Scenario Based Learning

As an on going lesson students can use scenerio based tasks to identify the point of view in different works of literature.  Referencing the novel “Great Gatsby” by F. Scott  Fitzgerald students will  idenify the author’s point of view as either first, second or third person. Students will test their reading comprehension and ability to identify the way the author allows the reader to "see" and "hear" what is going on. This scenario based learning opportunity uses purpose specific tasks to engage learners to interact with literature previously read.

For instance, an automobile accident occurs. Two drivers are involved. Witnesses include four sidewalk spectators, a policeman, a man with a video camera who happened to be shooting the scene, and the pilot of a helicopter that was flying overhead. Here we have nine different points of view and, most likely, nine different descriptions of the accident.

Who tells the story and how it is told are critical issues for an author to decide. The tone and feel of the story, and even its meaning, can change radically depending on who is telling the story.
Remember, someone is always between the reader and the action of the story. That someone is telling the story from his or her own point of view. This angle of vision, the point of view from which the people, events, and details of a story are viewed, is important to consider when reading a story.

Post a comment to this posting addressing the following questions.  What is the point of view in the novel "Great Gatsby?" Is the point of view fixed or does it change? Does the point of view stay the same distance from the events of the novel, or does the point of view zoom in and zoom out, like a camera lens? Is a character narrating the novel? If so, which character is the Narrator?

~1st person is you. You are saying your own thoughts and reliving/ telling the story. Key words: I, we, us, me. Example: I jumped off a cliff today.

~2nd person is talking to you. Key words: You. Example: Were you able to see that story about the guy who jumped off a cliff?

~3rd person is talking about someone else. Key word: He, she, it, they, them, him, her. Example: You know the reporter covering that story about the idiot who jumped off a cliff? She is hot.

Connect

In an attempt to relate learning experiences to real life, students can use what they already know to engage in and expand new leaning experiences.  Connecting past learning by applying or relating those experiences to new or future content will enhance the students cognitive processing and make all learning meaningful.  While researching ways to engage students in American Literature I came across an idea to relate social problems of today to those which influenced the writing of American Authors. With the assistance of PBS Individual American Masters website and classroom discussions regarding social problems in the United States, I hoped to determine if students understood the affect of social problems and how they influenced an author's writing experience; and to what extent.  The student responses were then published in the "Leave a Reply" section on the individual American writers database and also recorded into the classroom blog on the topic titled "connect".  Students then crafted a classroom glossary featuring demographic data from their assigned American author.  As a way to show how important social problems are in relationship to literature and specific American authors,  students provided real world examples and their impact in their reply.  Students applied what they had already learned and connected past and present learning activities.

absorb activity

As I learn more and more about teaching and learning with technology it has occurred to me that some learners may not know what they know in regard to the technology available to enhance their learning.  Technology is changing quickly and becoming more affordable and available.  In order to incorporate technology into teaching, it is important to have a starting point.  The starting point is going to be different with each group of learners.  A student technology survey can be useful to determine a starting point. A survey will help gather information about what hardware and software the learners are accustom to using, how often it is used, where it is used and what their personal opinion is about technology and the Internet.  The survey should be mandatory and completed partially at home and during class time.  The survey can be used as an indirect instructional tool, to help students understand what types of technology is available at home, at school and within the community.  The survey is also a way to get to know the learners. It offers a hide and seek type of guided tour where learners discover the types of technology available.  Once the survey is complete, the results can be tallied by the learners and used to create a classroom technology plan. 

Facebook Frustrations

Although I should probably be outside enjoying this beautiful day, I have decided instead to vent my frustrations with Facebook.  Everyone always asks "Why aren't you on Facebook".  From the first day  my good friend created my Facebook profile....each time I try to use Facebook it never quite works out the way I intend.  My new frustration this week was attempting to create a "Secret" Group.  From what I can tell it is impossible to invite new members to my "Secret" Group without first inviting the "Secret" friend to be a friend through a "Friend Request".  The problem I can not seem to solve is that the "Secret" friends are then no longer secret.  How can I prevent these "Secret" friends from viewing my entire Facebook profile and instead only the content of  the "Secret" Group in which I want them to be view.  I know there must be a way to accomplish this task, but again I have failed at Facebook.  I have read about other academic professionals using Facebook to collaborate.  It sounds like such a great idea.  I am going to learn, I am not going to give up...some day Facebook will be my friend.

Week 2 - Collaboration and Learning in a Virtual Environment

When students and teachers are learners who use collaboration as part of the learning process they make good use of both the expertise of the instructor and the learning potential of the students as a group.   A simple and quick technology tool which allows participants to add, edit and delete information on a certain topic is known as a wiki.  Integrating wikis into the learning process can be either private or public.  Public wiki’s are wikis in their truest form while private wikis give more control and procedures for collaboration. Wikis can be used to collect or summarize data or results, to show competence or reflective thoughts on a specific topic, and to plan, answer questions, show a timeline progression in an environment or project Wiki’s are hosted on free, fee-based or self hosted.  PBworks.com is a hosting site for wikis that serves education by catering to classroom teachers, librarians, universities.  In addition to reflecting on our classroom learning via a weekly blog post and tweeting on Twitter, we will begin planning and designing the skills and behaviors for our own wiki collaboration project. 

West, J. A., & West, M. L. (2009). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration : The Power of The Read-Write Web (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Week One - Collaboration and Learning in a Virtual Environment.

Week One - Collaboration in a virtual environment

During week one of EDU651 we spent time analyzing The 2009 Horizon Report.  Each member of our class determined The 2009 Horizon Report's strenghts, threats, weaknesses and opportunities.  We learned all about different teaching technology tools such as web blogs and wiki's and how  they can be used in the classroom.  I am looking forward to planning and using a wiki.  I  like the idea of collaboration without the pressure of asking forthright questions and demanding students to produce expected answers or results. Wiki's give students the opportunity to reflect on their learning and share ideas.  Students can post classroom projects, share links and track their learning.   Bookmarking sites provides students assess to favorite sites from any computer anywhere that has ïnternet access.  The final assignment for the week was to summarize our reading and respond to specific components such as how to safely use technology tools to expand the walls of the traditional classroom.