Working Title: Inquiry Demystified: Resources and Tutorials for an At-Home Learning Environment

Executive Summary: This project is an effort to take resources and tutorials used during in-person lessons and units on inquiry and research in a middle school classroom by the school librarian and transform the resources for students to use and engage with digitally during the current at-home learning environment due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The resources will be curated in an online bulletin board tool called Padlet that teachers can post and share with their students through Google Classroom. The purpose is to continue to provide instruction on information and media literacy to students while allowing them to access the materials asynchronously and move at their own pace. I will initially create one prototype unit accompanied by short, engaging “lectures” on using the resources created with Powtoon. If successful, I will continue to adapt each unit with video tutorials delivered through engaging technology such as Powtoon, JibJab, or screencasts.

Creative Brief: Most students struggle with inquiry, aka research, projects -- why? The ability to conduct research is a multi-stepped, detailed process (where you have to master each step first), identify something they’re interested in learning more about (teachers don’t always include voice and choice), and then nearly always results in a written paper, not a project where students get to create something to showcase what they learned. The goal of this curriculum project is to demystify the inquiry process for students (and some teachers) by breaking down the process into simple and engaging steps. (See full creative brief)

Project Deliverables: The Coronavirus pandemic has forced schools in Massachusetts to close from mid-March through the end of the school year, a full three months of learning. Teachers are delivering online instruction, which includes inquiry projects in which they typically partner with me to co-teach the steps of research including developing a research question, the PDI cycle, website evaluation, academic integrity and plagiarism, note taking, and more. While we are unable to teach those lessons in the classroom, I’ll be delivering them to students as digital lessons that teachers can incorporate into their Google Classroom environment. The goal is not to simply have a list of resources for students to decipher on their own, but to create short, engaging video lessons to explain the resources (like an in-person lecture would do) to make the learning process engaging and personal. These lessons will be useful now during an at-home learning environment, but will continue to be useful once we can return to school as often my schedule is so full I have to juggle co-teaching opportunities. By making the lessons into short and engaging videos where students can see my face and hear my voice, they’ll be more apt to engage in the learning as the remainder of the school year is not graded but marked as a level of evidence of meeting learning targets. In addition, I hope these resources take some of the pressure off teachers who aren’t as comfortable teaching inquiry topics or integrating technology. The ultimate goal is to shift the learning expectations for teachers and students so at the end of the inquiry unit students are producing more than a written product, but also or instead of becoming digital writers and media producers to showcase what they’re learned.

Deliverables: This curriculum project will be available via a digital bulletin board and organized into units accompanied by “lectures” delivered through animated videos using technology tools of Padlet (https://padlet.com/sdowns2/research) and Powtoon (https://youtu.be/eWkJU6x2WFE). I’ll begin with the Inquiry Process unit which includes resources on wondering and discovering. The question from the Personal Digital Inquiry Framework asks: “What experiences and content will students engage with to activate their wonderings and discover more about their inquiry topic?” Resources will help students develop their driving question, then help them search for content by teaching them to use Google search strategies and how to evaluate websites.

Treatment: Check out my Ignite Video Presentation to learn fully what this project is all about, the spirit and tone of it and what I hope it inspires in teachers and students.

Timeline/Schedule: Initially I will create and compile the curated resources and make them available through the digital bulletin board. I will work with fellow middle school Digital Learning Coaches to curate the resources we use when teaching. This will be completed by the end of April 2020. Once the Padlet is complete, I will begin working on developing my initial Powtoon animated lecture for students on the resources available in the Wondering unit. This will be completed by May 10, 2020. As a culminating activity, I will compose an Ignite video screencast presentation (pecha kucha) to be posted online by May 13,2020.

Resources Needed: Resources needed include a computer with working Internet access, access to my work and home Google Drive for resources, online searching for additional resources. I will also tap into my fellow Digital Learning Coaches, Shelley Porter and Barbara Murray for additional resources and feedback. They will contribute roughly two hours or less of work sharing resources with me, most are already available through our Team Drive. I will also need time to learn the digital tool, Powtoon, as I’m not already familiar with it.

Constraints: Deadline pressure is my biggest constraint, but I have been given an extension to complete activities by Wednesday, May 13. I have had a difficult semester completing assignments on time due to juggling working from home due to the Coronavirus pandemic and no childcare because my husband works at an essential business. Having a toddler at home, teaching through at-home learning, and taking a graduate course on top of being nine months pregnant has been a considerable demand. Limitations include wishing I had more time to perfect my skills on Padlet and Powtoon and video editing and recording my pecha kucha. I have not had trouble accessing people or materials as the majority of my resources were already saved to my Google Drive folders.

Suggested Evaluation Rubric:

1. My work substantially relates to the topics, ideas and issues explored in this course and I am able to make connections to course readings, discussions and activities to show direct relevance. The content and format are appropriate for graduate-level work.
2. My work enables me to develop one or more of the core learning outcomes for this course.

The following outcomes seem most relevant to this project:

• Gain knowledge of how changes in society and technology are shaping approaches to writing, media production, multimodal media composition and media literacy in the context of K-12 and higher education, and in informal learning environments, including home, library and community;
• Develop digital media production practices for learning using free and low-cost platforms and tools for purposes of self-expression, communication and advocacy;
• Strengthen research, reading comprehension, critical reading and synthesis skills in learning from texts in a variety of genres and forms;

1. The work has strong content and is coherent, creative and complete. It uses conventions of the genre/form appropriately and is professional and polished. I have tweeted a link to the final paper /project using the #EDC534 hashtag.