"Authentic" Learning

Byline -- A tool for learning science through online journalism

alternative routes to learning science literacy: better understanding of how
to design and use learning technologies

Theoretical framework: pedagogical praxis (Shaffer)

• Dewey (knowing through doing), and Schon (reflecting while doing)


• Lave and Wenger (Communities of Practice)


• Shaffer and Resnick (thick authenticity -- 4 dimensions of authenticity




• references to real world problems


• is it authentic to the individual


• Is it authentic to the community


• Is there a sense of it that holds authenticity in itself (?)




• Knowledge and skills, Identity, Ways of knowing that are authentic


• (Who's Fred Newman -- social studies guy from UW-Madison who uses these
  4 things)


• Note: Perhaps the most-quoted research supporting the efficacy of "authentic
  pedagogy" is that of Fred Newman and G.G. Wehlage, and of Newman, H.M.
  Marks, and A. Gammoran, Successful School Restructuring, and Authentic pedagogy
  and student performance, respectively. These studies contrasted "conventional
  curriculum," defined as reproducing prior knowledge and tasks that simply
  show the teacher that the student has mastered certain requirements, with "authentic
  pedagogy," defined as constructing knowledge and producing discourse,
  products, and performances that have meaning beyond school. The studies concluded
  that students enjoyed dramatically increased performance when taught "authentically" rather
  than "conventionally."
  

  For a summary, see Authentic
  Pedagogy Boosts Student Achievement. For
  more information, see the listings attributed to Fred Newmann at Educational
  Policy Studies.

  
  
• epistemic frames (Shaffer)





• CoPs have ways of seeing the world (similar to Gee's Discourses)

Method: Wisconsin Science Journal

• 14 students, 2 workshops, small Midwestern city


• pre and post interviews, concept mapping, authentic assessments

Demo:

• the tool (journal) is a background feature, so the kids don't really notice
  it


• tool allows creation of online journal that looks like a print newspaper


• bylines, headlines, jumplines (hypertext)


• use authentic tags like "topic" and "Story" and "sidebar" etc.
  from journalism, so the kids use the same sorts of things that journalists
  use.


• all web-based


• (how was it written? created?) (XML, JavaScript, PERL)


• tried science journal, neighborhood journal, and civic journal versions

results: pre-workshop vs. post-workshop

• quantitatively positive (but David says he's not a quant wonk -- there's
  qual coming))


• concept maps developed in complexity and numbers of relations


• average kids  created 30 versions of a story --. lowest was 10, most
  was 97.


• identity: thought of themselves as journalists,


• authentic product: actual product published online


• values: informing the public


• transfer: increase in science contexts (how much does it transfer to essay
  writing in English class?)

issues/questions:

• How relevant is the "Newspaper" as an authentic model?  (In
  an age where Would an online journal work better? Podcasting? Blogging?


• How does this privilege Science writing over other forms of writing, like
  poetry?


• who are the kids? how do they do in school? SEC?


• how many of the kids go on to create a blog? How does this experience affect
  their blogging/writing style? (more on the journalistic side of the continuum)


• students come to this with ways of seeing the world, this offers them another.
  Very cool, with opportunities to expand to other forms of writing -- eventually,
  in another project, at another time.


• Other format options: links to video stories, podcasts, poetry, arts section,
  finance section, classifieds (basically, a "bigger than school" paper).


• This is a way to learn science and internalize/customize -- make it your
  own Authentic learning.


• The point about having access to the stories, and an online/public version
  of it -- as well as the need then to have something semi-polished for public
  consumption, is a big factor for me in my own blog habits.

My thoughts: This is a cool project in my opinion. Because it focuses on the design of the content more than the actual content, the content is snuck in the backdoor. Learning without even recognizing it. Cool.