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October 24, 2005
RWLO'ing at the CIT conference
The RWLO team presented to a crowded room today at the CIT conference. It was a great way to start out the morning.
The presentation aimed to answer the questions:
• What are RWLOs?
• How are they being used in community colleges?
• Who are developing RWLOs?
• How can you learn to develop and use RWLO in your courses?
The project is funded by a Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to use Technology grant
The goal of the project is to prepare pre-service teachers to make effective use of innovative internet-based tools and curriculum resources in the classroom.
Objectives of the session:
• What are RWLOs?
• How are they being used in community colleges?
• Who are developing RWLOs?
• How can you learn to develop and use RWLO in your courses?
It was discussed that RWLOs are concise core instructional activities focused on discrete topics that engage student through the use of the internet that provide compelling real world learning experiences. And they are reusable in similar courses at other institutions.
Take raw data that is “today and now” and putting together a discrete lesson on it.
For links to the sites discussed in this presentation, visit:
http://www.ciese.org/presentations/CIT2005
Demonstrated the RWLO on Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics
It was great to watch the demo, all of the participants were engaged, laughing, and plotting the latitudes and longitudes of the earthquakes in this RWLO. Participants got a feel for what they would have their students do if they used a RWLO in their classes. There was discussion going on among the participants, and as an observer, I could tell that they were thinking of ways that they could use this RWLO.
The presenters showed a continuum of traditional: innovative: unique and compelling (historical data, student web pages, e-pal/telecollaboration, real-time data) internet-based applications and explained that this project is focused on the unique and compelling part of the continuum. Internet resources cannot be done without the Internet technology and provide students with real-world learning experiences.
Demonstrated the Logarithm and Car Payments RWLO
When used, students will look up interest rates, build their own car and the preferences for financing. The students will then use a car loan worksheet that has them look at what they can afford and use formulas that use logarithms so that they can determine how many months it will take them to pay off their car given their budget. It is great that students can get an idea of how to use the formulas and think about a major purchase. In the session, the group seemed to really like the concept of the RWLO, they appeared to be excited and were talking among themselves, made suggestion and asked questions.
Demonstrated RWLO: Understanding the Writing Process through Walt Whitman’s NotebooksIllustrates the writing process of the poem “Quicksand Years.” Participants read the final version and then had an opportunity to use the Internet to see his hand-written notes. Students going through this lesson will get attempt to identify how the passages evolved. It gave participants in the session the opportunity to see a RWLO that uses a primary source in the Internet.
After demonstrating some examples of RWLOs, they shared the partners with the participants as those who are creating RWLOs. They also explained that there is a RWLO library and all are able to access the RWLOs, a training session for development of RWLOs called the Savvy Cyber Professor. The project is a 3-year project that will involve 33 community colleges.
Posted by lyoung at October 24, 2005 01:37 PM in category
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