EDUC 6625 Habits of Mind: Thinking Skills To Promote Self-Directed Learning
Written by Mike Ames   
Sunday, 13 January 2008

The unit of study for this example was Unit two which is the History of Technology. For this assignment student were required to create a time line of a specific technology. Student were given a choice of creating their time line with Powerpoint, Smart Draw, or by hand on poster board. Giving students choice worked very well since quality work was evident in all three mediums. Below as some examples of student work in this lesson.

One area that needs improvement is student skills and ability to use the computer as an effective tool. Many student do not have the skill they need in high school to do quality work. This lesson was delivered in the beginning of the year. Perhaps if student had more skill they would be able to produce higher quality work without relying on the teacher for all of their level one questions. Student would become self directed learners if they had a little more skill understanding basic office software such as Powerpoint. One example of this lack of skill is in the example below.

In future lessons I will make it clear that student are to learn by doing. I will discuss and instruct students how to go about solving problems and answering question on their own. Resources like Google and the help files provided with the software make it possible for student to find and learn from their own questions. The main hurdle is motivation. Students tend to wan the questions answered now and would rather not look for the the answer on their own. By teaching student how to find answers to their questions on their own they naturally become self directed learners.


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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 January 2008 )