This week was very interesting. First, project-based
learning: we have done this in our university, although it has been difficult
to implement, due to the fact that it has been associated to a political
agenda. The Ministry of Education has appropriated PBL as a way of integrating
different curricular areas so as to stop promoting a capitalist and mercantilist
view of education, whereby subjects do not relate to one another, knowledge is
fragmented and often empty of context. The idea of using projects is precisely
integrating several fields of knowledge, points of view, disciplines, ways of
studying and comprehending reality, and at the same time, offer education that
makes sense to children, youngsters and adults, within and beyond their
communities.
WebQuests, well, I had heard of them before,
and last week I started thinking about incorporating at least one as part of my
technological solution to the problem I have diagnosed in weeks 1 to 4. However,
I didn’t know that these can also be done without the use of web tools, I mean,
in pencil and paper, though I am definitely using it by means of the web. It
hasn’t been easy for me to build up an appropriate WebQuest for my students, as
they have limited computer skills. I will have to think of something simple and
to the point.
As for Rubrics, I had used rubistar before; in
fact, I had even forgotten my username and password, so I had to create a new
account. It was easy, I tried a rubric to assess my students group
collaboration skills while they engage into small group discussions and other
tasks I usually assign them. I hope my students appreciate the purpose of that
rubric, although I must acknowledge that it contains too many aspects to assess
at the same time. Maybe what I will do is to print it with three or four
aspects at a given time, and use a modified rubric every time they do group
work, or at least once a week.
All in all, a very interesting week…let’s wait
for more.
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