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Heather A Ochmane-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates
Essential Peer Reviewed Update #1: STEAM Learning Path available online in one place for optimal student exploration
Ubiquitous learning is directly aligned with the STEM, or STEAM if you have included the recent addition of Art in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, learning path. The STEAM learning path engages students to explore their own interests on a path of discovery, ingenuity, and innovation. It includes drawing some ideas and testing concepts. It aligns their work and discovery with subject matter experts to get advise for furthering their work.
Therefore, within the NASA environment, just from learning in this course, I've started to reassess our website's learning portal for the ubiquitous classroom. Rather than listing our resources individually, we are playing with the concept of defining classroom experiences. On a single webpage, I'm playing with the concept of hosting a "Challenge". A Challenge encompasses finding solutions for our future. On the same page are technical papers, charts, graphics, infographics, links to social media, video, and messages from our subject matter experts. I feel this is modeling the ubiquitous classroom by allowing an open ended challenge to be tackled per the individual/group's unique discovery path. Additionally, having an online forum for collaboration and sharing will be ideal.
We are currently testing these concepts to best optimize our educational outreach and engagement impact. As a result, when we do public outreach, we can drive use of our website and host semesterly challenges. Our Challenges will be judged and curated by our subject matter experts, recorded and reported out. Therefore, it gives further engagement with our content and team.
Hi Sandra. The Challenges sound great. Not only ubiquitous learning, but also adding a bit of competition into the mix. Are there different problems to be solved, or are they more general issues? The addition of an online forum seems like another good idea. Perhaps there are other ways to encourage collaboration too. There could be challenges open only to teams and then have a forum available for people to find team mates. Sounds fun.
This does sound interesting, and is in essence a form of inquiry-based learning. How do you think the idea you are proposing differs from Problem Based Learning? Is it in the kind of challenge that is posed (solutions for our future)? And what exactly would be the difference from any of these approaches and what is here called Ubiquitous Learning? Perhaps it is simply the fact that the use of digital technologies allows the same learning paths (inquiry, which includes research, experimentation/testing etc) to occur outside the cells of the timetable and the walls of the classroom and indeed outside the traditional class cohort?
But, in the case of our high schools, we are still organising students in groups/classes and reporting on their learning in these cohorts and according to specific schedules - the semester or term. Is it possible to escape these constrains too? I would be interested in knowing what a report would then look like.