Students as Knowledge Constructors
By Kerri Lambert, Teacher Specialist, AACPS Office of Instructional Technology
As we head into Thanksgiving and the winter holiday season, teachers are looking for ways to keep students engaged in learning. Many of the activities they may implement involve research into other cultures, holiday traditions, and other seasonal project based learning activities. With this in mind, it seems the perfect time to take a closer look at our third Maryland Digital Learning Standard which focuses on students being knowledge constructors. Here is the standard:
Students curate (select and evaluate) a variety of digital resources to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts to make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. Students:
Even with just a cursory glance, it’s easy to see why this is such an important standard; it’s all about students researching information and synthesizing it to create meaning. Learning how to research is nothing new. Teachers and media specialists have worked for years with students to build their capacity for gathering information from a variety of print based texts. However, with the explosion of the internet, that job has become increasingly more complex. Students must first learn how to search effectively using key terms and phrases, how to weed through millions of hits, and then determine if the information is even accurate. Students also have access to more than just books and articles to use for their research. They can access videos, podcasts, memes, images, and social media posts. Sifting through the overload of information and finding the key nuggets of information is the focus of indicators “a” and “b” above. To address these in the classroom consider the following options:
Once students have those key nuggets of accurate information, how can they consolidate it in a meaningful way to showcase what they have learned? We know that synthesizing this information is key to understanding and making meaning from what we read, see, and hear. Indicator “c” focuses on these important skills. In AACPS we are fortunate to have a variety of tools that allow students to create digital collections of artifacts:
The Knowledge Constructor standard is one that teachers have been working with for years; it’s now just a matter of moving it from the print world to the digital realm.
As we head into Thanksgiving and the winter holiday season, teachers are looking for ways to keep students engaged in learning. Many of the activities they may implement involve research into other cultures, holiday traditions, and other seasonal project based learning activities. With this in mind, it seems the perfect time to take a closer look at our third Maryland Digital Learning Standard which focuses on students being knowledge constructors. Here is the standard:
Students curate (select and evaluate) a variety of digital resources to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts to make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. Students:
a) plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources;
b) evaluate the accuracy, perspective, bias, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources;
c) curate (select and evaluate) information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions;
d) build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
Even with just a cursory glance, it’s easy to see why this is such an important standard; it’s all about students researching information and synthesizing it to create meaning. Learning how to research is nothing new. Teachers and media specialists have worked for years with students to build their capacity for gathering information from a variety of print based texts. However, with the explosion of the internet, that job has become increasingly more complex. Students must first learn how to search effectively using key terms and phrases, how to weed through millions of hits, and then determine if the information is even accurate. Students also have access to more than just books and articles to use for their research. They can access videos, podcasts, memes, images, and social media posts. Sifting through the overload of information and finding the key nuggets of information is the focus of indicators “a” and “b” above. To address these in the classroom consider the following options:
- Utilize the online databases, especially when first starting out researching a new topic. The online databases such as World Book and Britannica school provide a strong foundation in fact that will help students as they move onto other, more open-ended research forums.
- Have students access primary sources through the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab and Google Art & Culture(teacher led only in elementary and middle school). These primary documents go well beyond traditional text documents as museums work to digitize their artifacts. Students can examine, often in 3D, a variety of objects such as clothing, toys, pottery, electronics, etc.
- No longer are students limited to reading and seeing images of key historical events, they can watch and listen to actual archival footage of the events. Discovery Education has many audio and video recordings of key historical events that students can search for and watch/listen to independently. The Library of Congress is another excellent source of audio and video recordings.
- Speaking of primary resources, virtual field trips are a fantastic way for students to gather first hand knowledge of locations. Use Google Maps Treks and Google Earth Voyager stories to virtually travel around the world. Pull up zoo and aquarium cams so students can observe animals themselves to build knowledge rather than just reading about it in a book. Overwhelmed by this idea? Use the virtual field trips curated by OIT to help narrow the possibilities down.
- To help teach students to think critically about a source and it’s information, use strategies such as 3 Truths and a Lie or Myth Bustin’ with content relevant materials. This Edutopia article, “Teaching Students How to Identify Credible Sources” is a great resource for teachers as well for teaching this important skill.
- Have students screencast their research using WeVideo explaining their research and critical thinking process behind why they chose a particular site/source as reliable and credible.
Once students have those key nuggets of accurate information, how can they consolidate it in a meaningful way to showcase what they have learned? We know that synthesizing this information is key to understanding and making meaning from what we read, see, and hear. Indicator “c” focuses on these important skills. In AACPS we are fortunate to have a variety of tools that allow students to create digital collections of artifacts:
- Google Keep- allows students to create labeled digital post-it notes of notes.
- Use a Wixie book template or Notebook template for students to save their collection of artifacts.
- Use the Spotify or YouTube templates in Wixie for students to create their own playlist of media.
- Create a Studio board in Discovery Education
- Use the project feature in Google Earth to create their own virtual tour of a location with the curated materials.
- Create a collage of collected images in Adobe Express.
The Knowledge Constructor standard is one that teachers have been working with for years; it’s now just a matter of moving it from the print world to the digital realm.
