Engaged Learning Home Page We have tried to organize the engaged learning pages in the most logical, sequential format. If you are highly skilled with the practice of engaged learning strategies, you may feel comfortable jumping from one page to another. If you are unfamiliar with engaged learning, you will want to follow our sequence to gain the best understanding of the strategy to complete your project in the most effective manner.
You will find assignments on many of the pages in this section of the LInC Program. Be certain to check with your facilitator to see which of these assignments you will be responsible for completing. As you work through these pages, you may need Web authoring skills and file transfer skills. Refer to our Technology Home Page for guidance and instruction as you approach the skills you need to learn to complete your project.
The resources listed below are designed to help you understand the indicators of engaged learning, indicators of high-technology performance and good project design.
Engaged Learning Project Simulations
- The Educational Technology Simulation
- The Legislative Simulation
- The above simulations have been written so that participants can experience a technology-supported engaged learning project first-hand from a student's perspective.
Investigating Engaged Learning
- Project Introduction - This activity asks you to examine a project and identify effective aspects of the project.
- Investigating Engaged Learning (Analyzing a Project) - This activity is designed to identify the indicators of engaged learning and best use of technology using several project examples.
- Project Examples - This page links to selected examples of projects created by past LInC participants. There are several projects for each grade level.
- Fishbowl - Brainstorming a Project (A Script for Three) - The script models the process of brainstorming a project proposal. This is an automated script that will take about 10 minutes to view. It requires JavaScript to be enabled in your browser. There is also a low-tech plain text version of the same discussion.
Analyzing Project Elements
- These pages will help you to identify the elements of a project and to get started brainstorming project/unit proposals.
- Bridging the Gap - Each proposal element is explored separately with three poorly written examples transformed into well-written counterparts. There is an opportunity to judge and discuss three additional examples of each element.
- Sample Hooks - Here are examples to help you understand what a hook is and how it relates to the authentic task.
- Examples of Project Elements - This page has links to full project examples that show further development of the proposal elements you are working on: Learner Outcomes, Authentic Problem or Issue, Hook, Student Direction, and Best Use of Technology. For each proposal element, several project examples are listed that are particularly strong with respect to that element.
- Three "Before/After" activities have been created to help you understand and experience the process of writing a project proposal. Complete these activities and you will be prepared to write your own. Take the time to do these activities, as it will save you time and frustration in the near future!
- Proposal Before/After Activity 1: Proposals are written showing the participant's first draft, the facilitator's analysis, and the participant's second draft. Just read and absorb.
- Proposal Before/After Activity 2: New proposals are written for you. The "before" and "after" are completed. Your job is to complete the analysis section by asking questions that will guide the participant to include the project elements that were missing in the before section.
- Proposal Before/After Activity 3: A proposal draft is written for you. Analyze the draft and then revise it addressing the questions you asked in the analysis section.
- Project Review Question Page - This page lists many of the guiding questions provided in the other lessons. It can be used to assist you in coming up with a project idea. It can also be used as a quick check of your proposal or project to see if you have included the critical elements of engaged learning and best use of technology.
Creating a Project Proposal:
- Getting Started on Your Project - Now that you have looked at examples for project proposals, here is a summary of some of the key aspects to consider as you develop your own project proposal.
- Standards Page - This page links to state and national standards. Your project topic and learner outcomes should be based on one or more local, state or national standards.
- Brainstorming Topics for Proposals - It is important for you to brainstorm several different topics that you might wish to use for your project. As you learn more about engaged learning, you will have more choices of topics to develop into a proposal and will be able to select the one that will work the best.
- Project Proposals - You will present two proposals to the class and the class will offer positive comments and suggestions for revisions. Sometimes the idea you have in mind before class starts doesn't lend itself to engaged learning. Having a second equally developed proposal puts you in the best position to continue with the most promising project idea.
- Proposal Creation is a Process. - This page outlines the steps a fictional participant (Bill) and his facilitator work through together as Bill strives to create his project proposal.
- Project Proposal Template - Here is a template for your project proposal that you can copy and paste into your e-mail or plain text editor in order to write your proposal.
- Proposal Rubric - This is a tool to help guide and assess your work on your proposal.
Writing Your Project:
- Project Design Guide - This guide explains the three components of your LInC engaged learning project. They are the scenario, the project presentation page, and the student pages (Web pages for students).
- Project Presentation Framework - These pages give directions for writing your presentation page.
- Presentation Page Template - This is a template to use for your project presentation Web page.
- Presentation Rubric - This rubric will be used to assess your presentation page.
- Writing a Project Scenario - These pages give directions for writing your project scenario. This is a narrative describing what your project will "look like" to an observer watching your class.
- Scenario Template - This is a template to use for your project scenario Web page.
- Scenario Rubric - This rubric will be used to assess your scenario.
Creating the Student Task
On these pages you will view the sample student task pages and write a list of project goals and objectives. You will begin writing your student task scenario. When you are ready to create Web pages for your work, please read the "Getting Started Guide for Writing Web Pages." It will walk you through the needed steps including downloading a folder with all the templates for your project and uploading your folder to the Web server to publish your project.
Student Perspective on PBL - A student shares her experiences with problem-based learning. She explains what worked and didn't work from a student's point of view.
Organizing Project Web Pages for Your Students - These pages will guide you as you create your Web pages for students.
Student Page Template - This is a template to use for your project Web pages for students.
Template for Unit Description before LInC - Template for writing a summary description of how your project was conducted before LInC. If the project was not used before, describe activities used to accomplish the same learner outcomes and content as your LInC project. An example is included.
Assessing Your Students' Learning (Your Project)
- These pages discuss performance assessment, provide sample rubrics, and help you create a rubric to assess your students' learning.
- A rubric template has been created to help you.
Fine-Tuning Your Project
- Final guidelines to help you create a publishable quality project.
- Project Rubric - This rubric will be used to assess your final project.
Resources
- Here are some additional resources to help with your project development.
- Planning for the 21st Century - On this page you will find links that discuss the best use of technology and have examples of projects that use the best use of technology. This link is a great place to locate a school to collaborate with or to find experts to contact. Caution: This a long page with lots of links.
- Hitting a Brick Wall? - This page will give you more help if you have spent some amount of time on your topic. You might have some pages written, or you might be here because you can't seem to get started.