Seven Essentials of a Group 4 Project

Some projects really spark the students' interest and lead to outstanding work. Others fall a bit flat, and the outcomes are a bit disappointing. Could these seven components help to make more projects successful. They sound like good ideas.

A need to know - a hook

A driving question - to focus efforts - give a sense of purpose

Student Voice and choice - Teacher set requirements but students decide how / or with which aspect to do it.

21st century skills - colaboration, research, presentation, organization.

Inquiry and Innovation - more detailed questions leading from the driving question, the answers to these inform the team's product.

Feedback and revision - Peer review, exemplars, discussion with adult mentors, a chance to redraft.

A publicly presented final product.

These short notes were made while reading this article.

http://www.bie.org/images/uploads/useful_stuff/7_Essentials_PBL_EdLeaderSept10.pdf

'via Blog this'

Sebastian Wernicke: 1000 TEDTalks, 6 words | Video on TED.com

Increasing understanding by classifying ideas.

If you want to remember a lot of ideas then a good way is to classify the ideas into easy to remember groups. This is common practice in Ecology, and many other areas. When I watch a Ted talk I'm often inspired or impressed, but I can only tell you any details from about three Ted talks I can remember and I always feel like it's increasingly difficult to keep up with new ideas.  This diagram helps.

Sebastian Wernicke uses this nice classification in his talk.  These seem to be just the pigeon holes I need to help me remember a bit more, and to understand a bit more about the nature of Ideas worth spreading.
He manages to distil the essence of human nature which Ted talks appeal to; and that is interesting in itself.

see the whole talk:    Sebastian Wernicke: 1000 TEDTalks, 6 words | Video on TED.com:

More online Professional development ideas for free

• Simple K12 webinars- Attend free webinars with experts on various topics. In 2012, I will be hosting a few of these webinars! Simple K12 was the winner of the Edublogs Award for Best Webinar Series.
• Free Webinars by the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG- Learn about various technologies and how to integrate them effectively in the classroom. January 15th is the first one this year, Cool Activities with IWBs. I will be hosting one on March 25th, Integrating Collaborative Projects with ICTs.
• Join the online International Teachmeet event where you will see over 20 teachers worldwide present about various topics in 3 minutes! The next one is March 3rd, but you can sign-up to present now.
• The Virtual Round Table E-Conference- ELTon nominated free online conference focusing on language and technology. Unique in that participants can attend via a live video conference or in Second Life. Check out the next conference in April 2012.
• Edublogs Live Events- Every week, attend a free webinar on various topics. Usually, Jo and Phil Hart hosts these free webinars that cover effective use of web 2.0 tools or instructional methodologies.
• Future of Education- Steve Hargadon will be hosting a free worldwide virtual Future of Education: Learning 2.0 conference January 23 – 27, 2012.
• Classroom 2.0 Live Events- Every week, attend a free webinar with an expert in a field or listen to some great authors speak live and ask them questions.
• Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL)- provides free online workshops on Moodle for Teachers (Orientation, Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced), Professional Electronic Portfolios (PEP), WebQuests, Facilitating Online Classes, Grant Writings, TESOL, Integrating Technology and using Web 2.0 in the classroom.
• #Edchat- Join over 2000 educators every Tuesday to discuss various topics you get to vote for and suggest.
• Education Chats on Twitter- Find out the dates and times of educational conversations that occur on Twitter.

Online classes

Free Online Classes Throughout the Year!

free online courses taught by authors, subject matter experts, and university lecturers.

• SEETA Courses- The South Eastern Europe Teachers Association offers several week courses with a guest author or expert in the field. You will have to register, but the courses are free!
• MOOC- Massive Open Online Courses where 1000s attend for free through discussion forums and free webinars. Follow the hashtag #MOOC for the latest MOOC. University professors, TED speakers, and notable educational theorists moderate these courses. You learn from the very best in our field! Topics range from Personal Learning Networks to Mobile Learning!
• MIT Open Course Ware offers over 1900 free online courses in over 20 subjects. You can subscribe by RSS or get e-mail updates.
• Stanford on iTunes- Download courses, faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports that will play on your iPod, iPad, iPhone, Mac or PC.
• 17 Universities with free online courses- Find out how to access these free courses from some of the most respected universities in the world! This article also describes the experience of learning through these online classes.
• 250 Free Online Courses- Find a list of several more free online courses from the top universities categorized by subject.

Thanks to Shelly Terrell for these ideas: http://edupln.ning.com/profile/ShellyTerrell