Maybe this post should have been called “Sanity is Everything”. You’ve decided on an inquiry project that injects elements of learning technologies. Besides knowing what software you’re going to use and booking the lab or equipment, you dive in. Not so fast! These next thinking steps will allow you to experience a successful project [aka – learning at its peak] or something dramatically different than expected.
The success of all great projects have a workflow in the ‘behind the scenes’. A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It may include tasks, procedural steps, organizations or people expertise, research information, and tools needed for each step. While there is a place for “exploration of a tool”, knowing the basics of how the tool works in advance of the project will definitely go a long way towards the success of the end goal.
Here is a workflow that we recently did to frame our learning in an ipad workshop. The goal was a collaborative definition of “digital literacies” and how it might look in multiple settings. We started with conversation and paper, then moved to ipads and more collaboration, then back to ipads and writing revisions, and finally publishing our creation.
When students and teachers have a map of where they’re going, they can anticipate and go off in new tracks of exploration, always knowing they can meet the goals set.
Peace (in connecting),
j