Resource-Based
Project
What
is Resource-based Learning?
Resource-based
learning is an educational model designed to actively engage students with
multiple resources in both print and non-print form. Ideally, the classroom
teacher and media specialist collaborate to plan resource-based units
(California Media and Library Educators Association [CMLEA]). Learners take
responsibility for selecting resources, human or otherwise, that appeal to
their own learning preferences, interests and abilities. Thompson and Henley
(2000) provide a comprehensive list of resources ranging from traditional
reference books to the Internet, as well as innovative games. Resources
incorporated into planned, authentic tasks afford students opportunities to
develop the skills and techniques necessary to become autonomous, self-directed
learners and effective users of information (Doiron & Davies, 1998;
Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation, n.d.). Resource-based learning units
often culminate in student products or artifacts, which are presented to an
audience (Bleakley & Carrigan, 1994).
Teachers
often teach lessons or units using a variety of media, including guest
speakers, videos, or hypermedia presentations. Because teachers select content
and mode of delivery, such instruction is more aptly deemed resource-based
instruction (Doiron & Davies, 1998), a pedagogy that is more
teacher-centered. Resource-based learning is predicated upon the principle that
individual learners will be drawn to the media and content which best match
their own processing skills and learning styles (Farmer, 1999). The learning
focus shifts from teachers using resources to facilitate instruction to
students directing the choice of resources. In a continuum between
teacher-centered and student-centered learning, resource-based learning occurs
somewhere in the middle. When the constructivist educator uses resource-based
learning, instruction is teacher-planned, but student-directed. This was
evident in Ms. Russell's classroom.
Educators
adhering to more didactic or expository pedagogy may also employ resource-based
learning. For example, Ms. White used several resources to teach the same unit.
Her instructional design, however, relied heavily on teacher directed supports,
such as quizzes and choreographed discussions. Her students read the same
historical novel, which eliminated "stray" learning and gave her more
control over the facts disseminated to the students. Clearly, both
resource-based teaching and resource-based learning access and use materials in
diverse formats. Although Ms. White planned this unit around resources, her
students had little opportunity to direct their own learning. Although the
resources probably enriched the unit and raised the interest level of many
students, Ms. Russell's Civil War unit is a better example of resource-based
teaching. The remainder of this chapter will address resource-based learning at
the more student-centered end of the continuum.
In
a resource-based learning school, students become more self-sufficient. They ask
productive questions; they synthesize, analyze, interpret and evaluate
information. Libraries and databases all over the world can be accessed almost
instantly giving students access to an enormous amount of information from a
variety of sources.
The
nature of resources has changed as a result of technological developments and
the ability to catalog and classify digital media. Considerable opportunities
are now available to teachers and students. Metadata--data about data--provides
information about documents that can be retrieved by searching for the author,
creation date, or content (Hill & Hannafin, 2001). Technology allows
teachers or students to use those parts of resources that will satisfy their
curiosity or educational needs. The boundaries that once separated teachers and
students from resources are virtually gone.
Perhaps
the greatest potential obstacle to implementing resource-based learning
activities is cooperative planning, which the teacher and media specialist do
together. In order to create this teaching team, the media specialist and the
teacher must apportion responsibility, and ensure that each knows the teaching
needs and methods of the other (Farmer, 1999). Cooperative planning requires
good communication skills and requires both time and effort. Resource-based
learning also necessitates planning a timetable for the unit, student grouping,
structuring the learning environment, and the management of the unit as well as
summative evaluation of the entire process.
Why
Is Resource-Based Project Important
Resource-based project is important because in this
way of adaption in projects particularly to students and to other professionals
helps to support their creation or works as facts. It is also to improve the
knowledge of the people in integrating the prior knowledge of the person and
together with the help of the resources being gotten of the data.
These
21st century skills include
- personal and social responsibility
- planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity
- strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation needs
- cross-cultural understanding
- visualizing and decision making
- knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the most appropriate tool for the task
Simple Creations
Creativity refers
to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a
solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value. What counts as
"new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the
society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as
"valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways.
Scholarly interest in creativity ranges widely:
Scholarly interest in creativity ranges widely:
v Topics
to which it is relevant include the relationship between creativity and general
intelligence;
v the
mental and neurological processes associated with creative activity;
v the
relationship between personality type and creative ability;
v the
relationship between creativity and mental health;
v the
potential for fostering creativity through education and training, especially
as augmented by technology; and
v the application
of an individual's existing creative resources to improve the effectiveness of
learning processes and of the teaching processes tailored to them.
Several
Disciplines Undergone Creativity
v Psychology,
v
Education,
v Philosophy (Particularly Philosophy Of Science),
v Technology,
v Theology,
v Sociology,
v Linguistics,
v
Economics.
Building on Guilford's work, Torrance developed the Torrance Tests of Creative
Thinking in 1966. They involved simple tests of divergent thinking and
other problem-solving skills, which were scored on:
·
Fluency – The total number of interpretable,
meaningful and relevant ideas generated in response to the stimulus.
- Originality –
The statistical rarity of the responses among the test subjects.
- Elaboration – The amount of detail in the responses.
The
Guided Hypermedia Project
Hypermedia
can be defined as a non-sequential format that uses hypertext and multimedia
elements to present information to users. There are many potential and realized
advantages to using hypermedia in educational settings. The advantages of
hypermedia depend on the mode of use. Allowing students to author their own
hypermedia results in a different set of advantages than simply allowing
students to be the audience of hypermedia presentations. The use of hypermedia
must be carefully guided by teachers and other educational professionals to
ensure that students are learning and focusing on valuable curricular concepts.
Hypermedia can be a great tool to help facilitate differentiation of
instruction in the classroom, but there are some pitfalls as well.
What
is Hypermedia?
Hypermedia
combines the concepts of hypertext and multimedia to allow rich interaction
between the user and the material. Hypertext itself is basically the same as
regular text except that it contains connections within the text to other documents
(Hughes, 1994). The term multimedia has been around for a long time, long
before the advent of personal computers. Today it is usually used to describe
the integration of text, graphics, animation, sound, video and music in an
interactive software environment (Turner and Handler, 1997).
Hypermedia,
in computer science, the integration of graphics, sound, video, and animation
into documents or files that are linked in an associative system of information
storage and retrieval. Hypermedia files contain cross references called
hyperlinks that connect to other files with related information, allowing users
to easily move, or navigate, from one document to another through these
associations.
Hypermedia is structured around
the idea of offering a working and learning environment that parallels human
thinking—that is, an environment that allows the user to make associations
between topics rather than move sequentially from one to the next, as in an
alphabetical list. Hypermedia topics are thus linked in a manner that allows
the user to jump from subject to related subject in searching for information.
For example, a hypermedia presentation on navigation might include links to
such topics as astronomy, bird migration, geography, satellites, and radar. If
the information is primarily in text form, the document or file is called
hypertext. If video, music, animation, or other elements are included, the
document is called a hypermedia document.
.
Students
as Audience of Hypermedia
In
the role of audience to hypermedia, students interact with hypermedia
environments developed by others. Examples of this type of interaction would
include reading articles in online encyclopedias, observing a PowerPoint
presentation (with links and other multimedia elements) developed by a teacher,
playing interactive adventure games, or looking at various interactive websites
on the Internet. Lu (n.d.) would consider this as level 1, or read only
hypermedia. As an audience to hypermedia, children often still manage to
control how they navigate through the information, and one child is likely to
navigate the material in a different order than another. Students will choose
their paths based on their interests and objectives. While students are able to
have some control in this role, they are still limited by the design decisions
made by the software designer or their teacher (Turner and Handler, 1997).
Learners
as Authors of Hypermedia
The
second of these broad categories would include learner as authors of their own
hypermedia. In this role, students will develop hypermedia projects by
conducting research on a topic, identifying relevant information, and then
selecting what elements to include in a final product. Students will have to
consider the layout of the text as well as what multimedia components to
include in their product. Students must also determine how they will link
information based on whom the intended audience will be. In addition, students
will have to learn how to use software components, or perfect their knowledge
of the software they are using, and then debug any problems they encounter
(Turner & Handler, 1997). This second broad category of authoring
hypermedia would correspond to Lu's (n.d.) level 2 (participatory) and level 3
(exploratory) hypermedia. Using hypermedia in this context will not only allow
students to have control over how they learn, but will also force them to learn
basic information and use higher level thinking skills in the process
developing their final hypermedia product.
powered
by Youtube
Assets
of Hypermedia
The
advantages of using hypermedia in instruction are numerous. They include the
fact that differentiation of instruction is often built into the application
and allows the learner to adapt information to his own learning style. Students
gain control of the order they access information as well as the number of
times they engage a specific piece of information. Students will often have the
option of simply reading the text (verbal learning style), or hearing the text
read (aural learning style), or seeing a visual representation of the text
reproduced (visual learning style), among other options. Teachers can use the
above webpage to assess their own learning styles as well as those of their
students.
Hypermedia
is not limited by physical space. The costs of paper and color photographs are
no longer an issue. There is tremendous potential to save time and money in the
long run. In science classrooms there is tremendous potential to save money on
laboratory materials as well. The above link is just one example of using the
Internet as an alternative to a chemistry lab.
Liabilities
of Hypermedia
Disadvantages
of using hypermedia in an educational setting include the fact that it takes a
tremendous amount of time to initially develop hypermedia lessons. Teachers
must get the appropriate training in using software and other hypermedia
components, and be given adequate time to plan and incorporate hypermedia
lessons into their curriculum. One method to help ameliorate the lack of
planning time that plagues so many public school teachers is for those teachers
to allow their students to author hypermedia products in conjunction with the
curriculum. Then those teachers can use these hypermedia products with other
students in that same class, as well as with future students in other classes.
Teachers would still need proper training to successfully guide their students
through these initial creations.
Another
disadvantage in using hypermedia involves students who already have trouble
focusing on specific tasks. Those students who have trouble focusing on
assignments in general may be overwhelmed by hypermedia lessons. They may lose
focus entirely or they may learn a little bit about a lot about different
things, but they might miss the central purpose of an assignment. Teachers
would have to take extra time to re-focus students' attention on what is truly
important in the context of the curriculum-based lesson. Therefore, the use of
hypermedia must be carefully guided by teachers and other educational
professionals to ensure that students are learning and focusing on valuable
curricular concepts.
Hypermedia
is causing educators to redefine literacy. Educators have to be careful to
teach students how to glean information from the Internet and other hypermedia
environments. These environments can be very different, and often better, than
simply reading from a textbook. Despite the advantages of presenting content in
multiple formats including video and audio, hypermedia can also mask
fundamental reading problems. Students with difficulty reading may be able to
glean just as much information from certain hypermedia formats as students who
can read well. However, in the long run, these reading-deficient students may
not be identified as needing extra help in the area of reading, and then in
turn suffer the consequences further down the road, when the ability to read
text well becomes essential.
Internet
Safety
Hypermedia
lessons must be designed with the safety of the student in mind as well. While
not all hypermedia lessons will involve the Internet, many will. Those that do
should be carefully designed by the teacher to prevent students from straying
to websites that contain inappropriate material. A well-designed hypermedia
lesson could utilize all of the good things on the World Wide Web without
burdening it with the pop-up advertisements and questionable material that
seems to abound.
Conclusion
Hypermedia
is a term that has been around for many years now, and its definition continues
to undergo slight changes as time passes. As an educational tool, hypermedia
offers many potential benefits for the teacher in the classroom as well as a
few potential pitfalls. Perhaps the most pertinent advantage to 21st century
teachers in the United States is the potential to create differentiated lesson
plans that cater to a variety of learning styles and a multitude of English
Language Learners. The software tools currently available already provide some
content translated into Spanish and other foreign languages. As these tools are
improved teachers will eagerly make use of the best applications.
Web-Based
Project
Advantages
of using Web-based Project Management Software
Mobility—With an
intuitive dashboard, reporting and planner tools, web based project management
software enables you to login to your project work from anywhere in the world,
thus offering a real-time view of your project.
Easy
and effective collaboration—Collaboration is an inherent component of project
management. For sharing your project plans with your global partners, for
delegating tasks to your offshore colleagues or for managing contractors across
the country, a reliable platform for collaboration is a must. This is where our
web-based project management software helps. Web project management software
helps you save your work or project plan in one central location thus giving
authorized members real-time access to business-critical project information.
Teams can be given real-time alerts to adjust work activities to adapt with
project changes or updates.
Boost
productivity—With
collaboration via PM software, miscommunication is reduced, which thus paves
the way to effective and quick team work and increased productivity. With
web-based project management software, project managers can save time on
routine operations such as collecting reports, updating plans, sending
reminders to team and spend more time on more productive work. The project
manager gets real-time view of each task and can evaluate and make necessary
changes on the spot whenever required.
Solid
Analysis & Reporting— Web Project management software’s reporting
structure gives you invoice ready data for projects. This enables you to
swiftly review all time spent during a project, as well as what is due for
invoicing and how much revenue is associated with each task, phase, etc.
Flexible
and scalable—Web
project management software unites the collaboration platform of SharePoint
Server 2010 and deliberate implementation abilities to provide flexible work
management results. Users get the benefit to manage scheduling, i.e. users can
plan tasks with the information they have in hand or mechanically plan tasks to
have project estimate dates and durations.
Security— Security is
the foremost issue that we take care of. All necessary steps to keep your data
safe is taken by us. All the project management information of your is safely
transferred via SSL.
The
Power of Web-based Project Management
Spreadsheets
can get out of control while commercial software does everything but manage
your projects effectively.
A
web-based, centralized project management system can help boost your
productivity and make your operations more efficient. Managing time effectively
within your company will help deliver projects on time, on budget and increase
profits.
Many
companies are looking for an alternative to spreadsheets and commercial
software; especially when it comes to managing projects or jobs. The ability to
keep a the pulse of each project is faster and easier with a web application.
Converting your existing project management processes onto an online platform
isn’t hard; in fact it’s quite easy. Once it’s up and running, all of your team
members can access the necessary features of the application, such as entering
expense line items, with any web-enabled device such as PC’s, Laptops, iPhones
and iPads.
Web
Applications have fostered the ability to centralize data so that your
customers, suppliers, vendors, employees, and stakeholders can easily access
and share important information, instantly, from anywhere in the world.
