valuable
resources that surround them. It is hoped that through this experience, the students will build
confidence and recognize that they possess the capability to make meaningful change towards
improving the environment they live in.
Verifications
According to Dick and Carey (1990), assessment instruments are an integral part of the
design of an effective instructional environment. Designed appropriately, these assessment
instruments should provide opportunities for instructors and the designers to receive important
feedback from the students to determine if the learning environment is achieving its intended
purpose. In our design, we included three assessment instruments (discussion forums, blogs, and
a culminating project) that would help determine if our project was achieving its intended goal of
getting students to become active learners and participants in sustainable practices. Although the
culminating project will be a very important tool to assess the projects effectiveness at the end,
the discussion forum and blogs will help provide us with immediate and continuous feedback on
how students are engaging and learning through their interactions within our online learning
environment. Blogs in particular have shown to not only encourage and assist the exchange of
information and ideas (Williams and Jacobs, 2004), but allow the work of students who use them
to be evaluated and assessed by peers and their instructors (Ward, 2004). More specifically, the
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regularity and level of interaction between students within the discussion forum and their
weblogs will be a crucial factor in the achievement of the overall learning objectives throughout
the unit.
As blog administrators, we have access to valuable blog statistics that allow us to track
the number of views and submissions that have been made each week on Blogger. The number
of posts and responses in each discussion forum also provides us with a baseline indication of
how much participation is occurring. However, it is perhaps even more important to closely
examine the content of the posts, types of discussions that are occurring, and how well students
are supporting one another in order to evaluate the level or quality of learning that is transpiring.
Therefore, we will be utilizing a discussion rubric that will be largely generated by students
during the first week of the unit, which will serve to address the above points. This rubric will be
used both by the instructor for the purpose of evaluation, but also by students as the basis of a
self-reflection. A second rubric, created by the instructor and adapted from Franker (2010), will
assess the content of the individual blog posts created by students.
Beyond a more direct and formal evaluation of course discussion and participation, we
also plan to observe and evaluate discussion for depth of learning, knowledge construction, and
community building. According to Riley (2006), critical learning requires students to engage in
reflective and collaborative discourse that involves the co-construction of knowledge, and
challenges personal beliefs and experiences. In addition, evidence of critical learning includes
the ability to apply new knowledge and key skills to new situations or problems. Using Rileys
framework as a basis for evaluating the depth of critical learning emerging from student
discussion, we will consider the following criteria:
1) To what degree do students abide by the guidelines for interacting online in terms of
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utilizing strategies to support and generate discussion?
2) To what extent do students direct questions at one another?
3) To what extent do students react and respond to new information or opinions generated
by other students in deepening their understanding of a concept, or recognizing the
validity of multiple perspectives?
4) To what extent do students make meaningful connections to ideas/events outside of the
immediate course content that illustrate their emerging understanding of the relevancy of
the concepts they are learning about in the course?
By evaluating discussions based on these criteria, it is our hope that we would be able to identify
specific areas that require further clarification for students, where greater scaffolding is needed,
or if a specific aspect of the course design needs to be addressed.
Reflections and Connections
Group Reflection
This assignment provided us with an opportunity to create an innovative and interactive
learning environment that builds awareness about environmental sustainability issues. We were
able to create useful tools that not only teach students key concepts related to environmental
sustainability, but also empower them to take action and make a positive change in their
communities. In order to achieve our goal of providing a collaborative learning experience that
is consistent with the Ministry of Educations Sustainability Education Framework (SEF), we
decided to embed a number of activities within four modules, all of which culminate in a final
project. The four modules contain a number of activities and cognitive tools aimed at helping
students acquire the relevant knowledge and skills needed to complete an environmental action
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plan (the culminating project). These activities and cognitive tools are based on specific learning
theories that we selected because of their relevance in helping us complete our objectives.
Although we encountered some logistical challenges throughout the completion of this
assignment, we feel we successfully accomplished our objectives and learned some valuable
insights about online learning environments, from both a learners and educators perspective.
The SEF served as a valuable guide for selecting the applicable learning theories that
would direct our lessons, and then we investigated which format options would enable us to
create the type of learning environment we envisioned. We selected Weebly and Blogger to
serve as our learning management system because they were user-friendly, easy to access, open,
and provided tools to allow students, teachers, and people from the greater community to interact
and share ideas. Finally, we opted to use a word document with fillable fields for the culminating
project because this would enable students to easily edit and revise their action plan as well as
efficiently share it with each other or the teacher through email.
During the design process, we agreed that it was important to ensure that the instructions
for the learning activities were clearly laid out, not only for students to read and comprehend, but
also for teachers who may wish to use our platform. In order to do this effectively, we found it
necessary to contemplate the various challenges students, and teachers, might encounter while
working through the lessons. As we worked to resolve the potential obstacles that they might
encounter, we began encountering challenges of our own.
Several times throughout the design process, we experienced some logistical difficulties
that hindered our progress towards reaching our goals efficiently. Though our group consisted of
only four members, we found it surprisingly challenging to coordinate dates and times for group
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meetings. As adult learners, each member had additional career and family responsibilities to
attend to, and trying to set a time that was convenient for everyone was a struggle. Asynchronous
interactions, such as email, helped us continue communication throughout the design process,
but we found this to be a somewhat inefficient alternative to real-time interactions, particularly
when it came to making decisions that required a consensus. When schedules permitted it, we
turned to synchronous tools such as Google Hangouts which we found to be quite useful.
Another aspect that we found challenging was meeting the heavy requirements of the proposal so
early on in the design process. To a certain extent, we felt that the time invested in certain
aspects of the proposal almost served as a deterrent from making substantial changes later on
during the creation process. In the end, however, we found that several aspects of the proposal
were helpful as a reference during the design process. Fortunately, while discussing the
challenges we faced as learners of this assignment, we realized that they provided us with some
valuable lessons as educators.
The difficulties we experienced offered insights into some of the problems our students
may face when required completing collaborative activities in an online environment. For
instructors wishing to use this resource for a course with no set timetable, we now recognize that
it might be beneficial for them to arrange set times for students to meet. Furthermore, if students
are unable to coordinate time specific group meetings for whatever reason, we will want to
ensure that they have access to asynchronous tools for communication and also be aware of what
challenges these bring. Many of the collaborative learning activities and assignments we decided
to include, such as discussion forums and blog postings, permit asynchronous communication to
help overcome any challenges with time specific meetings. In addition to addressing
communication challenges, we also thought about how our experience as learners could help
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shape our expectations of students. To avoid having students get too attached to one
environmental issue early on, we decided to provide more general information in the early
modules and narrow the focus as they worked through the modules towards the culminating
activity. Our goal was for them to acquire the general skills and knowledge early on and then
eventually select one issue to address. We avoided requiring them to commit a substantial
amount of time to one issue early on so that they are not deterred from changing their focus as
they gain more experience with the module concepts and specifics of the project. In this way, we
were able to transfer what we were experiencing as learners directly to the design of our learning
platform.
We are pleased to have accomplished our goals of turning the guidelines of the SEF into
a tangible and useful learning platform. As educators we often feel further and further removed
from the experiences of our learners, so by encountering challenges as students of this project we
were able to gain unfamiliar perspectives that will, without a doubt, improve our abilities as
teachers. We found satisfaction with successfully incorporating learning theories throughout our
design, but we feel that this is more than just an effective teaching tool; it serves as our
contribution towards addressing the environmental concerns we all face by empowering students
with a practical, collaborative, learning environment that will empower them to take action
towards improving the world they live in and, some day, hopefully pass these skills on to future
generations.
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Individual Reflections
Brett
For me, one of the greatest challenges in designing an online learning environment was
the constraints of working within the limitations afforded by a centralized LMS. Taking into
consideration the social-constructivist approach that we had outlined in the proposal, I had
initially hoped to integrate online collaborative tools that allowed for a greater variety of
interaction than what is offered by the standard discussion forum. However, as I researched the
potential resources available for use online, several problems arose from a logistical point of
view - specifically in terms of managing logins, privacy considerations, and the limitations of
free-use applications in terms of number of participants, data storage, and variety of functions.
As the group began to finalize what kind of LMS would be used to deliver the curriculum
to students, it also became clear that the number of online tools to be used within the design
project should be limited so that students would not be required to learn and master skills on
multiple platforms in order to participate in the learning activities of the unit. The challenge then
arose of how to integrate the theoretical principles outlined in our proposal effectively despite the
potential restrictions for initiating ongoing dialogue and participation within an asynchronous
discussion forum and course blog.
To address these concerns, I felt that it was important for students to be given an
opportunity to think and discuss guidelines that would help to encourage and facilitate discussion
and participation in a way that was meaningful and supportive. As a result, I felt this would be an
important element to build into an introductory module, as it would provide students not only
with an opportunity to begin a process of community building, but also provides the instructor
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with some insight into the students themselves. Considering the age group and maturity of our
students, I feel that this will be an important step in determining what kind of presence the
instructor will need to have online in order to scaffold students in the discussion process.
Mike
Creating the culminating project section of this assignment forced me to think long and
hard about how to facilitate a guided discovery lesson. I have used guided discovery in small
doses throughout my teaching experience, but I have yet to deliver a substantial project that
completely adheres to the characteristics of guided discovery. It quickly became clear that the
key to this was to ask the right questions. As educators, we are often consumed with content and
how to transfer information to our students. When using guided discovery, though, the teacher
must be able to resist feeding content to students by asking a wide variety of questions and
even reforming them several times to encourage students stretch their abilities while becoming
less teacher dependent.
I recognized that most students would likely be more familiar, and comfortable, with a
traditional teacher-dominated lesson and might struggle with the independence offered by a
guided discovery project. In order to help them transition to this style of learning, I decided to
include instructions explaining how to overcome challenges without first turning to the teacher
(which is a hard habit to break). The topic of our project made it an ideal opportunity to show
students that they can find assistance and valuable solutions by turning to their peers and/or the
communities they are part of. I included an explanation of where to turn for support prior to
asking the teacher for help and that often the support offered by the teacher will involve helping
them determine new ways of seeking support from their peers and communities. These
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instructions have the added benefit of serving as a reminder to the teacher of how to preserve the
guided discovery aspects of this lesson because it can be just as difficult for the teacher to break
old habits as it can be for the students.
From a technology standpoint, this project enabled me to learn how to use some valuable
tools within Microsoft Word. When creating the ESAP document, it was determined that it was
much more valuable to create an interactive digital document that could be edited and shared
with group members rather than one they had to print and edit by hand. In order to achieve this,
I had to learn how to use the fillable fields function, something that I had no previous experience
with. I watched several tutorial videos on how to use this function. These were very helpful and
also led me to other tutorials on how use functions such as the page-break and show hide
function. I am very pleased to have been able to learn this tools as I will no doubt be able to use
them in the future.
I am pleased with the experience I gained by completing this assignment. I was able to
think deeply about how to present an authentic guided discovery lesson and I learned how to use
some valuable tools that assist in this process. I now feel better prepared for overcoming the
potential challenges related to creating a student-centered learning environment.
Owen
Working on a project, whose theme, sustainability, is of such critical importance to our
society, has been a very rewarding experience. Additionally, this was, by far, the most complex
online group project I have worked on. As a result of researching, designing, and creating our
learning environment, I realized the project was more challenging than originally anticipated.
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Specifically, the elements of the project that I found to be most demanding, and that I
subsequently learned the most from, were: (1) designing a project within a constructivist
framework, (2) selecting the appropriate technological tools to meet the needs of the project, the
learners, and the instructors, and (3) developing learning activities in which students find the
instructions and information clear, concise, and understandable, so that they need minimal
external support.
One of the main goals of our project was to create a social constructivist learning
environment, within which students could build their knowledge of sustainability by reflecting
upon and sharing personal experiences as part of a collaborative, online learning community. As
someone with very little experience designing instructional units within this type of pedagogical
framework, it took quite a bit of planning and creative thinking to come up with appropriate
learning activities, not to mention their logical sequences. It was hard to resist reverting back to
my old habit of creating activities that do not truly afford students the opportunity for adequate
self-reflection. Instead I had to consciously design the lessons in a way that would guide students
towards taking a more active role in their learning. I learned that in order to create a true social
constructivist learning environment, I had to ensure that I did not overwhelm students with
information I wanted them to learn, but rather, I needed to provide them with opportunities to
participate in activities that would allow them to build upon their own knowledge.
Another trying aspect of the project was the selection of appropriate technologies that
would meet the goals of our project, as well as the needs of our future students and instructors.
As a student who is in the MET program, I was anxious to try and incorporate a multitude of
new and interesting technologies into our learning environment. However, I found that the act of
simply plugging various software tools into an online learning space likely does not, in itself,
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result in a successful learning environment. When I started the project, I believe I was much too
presumptuous on the general abilities of students and teacher in regard to their capacity to use
various forms of technology. With help from my group members, instructor, and course
readings, this process has taught me to analyze the affordances and impact of using a particular
type of technology in a learning environment. I realized that if students and teachers are not
comfortable or knowledgeable with the technology that they are required to use, they will likely
feel frustrated and have a negative learning experience.
Another area that I found challenging, that relates to students feeling comfortable and
confident when learning in an online environment, was the manner in which I needed to structure
the information within the activities and website itself. Often online learning environments lack
the real-time support of a classroom-based environment. Therefore, I found it to be imperative,
when designing online activities, to structure the modules in such a way that each activity builds
upon the next. I found it equally important to ensure that the language used to describe the
learning activities was sufficiently detailed, yet not overly encompassing, so that students could
be, for the most part, self-sufficient when following my instructions.
As an educator who is interested in developing innovative online learning environments
to keep pace with the current trends in education, I found this project to be highly informative
and educational. I found the challenges I faced throughout the assignment pushed my personal
boundaries as an instructional designer, academic writer, and professional colleague.
Zain
Our project is based on the principles of constructivism where the students construct their
own understanding and knowledge of the environment, how it impacts us and what are the
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human activities impacting the environment through observations. To do this, we built our
project by asking questions, exploring and assessing what they know, and sharing the knowledge
with their fellow students.
In a classroom its relatively easy to create such an environment, but our challenge was to
have this in an online structure where students are given minimum instructions, and encouraged
to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving).
Providing a platform where our students would learn, explore and post their reflective
journals was a challenge. In the beginning, I was leaning towards MOODLE, a free LMS
because of my experience in using Moodle, but then because of the limitations we chose
WEEBLY.COM.
It was a learning curve for me as I have never worked with children before, but learning
from my group members I realized we can apply the same principles of adult learning and
constructivism to this as well. Students control their own learning process, and they lead the way
by reflecting on their experiences. This process makes them experts of their own learning.
It all begins with
emphasizing big concepts, beginning with the whole and expanding to the parts
prompting students to formulate their own questions (letting them explore themselves)
allowing multiple interpretations and expressions of learning
working in groups (posting their findings on forums and blogs and sharing their
experience with others)
learning from others - collaborative learning
assessing their works, observations, and points of view
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This project has taught me a new dimension where online learning can be an effective
tool and I would be applying this in many of my projects at the hospital.
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