Sarah Hughey's Reading Reflection #3

1. Discussion on what should be considered in finding “the Big Idea” for a project.
2. Discussion on the 2lst Century skills.
3. Discussion on the 21st Century literacies.
4. Discussion on each of the essential learning functions.
5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

1. When considering the "Big Idea" for a project, we should make sure that our project is important to our students and real life, is complex, is multidisciplinary, and can fit within the PBL scheme.  Making sure the project is important to both the students and real life is key, because the students will not be as engaged in the project if it is not relevant from their viewpoint and the project will not prepare them well for the future if it is not relatable to real life problems they will face in the workplace.  Having it be complex and multidisciplinary is important so it students can deeply engage in the project and so that the teacher can teach all of the subjects the students need to learn.  And of course, if the idea doesn't fit into the PBL scheme then it cannot be used for a teacher using PBL.

2. The skills needed in the 21st Century relate to Bloom's Taxonomy's three highest order objectives: analyzing, evaluating, and creating.  Conveniently, these higher-level thinking skills are also utilized and developed in PBL.  According to the book, most traditional assignments usually stick to the lower-order objectives, but PBL requires the students to engage in the higher-level thinking skills needed in real life.  And these higher-level thinking skills are, as listed in the book, "Digital-Age Literacy", "Inventive Thinking", "Effective Communication", and "High Productivity.  These enGauge 21st Century skills clearly link back to the higher order Bloom's Taxonomy's skills when a closer look is taken at all of the more detailed skills listed under each of these categories.

3. The listed definition in the book on literacy is "the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts."  But these skills aren't just something one "has" or "doesn't have" -- students display literacy on a continuum.  However, when it comes to digital literacy, the book takes an even broader approach to literacy's definition and says it simply "boils down to learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens", and the categories of literacy the book uses comes from ISTE NETSS: "Creativity and Innovation", "Communication and Collaboration", "Research and Information Fluency", "Digital Citizenship", and "Technology Operations and Concepts".  The book then emphasizes that students need to be "information artists" rather than students who only utilize the first three thinking orders in Bloom's Taxonomy.

4. As listed in the book, the essential learning functions are "Ubiquity" (being able to learn anywhere and everywhere, especially with technology), "Deep Learning" (creating one's own meaning out of information from primary sources rather than just absorbing someone else's), "Making Things Visible and Discussable" (turning ideas from text into graphics or infographics and then discussing them), "Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community", "Collaboration - Teaching and Learning with Others", "Research", "Project Management", and "Reflection and Iteration."

One concern I have with the "Making Things Visible and Discussable" section is that making everything "visable" would cause a significant challenge for visually-impaired students.  I would also think this can go too far and then make students not be able to analyze information that isn't "visible", which is a significant amount of information out there in real life.  One can be too extreme with this section if not careful, which would hurt some students more than help them.

5. All of these concepts relate to our idea/project.  For one, we have to make sure that our "Big Idea" is compatible with the criteria listed under item #1.  With a topic such as "Staying Healthy", I'm sure that it meets all of the needs of a PBL project.  We can also practice and develop our 21st Century skills and literacies and learning functions while doing the project so we will one day be able to develop these in our students.