In an effort to apply everything that I have been learning this past semester in the master’s program, I decided to revamp a lesson of mine that leaves a lot to be desired and transform it into a 21st Century Learning Experience. 21st Century Learning is the use of learning that goes beyond just the presentation of content and incorporates critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration (National Education Organization, n.d.). In general, this means creating classrooms where student-driven learning is occurring around topics that students feel engaged with. Students in these classrooms have voice and choice over how they are sharing their learning, and are learning to be good citizens of the world (Kereluik et al., 2013). 21st Century Learning also involves students learning how to navigate digital tools, although a lesson does not necessarily need technology to be considered 21st Century Learning (Kereluik et al., 2013).
The lesson that I chose to revamp was my lesson about mollusks. I usually end up teaching about mollusks towards the end of my semester-long Marine Biology course, so I am usually in a major time crunch. We usually watch a bunch of video clips, talk about anatomical structures and adaptations, dissect a squid, and call it a day. While the video clips and dissect do serve as good learning experiences for the students who are already super engaged with what we are covering, I always have a bunch of students who are experiencing end-of-semester fatigue and end up sleeping in the back (no matter how exciting an octopus video I show). Because I think mollusks are super cool and important, I wanted to change my method of teaching mollusks so that ALL of my students would understand how super cool and important they are.
I am still feeling uncertain about whether I have made my lesson authentic enough to matter to students and whether I have made the lesson too long for the amount of material covered. Although allowing students to do their own research should in theory make a topic more engaging, I am worried that the same students who sleep through my octopus videos will be uninterested in looking at octopus videos that they find themselves. I am concerned about the time because I have now extended something that takes me 3 days maximum into a 2 week lesson. Using this would mean cutting other important topics from my course.
Although I am pleased with how I have shifted my lesson towards 21st Century Learning, there are a few things that I feel unsure about regarding the 21st Century Learning components in this lesson. While students get to do a lot of the learning about mollusks on their own with the new model, I had to jettison a more lecture-based exposure to the differences between mollusk groups. I know that I am ultimately doing more good by choosing a lesson that will give all students the benefit of skills as opposed to focusing on knowledge that may not be retained, but it does feel strange to be sending students forward without them necessarily knowing the detailed difference between mollusk groups. I am also concerned that I have given students too much voice and choice in their final product, and that being in a situation where every student is using a different software for a different purpose might be hard to manage. I am specifically worried because I have a large population of students with special needs who often struggle to use new technologies, and I have not (and likely will not) made a guide for every single software I have made available on the list. If you are interested in checking out my revamped lesson plan, you can check it out here. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions- this lesson is far from being the perfect, polished product that I would like it to be.
References
Kereluik, K., Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., & Terry, L. (2013). What Knowledge Is of Most Worth. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 29(4), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2013.10784716
National Education Organization. (n.d.). Preparing 21st Century Students for a Global Society: An Educator’s Guide to the “Four C’s” [E-book]. http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf Russell, D. (2020). Mollusk Research Sample [Padlet]. https://padlet.com/russe552/vc4jf3vht6wyhk6u Russell, D. (2020). Russell 810 21st Century Learning Plan [Unpublished manuscript]. Michigan State University. https://docs.google.com/document/d/15tw4sLw8XpyGRfS8pE9_cclYY02PTSNxMIq3dNEwhgg/edit?usp=sharing Russell, D. (2019). Students Dissection a Squid [Image].
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