Summary
In this unit, students took a problem-solving approach to current issues their potential career field. After researching current problems or issues in their potential career field, students then selected the problem that seems most important. Students researched how that problem is currently being handled, and explored potential solutions. After students completed their solution survey, they chose the solution that seemed best, and made an argument for its adaption or implementation. As students located sources to help them evaluate the problem and solutions, they saved the sources to a student-created Diigo group, tagging and evaluating the source, and sharing them with any other students doing similar research in a pool of electronic resources. Using Diigo in this way reinforced research skills and higher order thinking, but felt like using social networking because it had a personal stamp (comment and tags) in a shared environment. Students could go beyond the classroom walls to share research with students in other sections doing similar research. The students used WordPress blogs to publish and share their research, including a research presentation. Instead of using class time to present one by one, students were asked to post presentations, viewing and discussing them via blog post comments. Students were able to explore their potential career fields as problem solvers, and most students found the unit to be valuable.
TIPC Ratings
Ideal/Target — Prior to this assignment, students are taught appropriate search and source evaluation techniques. Students research the issues in their potential career field and come up with their own questions to guide their research.They also select their own information sources, and organize their research using a student-established Diigo and any other method of their choosing. They then displayed their work on their individual blogs and interacted with their classmates by commenting on their posted research and presentations.
Ideal/Target — Students decide whether they wanted to collaborate beyond the classroom walls; to do this, they used blogs to post their research, research papers and presentations. Students chose their own presentation software, ranging from PowerPoint presentations, VoiceThread, Narrable, and MovieMaker. The class commented on each others’ blogs to offer timely feedback and evaluate presentations.
Ideal/Target — This lesson requires higher-level thinking skills as students carefully examine their potential career field to decide what issues or problems were most worthy of their attention and which solutions held the most promise. Students analyze the research and evaluate potential solutions to determine which is the most viable or desirable, and then defend their choice.
Ideal/Target — Students decide which aspects of the problem deserved the most attention, and which were the best solutions, and they have free range to choose how best to present their choices and express their solutions through their blog posts and research paper.
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Contents:
- LESSON PLAN
- HANDOUTS
- RUBRIC
- STUDENT SAMPLES
