Day 4 Dominica - Projects Nearly Complete

Miriam, Liz and Hihson working project for their school

Today was a good day. There were less teachers today (only 10) but they came ready to work! They have outlined their projects and have found great online tools students can use while creating them. They are sharing ideas and resources and have begun collaborating as an organic part of project planning. It is wonderful to see. Dominican curriculum includes many courses that have practical work as well as theoretical work. Teachers of these types of courses have been able to create their projects more rapidly than those who are building from scratch.

McGrey, Annie and Dean working on an IT project

One group's project has the students designing an eating area at their school. This project includes presentations and fund raising aspects as well as Math and technical drawing outcomes. They are very excited to work on this and have already asked the principal for permission to implement it in the fall. 

Another group is working on a project that brings together many of the CSEC syllabus outcomes as well as some English and possibly other subjects as well. They are using some sample projects as exemplars and have been very diligent about completing the  planning template. This template is not the one I provided, but a different one that was found online that suited their tastes. I am so impressed! They hardly need me at all.

Part of the planning is deciding on assessments. Sample marking guides, rubrics or scoring guides have been provided and these are used along with ones they already have in their courses. Most of the projects will be finished tomorrow. That is a good thing as we begin to look at teaching in Moodle and we should be able to outline their needs in this course work for the last week. This in turn will outline the homework I have for the weekend!

Today I recorded my group as they sang their national anthem for me. It is a beautiful song and they are beautiful singers. Listen to it here: Isle of Beauty

Day 3 - Questioning Project Based Learning

Day 3 already! Today was the day we really began the work on PBL. Well, not work yet, but serious preparation. My hope is to get this group collaborating with each other. Although some are sticking to their colleagues within their schools, or with friends, the rest are branching out across the room to teachers whom they have never met before this session.

The teachers I am working with are honest, sincere and truly interested in doing the best for their students. It amazed me how they face the same issues as we do in Alberta. More than one wondered if projects were worth it as they would inevitably take more time to learn concepts than the way they are teaching currently. The curriculum must be met because the students have standardized tests that must be written. They feel there is no control for the teacher to risk losing precious time. I was sorry that I did not have the answers for them. My encouragement to do the best to deliver as much of the curriculum as possible in a way that helps children gain understanding, real understanding, about the world around them was well received, but they are still hesitant.

Another concern was with group work and the possibility that one member of the group could take a ride on the work of the others. They expressed real concern that one student would have to do too much while others would not learn anything. This ignited a deep conversation about the role of the teacher and how much responsibility it is fair to place on the students. Of course there isn't one right answer to this. By the end of next week, I have a feeling this group will come up with strategies that will help them deal with all the problems that may occur while implementing Project Based Learning.

Singing praises.

While my group are working away at a project and begin to build their own projects, two of my colleagues spent two days at a school without internet. Since their sessions are about Web 2.0 tools, they were not having a great time. Yesterday one of them got her group to sing for her. It was lovely and inspired us to have a friendly competition between groups. My group took this very seriously, trying to find the best song to sing. It took far longer than I thought it would! In the end, the song was beautiful. I will share the whole Voice Thread when we have it finished with all four groups.

On a personal note, we went to Champagne Beach after work. I actually snorkeled! It is great, although I did get slightly panicky once I realized I could not stand on the bottom to be safe. This inhibited me from going the entire path, but I did see some amazing fish and the little bubbles coming up from the fissures. The water around the bubbles was so warm!

Day 2 Dominica IT Summer Institute

Day two! These teachers are really working hard to get through the project in the course. The thing is, this project is not very good. Even after they watched videos from Edutopia.org that show well-constructed projects - the kind I hope to get them working on - they still wanted to finish the provided project. They felt they were learning valuable skills in Microsoft Office software. I purposely choose a project that had too many finicky details, but this did not bother them at all. This is the thing about projects - even the poorly constructed ones are engaging when the learner wants to learn!

The participants all seem to know their way around Word, and are gaining experience in Excel and Access. Between you and I, I am gaining skills right along with them! 

Day 2 Dominica IT Summer Institute - slide show

Tomorrow we start investigating the project-based learning approach. Technology is a real asset for students working on projects, but the access here in Dominica can be a problem. Although there are enough computers for everyone, there are several problems that can occur: the mouse, the monitor, the internet cable or the CPU itself can be non-functional or the software [Adobe Reader!] is not available. This is ongoing; a couple of computers that worked for us yesterday did not work today. When teachers have these problems in computer labs it makes the use of technology very frustrating. I hope some of them can continue to try if things do not improve.

The good news is that they are having no problem working in Moodle, the learning management system we are accessing course materials through. Today three of the ten uploaded assignments and will be reading the feedback I provided tomorrow morning (if they haven't already!). I have been answering questions about whether they will be able to use this platform in their classrooms ... here's hoping they can!

Day 1 - Back in Dominica

Five of the ten teachers ~half of the group.

Well here I am again in Dominica. This is a much different experience from last March. It is not completely different; it is still quite hot - sweating is a full time activity - and the luscious vegetation is still amazing, I have with me three wonderful women and many more participants in my class. Well, that I have a class makes this go-round a new experience.

We arrived here late Saturday evening. Sunday was spent resting and walking around the city. One of my colleagues was here in July last year, but the other two are new to Dominica. We are enjoying sharing stories of the island and its people. Giving impromptu tours has been the order of the first couple of days.

Those that know me, know that I will chat anyone up. There is no better way to learn about any place you may be. On the plane from Barbados to Dominica I sat beside a Dominican man who has lived in Alberta for the last 24 years! His perspective is that the island does not do enough to develop industries that would improve the economy. When asked why he lived in cold Canada instead of Dominica, he said he liked having seasons. It is only ever summertime here! I have found out that there are around 70 thousand people on the island, but another 20 thousand live off the island. 'Overseas' they say - that could be anywhere from the United States or Canada to Africa. So about a quarter of their people live elsewhere. Strange.

But the reason I am here is to help teachers with integrating technology into education. The day started somewhat uncertainly and late. Once we knew which teachers were going with which instructor, and which school we were heading to, we only had to figure out which computers would work for us. The school my group went to has internet access and enough working computers for the group. However, the material I had prepared was directed toward secondary teachers teaching information technology and there is only one participant who meets this description. Even so, they all worked away at the sample project I had for them to do.

I will be introducing them to project-based learning materials in the coming days. What I hope they learn is that the project I started them off on is not very engaging, nor does it foster authentic learning the way it should. Soon enough, we will all be experts at building collaborative projects using technology and curricular content. I will keep you posted about the process :)