Comments on specific points will follow after my outlining of course revisions needed.
Unit: Databases development (MS Access). I currently use a text book from Lawrenceville press and many on-line resources that are shared only on our intranet. Research and information is thus pre-screened for content and consequently somewhat stifling for those wishing to challenge themselves. By going to an on-line research task based model............... (* these students have been very few in my many years of teaching at the secondary level as databases are a sober, business-oriented topic, mandated by Manitoba Education Culture and Youth to meet the needs of businesses have little 'buy in' by students.)
Never the less, we must provide as many best practices and learning objects as possible in order to accommodate the various learning styles.This then I believe, would preclude parental or student disengagement for any classic or newly invented reasons and would lead to true personal learning environments for all.
Assessing Prior Knowledge
Information Needs are seldom realized at the high school level as concentration levels can only be maintained for short periods of time. Most information gathering I have seen from individuals in grades 11 and 12 is fact-based, knowledge level.
The limit of student prior knowledge in the area of databases seems to consist of some online searching and some use of mathematical operators and logic. It is therefore contingent on me as course designer, to not only create and sustain interest but to make the task-based work relevant and provide both intrinsic and external rewards.
Course Design and Assessment
My Applied ICT classes is 65 minutes daily, which would be divided into 2 X 15 minute instructional or theory blocks with the remaining 35 minutes devoted to team database work. The first two time periods can be any combination of: online research; teacher-lead investigations; questioning by team peers or other team's members with regard to database comparisons; text book or other readings as assigned by the teacher or other team members. This patterned process would be repeated each day to provide continuity and consistency of expectations in order to 'make the process more efficient (in terms of less effort spent)
Teams would be limited to 3 persons and would change members every month so as to take students out of their comfort zone and provide differing peer evaluation/collaboration groupings to mimic real-world experiences.
On-going online critiques of each other’s databases (tables, queries, etc.) would provide not only peer review and valuable timely feedback to other team members but also the critical thought required to justify a team's choices for the design of their database schema, field naming, data type selections, naming conventions and other database best practices. This should help contextualize the database for both individuals and the respective teams and create a competitive yet collaborative learning environment.
The reading and interpretation of in-class and directed online resources to complete increasingly more complex database development tasks should help embed the Information Literacy required so that it becomes seamless by semester end.
Emphasis would be put on using intuition and imagination in creating database design and populating these databases in order to bring forth student use of generic valuable information that may have context cross-curricular connections and result in unique ideas
The on-going, iterative and progressively more complex process of database development tasks would be assessed for not only content but also for the process by which the information has be collected and applied to the development of each team’s database. This would be primarily by peer review with minimal instructor intervention so as to encourage group autonomy,independence and self-confidence
To tap into student’s prior knowledge and make it the learning of new concepts relevant, the unit would start using either a simplistic Hockey database or Music collection database model for analysis. For Canadian students this should provide enough familiarity at a knowledge level to be a jumping off point in the creation of entities and attributes for the current task help them use these concept in the application of similar tasks later in more complex, team generated databases. There are already many practical Dbs in existence which can be demonstrated and or explored online or offline ( freedb songs db and numerous hockey databases for example). Offline content can be provided for home computer use by distribution on CD/DVD of pen drive should the students require more time to analyze or review concepts
The team task-oriented approach would also allow for a community of practice to evolve where fact-based students could interact with students who expect more reflective aspects in their study; the latter challenging the former to rise to this more affective domain of learning both by modeling and applying team pressure to accomplish a superior database in relation to other teams.(as per Pierot and Hiort af Ornas).
To encourage ingenuity and inventiveness and more critical thought, the guidelines of each task can be extended or even ignored if the students can justify their choices and can argue their reasoning for the changes or abandonment.
Built into my new redesign of this course would my own kind of Project Sails checklist to ensure that information literacy is being acquired and and is helping with the decoding, critical awareness and appropriate usage of the information gathered for use in the database development tasks
Because the students are the designers of the databases, they would be expected not only to learn but also to teach principles of good DB design to others in their various groups thus showing deeper understanding beyond the often fact-based knowledge that is usually associated with technical computer-oriented courses.
Initial successes with simplified database design and principles would scaffold to more and more complex tasks in creation of:
1. simple to progressively more complex tables and relationships between same
2. simple to progressively more complex queries
3. simple and more complex reports from multiple sources
4. migration of all this data to a distributed on-line delivery maintenance system
The implementation of the course would be along the lines of Dr. Merrill's 5 First Principles of Instruction and Task centered Instructional Strategy
I think I would develop the course using the Guided Inquiry methods as well.Student work would constantly monitored and assessed by the facilitator and peers in a feedback mechanism that would insure greater thought and complexity in database design and queries than the preceding tasks. The 'instructivist' manner of the course would lead the students finally to a culminating task for the creation of an 'On-line Course Database', bringing to bear all the preceding knowledge and skills to create and populate said database and create complex forms, queries, and reports would against the collected data.
The Williams and Murphy papers stated that students tend to require immediate and then sustained periodic reward to remain engaged in the learning of more and more complex and higher order concepts. As the class evolves into a blended environment I can foresee using both the free Moodle and WizIQ application to provide feedback every other day on the individual team progress ( via the email ) or weekly via an on-line Q+A sessions (WizIQ). Also a Wiki would be set up as a repository for previous years question and answer (FAQ for often asked questions) and an are to highlight both creativity and also failures ( as we learn from both our own and others ) with anonymity insured by the instructor.
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