Mini Lesson

This was a very effective assignment. It was really good to go through the process prior to teaching the lesson on the computer we would be using so that I could see any differences that might pop up. Maggie did a great job of laying the foundation for the learning. That was great to see as I knew exactly what my role was and what we were going to be learning. It was good to have a framework to work from.

I really enjoyed the process of planning the mini lesson and then teaching it. Having a moment to check for understanding was good. I think if you were doing this for a full classroom it would be a lot different. I would want to go to each student and have them demonstrate the learning and talk them through any difficulties they might have. Giving the class guidance is really important. Letting the class know what we are learning and why, and then telling them how we are going to apply the learning is helpful. The learner needs to know what the expectation is and what the end product is intended to be. That way when they get to the end of the lesson they know when they have been successful.

Having a full class would make this set up a bit more challenging. You would have to have the students grouped very specifically so that you could have the more advanced students help the students that may need it. This would lesson the load on the teacher when managing thirty students. This way the teacher could check on each group and monitor progress that way. Overall this experience was a great start to how to prepare to teach the webquest.

Inquiry Learning

The experience of the Lifesaver lesson accurately describes the attributes of inquiry learning. Through this experience it became evident that inquiry results can be subjective. Everyone's interpretation of the data was different. The time that it took to get to the results varied from person to person.Everyone's thought process was different. While many of the groups came to the same conclusion, the reasoning was different. This was a very beneficial demonstration.
This shows that there are definite benefits to inquiry learning. If the goal is to allow students to gather information and then to use that information to draw a conclusion, there is no right or wrong answer. This can be an effective tool in teaching. This gives the student the chance to apply what they know to draw conclusions, and then they are able to defend their conclusions and communicate that to the larger group. This can be very useful in any classroom.

technology in scaffolding

As a learner, the lesson activities supported my achievement by taking things in steps. The process was simplified into very clear and identifiable steps. I knew where we were ultimately going. I knew the steps we were taking to get there. It was a very effective way to present a task and learning objective.

Technology assisted me as a learner to modify files and meet my needs and the needs of the group in many ways. First, we were able to share ideas cooperatively through technology. We were able to collaboratively work as a group to complete the task at hand. We were able to use technology to complete our task and have many resources at our fingertips. We were able to to collectively contribute and be creative using the technology we had. It was a very meaningful learning experience.