Thursday, February 25, 2010

Cooking With Jacob:Independent Research Projects Can Foster Learning

My digital media class has been tasked with doing an independent learning project. The only guidelines I have given them is to find something they are interested in and to record their learning in some digital form. The purpose of the assignment is to allow them to have a little fun with their learning. (Believe it or not I do have the option of doing something strictly for fun!)

The students have the opportunity to choose any digital tool to help them. One of my students, Jacob, chose to use a wiki to record what he is doing. The wiki, titled Cooking With Jacob, reflects Jacob's new interest in food (a subject I hold near and dear to my stomach!) He has started to record recipies he is collecting.


I have encouraged my students to use audio, video, and pictures for recording learning to go along with text because they are so engaging to the audience. Jacob came into my lab yesterday and grabbed our digital camera and tripod to record a presentation he was making in speech. Here is the video he recorded and posted on his wiki:

Isn't this what we are looking for as educators? Not only do we see the integration of technology into the speech class, but more importantly we see learning being connected through two different classrooms. When I changed jobs my biggest goal was for my class was to allow students to use digital tools to reflect what they are learning in their content areas. Yesterday a student took the first step.

3 comments:

M Webb said...

You must be thrilled with Jacobs effort and deservedly so. It is great to see students harnessing the technology to help with their general work, and taking the initiative himself is perfect, I don't think you could have wanted more from a student.

John Hadley Strange said...

It is so important for all of us to be producers of the new media and not just consumers. Congratulations Jacob!

Maybe I will come by Noel sometime and we can share some recipes and food together! I like to cook and eat also!

Thank you!

Allison Rogers said...

Incorporating technology into a students everyday learning is a great way to open them up to new possibilities. Its good to see a student take the initiative to do so. Just goes to show how we are progressing in the learning community. In EDM 310 we are learning different tools that we will be able to use in and out of the classroom.