Tell me and I'll forget.
Show me, and I may not remember
Involve me, and I'll understand.
Native American Saying
When a student is asked to work on a project like The Breadwinner web project he or she immediately begins to access higher order thinking skills. Decisions are made and, conscious or not, they are made based on each student's learning strengths. The range of activities from which students can select tap into all of the eight intelligences identified by Gardner in his theory on Multiple Intelligences:
MI theory essentially acknowledges the fact that students have different ways of learning and accessing new knowledge and skills and that no way is deemed better than another. Everyone owns each of these intelligences (unless there is evidence of neurological damage), they are merely mixed differently in each person.(Project SUMIT, 1999) Keeping all of this in mind, this project has been designed in such a way as to allow all students to set themselves up to succeed .
As they begin their project, problems have to be solved in terms of content and design as the two must work together in order for the web project to work. Web projects also make students more aware of how they use language since they are communicating to a much wider audience than a more traditional paper, art, or video project can address.
Essentially, students are asked to construct their own learning based on the types of intelligences they possess. Once the activities have been chosen, they then acquire new skills and knowledge through their gathering, application, and critical analysis of the new information they are asked to research. A web project asks students to present their findings on a potentially world-wide format. Using the technology that is necessary to present their discoveries - the building of web pages, online discussion forums, and power point presentations, or the integration of video and sound - allows students to build something meaningful while they acquire new knowledge and skills. Hence, they finish by learning through construction.
Spruck-Wrigley (2001) has identified twelve principles of adult education/language and literacy development that reiterate the types of learning that takes place when students build web projects as described at the top of this page. They are also reminiscent of the components of project-based learning with multi-media as outlined by the San Mateo County of Education (2000).
Spruck-Wrigley's principles are:
Adult education requires:
While many educators have identified similar principles or components (see AASA, Krauss (1998), and Payton), my interest in Spruck-Wrigley's principles stem from their designation to adult learners. More and more, I am seeing a definite connection between theories and ideas about adult learners and those about adolescents with difficulties processing language (often described as students with learning disabilities). In most of my students, the difficulties that they have with learning lie in language and literacy skills. All students require Spruck-Wrigley's principles to learn.Some students can learn even if these principles are not explicitly addressed by the teacher, but students with language processing difficulties absolutely require these principles to be expressed in the activities their teachers ask them to do. I am beginning to see that the different elements of technology-based web projects can be used as a learning strategies by those students.
Now, how exactly can the construction of web projects be used as learning strategies?