Reimagining Classroom Research for the Digital Age eCourse

In this course, you’ll learn how to reimagine your classroom research for the digital age. We’ll guide you through an Internet-based research project appropriate to the age group you teach, introducing innovative Web tools and strategies along the way. You’ll learn which time-honored practices of traditional book research remain relevant, and which are ripe for reinvention. You will discover a host of powerful resources designed to filter, catalogue, and share information as well as tips for mining the “deep Web” — the rich layers beneath those exposed by popular search engines. The course is best suited to teachers of students in 5th through 8th grade, but many of the concepts are flexible enough to meet the needs of teachers in other grades or in diverse homeschooling environments.

In the Reimagining Classroom Research for the Digital Age eCourse, participants will learn:

• How to prepare students–offline–for successful online research
• The latest online research methodologies – What are they, and how can teachers use them to support student research?
• Search strategies – best practices for using the search tools available to students
• Using Web 2.0 tools in the context of research
• The relationship between content, pedagogy, and technology and how that informs classroom practice

Reimagining Classroom Research for the Digital Age lasts five weeks. Each week features:

• A 90-minute, live, interactive webinar. The session is lead by a seasoned expert in 21st Century teaching and learning.
• A Powerful Learning Practice facilitator to provide tech support and foster discussion and learning during the webinar
• Your participation in a virtual community will facilitate discussions, promote collaboration, and deepen understanding through practice
• Readings, tutorials, and practical examples that supplement the live discussion for the week
• An archived recording of the session

This eCourse lasts five weeks.

Dates: July 6 – August 10, 2011

Time and Day

Synchronous 1.5 hour Webinars – Thursday evenings at 8pm EDT On-going interaction throughout the five weeks in the virtual learning community

Specific technologies to be covered include:

Week 1

• “Pre-Search”: Preparing to search efficiently, safely, and purposefully
• Articulating research questions and setting parameters for research
• Using social bookmarking to keep track of, annotate, and share resources
• Curriculum plan draft A (Students taking the course for credit only)

Week 2

• Search strategies & Boolean logic
• Surface vs Deep Web
• Meta search engines, advanced search topics and custom searches
• Personal Learning Networks & RSS
• Resources for collecting, vetting and citing resources
• Curriculum plan draft B (Students taking the course for credit only)

Week 3

• Tools for organizing and synthesizing information
• Copyright and Fair Use
• Gathering non-print resources (videos, photos, etc) to add to presentation
• Curriculum plan draft C (Students taking the course for credit only)

Week 4

• Explore presentation options and choose an option
• Articulate guidelines for student presentations
• Develop presentation
• Curriculum plan development and revision (Students taking the course for credit only)

Week 5

• Sharing and peer review of final projects
• Sharing and Peer review of Curriculum Plan (Students taking the course for credit only)

*Note: We may adjust the schedule below to suit the needs/progress of enrolled students.

The five-week Reimagining Classroom Research for the Digital Age eCourse is $199 for PLPeeps (our alumni) and available to the public for $249.

Shoshana Wolfe

Shoshana began working in NYC public and independent schools in 1994. Currently, she works as a private tutor, staff developer, and student teacher supervisor in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Shoshana Wolfe is the author of Your Best Year Yet: Purposeful Planning and Effective Classroom Organization and is developing two other books: Raise your voice! Dynamic Oral Reading Experiences for Grades 3 – 8 and Images that Teach: Graphic Organizers for Middle Schoolers. She holds a MSEd from Goddard College and a BA in Theater from Skidmore College.

Dov Campbell