Design Rationale : Assignment 2

As a primary classroom teacher working within EQ, I am required to follow my school’s curriculum, assessment and reporting plan  and pedagogical framework.  My challenge was to find the context that would support students’ engagement in authentic problem based learning within the scheduled units of work.

In order to do this I referred to …

• the scheduled units of work, choosing the Year 4 English C2C unit in which students explore persuasive devices used in creating breakfast cereal packaging and Primary Connections unit: Package it better as the context for learning.
• the Australian curriculum content descriptors ( English & Science)  and general capabilities.
• The Essential Learnings for technology.
• DOTL for the accepted sequence and best practice in applying this teaching method.
• a comprehensive  project design rubric developed by  The Buck Institute for Education ( BIE) .

 I felt that any in depth exploration of an authentic problem would require students to work across, rather than within, subject areas.  Hence my series of  learning experiences will be part of an integrated  unit of work where students develop specific content knowledge within subject area lessons then apply this knowledge to a solve a complex ( cross-disciplinary)  problem.

My initial planning & mapping provides an overview of the reasoning behind my design.

Students at the Centre

The students are a Year 4 class with two –thirds of the class made up of boys. Most students currently have low to moderate ICT skills. There are a number of students with low literacy skills who particularly avoid writing. The learning experiences are designed to engage and support students to complete the final task through working in groups, using ICT, incorporating hands on activities, self-direction and support with the final writing task through initial planning (using Thinglink) and peer feedback.

Content : The task

Students will create a mock-up of a food package designed to appeal to children aged 7-11. They will write a justification for their design explaining how it meets the design criteria.

This task is justifiably worthwhile as in a knowledge based economy, ‘design thinking’  will be a highly sought after skill (DEAG, 2013). Linking the task to an industry run competition also provides real world links and relevance.

Pedagogy

Simply put, the ultimate goal of education is to produce learners who successful members of society. This involves students applying literacy and numeracy skills to become self-directed, “productive and creative users of technology”, who are able to solve problems by working independently and/or collaboratively (MYCEEDYA, 2008).

“There is a direct relationship between what students learn and how they learn” (DEAG. pg 26, 2013). Therefore if we expect students to develop creativity & innovation, a proactive approach to solving ill-defined problems and work collaboratively we need to provide them with opportunities to experience these approaches to learning.  These ideas complement pedagogical approaches that promote the benefits of students to working in similar ways to professionals within a particular field.

In this series of learning experiences students work as “package designers” to: -

•  Collaborate as they work in expert teams to explore a particular aspect of the overall problem, provide constructive feedback to team members.
• Solve ill-defined problems – as they define what is required for a successful package from multiple perspectives, conduct research and negotiate their understanding of each aspect of the design brief.
• Think creatively (within practical constraints), as they communicate multiple ways to meet the design brief taking into account multiple perspectives.
• Create, publish and present their final product.

Technology

EdStudio :  The affordances of EdStudios support younger students to  collaboratively construct understandings and have the potential to redefine tasks.

Padlet : The affordances of Padlet make it suitable for collecting and organising ideas within a whole class or small group.

Group Blog: I chose a group blog as a space for students to collaborate and communicate their understandings. I felt this blog format gives students responsibility for contributing to the group while also benefiting from peer feedback in the form of comments. I have used group blogs for collaboration and feedback in team and individual pages within the Edstudio.

Thinglink : In my earlier explorations of Thinglink I was very interested in its functionality for analysing images. In the context of this unit, Thinglink provides students with a tool for presenting and clearly explaining specific features of their design. It also works in ways very similar to Padlet (i.e. drag and drop function, click anywhere to add content). I am aware that I am not taking advantage of the full capacity of Thinglink to link to online content and share images with other users in the Thinglink community in this task.

For details and an explanation of how this rationale will be enacted please refer to the learning sequence .

Transformation
The use of technology within these learning experiences is predominately at the Augmentation and Modification levels , as defined by the SAMR model ( Puentedura, 2013). I have considered opportunities for using technology to Redefine the tasks by

• organising an expert from PAC to  access the class EdStudio and provide feedback via blog entries.
• accessing an expert in the field via WebConference.
•  opening EdStudio to other classes within Education Queensland
• inviting another class to join in the " packaging design" competition.

REFERENCES

Digital Education Advisory Group (DEAG). (2013). Beyond the classroom: A new digital education for young Australians in the 21st century. Retrieved 9^th June 2014 from http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/deag_final_report.pdf

MCEECDYA. (2008,).  Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians | Redirect. Retrieved July 7, 2013, fromhttp://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceecdya/melbourne_declaration,25979.html

Project Design Rubric | Project Based Learning | BIE. (n.d.). Project Design Rubric | Project Based Learning | BIE. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://bie.org/object/document/project_design_rubric

Puentedura, R. (2012, August 23). Ruben R. Puentedura's Weblog: The SAMR Model: Background and Exemplars. Hippasus. Retrieved July 21, 2013, from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/000073.html

Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment.(2013a). Dimensions of teaching and learning. Retrieved December 21, 2013, from  https://learningplace.eq.edu.au/cx/resources/file/f093f249-05ce-0bde-465a-dbc537683e7a/1/index.html