Essential Learning Functions

Essential learning with Digital Tools, the Internet and Web 2.0

Having the functional ability to make things visible and discussable or to foster collaboration will always be important, even as the tools that let you do these things change. Unlike the tools themselves, such essential learning functions are stable. Once you identify a function you need, sort through a growing array of tools and select the ones that deliver that function best for your context.

Below is a brief examination of the essential learning functions of digital tools. Each learning function is described, then specific tools that deliver that function are listed. The rapidly shifting technology landscape requires that tools be updated frequently. You can find the latest version of this Appendix on the authors’ blog, and contribute your ideas.

Please note: The Appendix in the book lists specific tools and providers.

You can download a copy here: Essential Learning Functions 4-3-08.pdf

Ubiquity 

Learn inside and outside the classroom and all the time.

Anytime-anywhere access to information, web-based productivity tools and multiple communications options are especially suited to project-based learning. When a project breaks through the space and time of school into the larger world, ubiquity becomes something of real value. From handheld devices to Web-based applications, look for tools that help students learn wherever they are, whenever they want, and more frequently, with whomever they want.

Deep learning

Look for “raw” information on the Web, and use new tools to grapple with what you find.

Most Web sites students go to for information either explain or report (and now with blogs, opine). Go beyond “filtered” information where meaning is made by others and help students find and make sense of “raw” information on the Web. Primary sources (i.e., digitized versions of historical documents) and rich databases (i.e., real-time data) are becoming more accessible all the time. Higher-order thinking is engaged when students have to navigate and sort, organize, analyze, and make graphical representations in order to learn and express learning. And as information piles higher and higher, tools such as spreadsheets and relational databases can help students grapple with what they find.

Making things visible and discuss-able

A picture is worth a thousand words and making thoughts and ideas visible and sharable is the first step in getting the conversation going. 

There are many good reasons to “make things visible” with digital tools: showing rather than telling, conceptualizing with “mind” maps, seeing things too big or too small or too fast or too slow for the naked eye, examining history through digital artifacts, expressing ideas through photography and multimedia, and conceptualizing with graphical representations, modeling, animation and digital art. The ability to share what we see and think has never been greater.

Current technologies that make this possible:

Mapping, other geo tools

Web cams

Concept mapping tools

Digital photography, Photosharing sites

Primary-source repositories, “electronic museums”

Virtual manipulatives, modeling software

(see specific tools in the Book, Appendix A)

Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community

The World Wide Web has evolved from an information medium into a social medium and opportunities for expression are growing.

Students using MySpace and instant messaging are accustomed to these forms of personal interaction. Imagine the parallels in school and ways students can use the Web to express their ideas and build society around shared interests. Connect your class to the world using a Web site, blog, wiki, or a virtual world like Second Life. Have students “tag” Web content and share tags with others. (You will be surprised how social connections form just by sharing tags.)

Collaboration – Teaching and learning with others

Projects invite collaboration. Tools abound that help us learn together.

Use exchange services to find experts or fellow learners. Use shared Web applications to plan and write together. Plan virtual experiences that allow people to “meet”. Use survey tools to take the pulse of the community, create Wikis for collaboration, Web-based docs and spreadsheets for multiple editors, and podcasts and webinars to share

Research

21st-century projects invariably involve research, and for most research questions students turn directly to the Web. Internet research puts information literacy to the test.

Ask students to go beyond read-and-report and then direct them to quality directories, search engines, bookmark tagging tools and citation “engines” to help them make sense of and organize what they need from the ever-expanding Web.

Project Management

Project management is essential in PBL, and is the stuff of real work.

During projects students need to manage time, work, sources, feedback from others, drafts, and products. A simple folder on the district server or a workspace in the school’s Learning Management System may suffice, but consider Web-based “homepages” or “desktops” that give students a space to work and associated tools (calendars, to-do lists) that help them plan and organize. With Web-based project management, students can work from anywhere at any time.

Examples:

Reflection and Iteration

Deeper learning is possible when students examine their ideas from all sides and from other points of view.

Reconsidering and reshaping ideas to bring them to high polish is the difference between acceptable and masterful work. It's easier than ever with digital tools. Blogs and wikis give learners the opportunity to shape their work and expose it to the critical feedback of others.