Author Archives: mlc400

Learning Philosophy 2.0

At the beginning of this course, I had developing ideas on what I thought learning meant for students. I had completed a course in technology that had already made me question my past learning philosophies and the combination of the two (old and developing) turned into my initial learning philosophy 1.0. When reading over this philosophy, I can see where a part of my thinking was already developing towards a 2.0 educator and other parts were still stuck in the 1.0. Even though I had already talked about some 2.0 ideas, I must admit that I had never practiced them as an educator in my teaching profession.

Although my initial 1.0 philosophy doesn’t truly reflect my past teaching practices, I can say for sure that I have mostly been the ‘sage on the stage’ where my students where learning through the knowledge I was passing to them. I knew that students learned best from one another and that the power of communication was important. Also, I knew that activities needed to be engaging so that the learners were interested and collaboratively working to obtain information. If you were to walk into my classroom, you would have seen students getting information from me, applying it in group situations and activities, and practicing it independently all before completing some kind of assessment whether it was a ticket-out-the-door, worksheet, quiz, etc. All of these made up good teaching and demonstrated good learning in my classroom.

After taking my first technology course, I quickly learned that these learners are 21st century learners and they need more than what is described above. Part of what is encompassed in a 2.0 philosophy was already stated in my 1.0 philosophy but I am now able to explain and promote these ideas better based on what I have learned through the readings, blog discussions, wiki collaborative work, and podcast interview done in this course. First, the picture of what the teacher should look like and be doing is completely opposite of my ‘sage on the stage’ philosophy. In a 21st century classroom, the teacher should take the role of a facilitator or coach of learning. This means that they promote an environment that encourages the learner to take control of their own learning. The educator helps to guide the path of knowledge, helps to bridge gaps, helps to make connections as the learner builds and experiences knowledge through their own first hand communications via web 2.0 tools and personal learning networks.

The second major change to my learning philosophy is the idea of communication. I stated in my 1.0 philosophy the idea that students need to have the opportunity to collaborate with others in order to help build a stronger idea of different concepts they are interested in learning about. 21st century students will build personal learning networks to help them become lifelong learners about the things that interest them. These networks will work together to discover, experiment, research, and discuss important concepts that cross multiple curriculums. Students will use tools like blogs and wikis in order to facilitate a safe environment where they can discuss and derive at their own understandings of certain topics. It is known that these types of activities can facilitate higher level thinking within our students. When students work to piece their own learning together, to tag information, to process and ask questions, they dig deeper into their own thinking then what would be developed in a teacher-led discussion. Students would also have the opportunity to discuss articles read and to work together to discuss and debate the meaning as well as make connections to related pieces or artifacts. Also, students will use the research and tools to create their own works to share with the global classroom. With all of these pieces together, students are building their own learning experiences and are becoming leaners with skills they will use throughout their lives.

Overall, the way you will know that learning is happening will be based off of the conversations you have with students and see throughout these tools. By reflecting on the conversations and posts presented on wikis and blogs, you will be able to see the growth of a student and their learning. Students can maintain portfolios of their work when doing independent research for any topic and they can document contact with people within their personal learning networks. All the evidence you will need for evaluation of learning will be documented through the different mediums students use as they take ownership of knowledge base.

Although the pressures of standards and assessments are always looming over our heads, the ideas presented within my new learning philosophy 2.0 should be the ones driving our passion for teaching and for creating lifelong learners within our classrooms!

-Marie

Marie’s Learning Philosophy 2.0 Video

Week 11-Youth Networks

Facilitating communication between peers using various internet tools is essential for a more powerful learning environment to be bred.  Today, students are constantly engaged with each other throughout the day in various ways and for various reasons. One way to help bridge the social networking (in a personal sense) to peer communication (in the academic sense) is to allow students to have structured opportunities to do so.

I never really thought about how much students (and ourselves) are really consumers of the different technological mediums that are out there. I felt that Brennan made a very good point when stated, “Although young people spend a considerable amount of time online, they are typically engaged as consumers of media and have fewer opportunities to engage as creators of media, particularly as creators of interactive media.” This quote really stood out to me because I cannot say that I have ever been a creator of media. I, along with many of my students, tend to participate solely in these technologies and social networks but we never take time to integrate our own thoughts and peer collaboration to breed something new and exciting. Taking ownership of the activity helps to enhance engagement and will in turn motivate students to seek a higher level of understanding or depth to the item/project they are working on. The example of the two teens working together to create an animation video of one girl’s still images proves that point. When allowed to combine ideas, interact, and encourage each other’s work, students will often strive to hit higher expectations and achieve greater things than if we were to outline a consumer based project to them.

Another point that really stood out to me was the concept of creating a place where collaboration, communication, and feedback can easily be given between online users. One person pointed out that after they create a project on Scratch, they have a hard time soliciting feedback because of the sheer volume of users and projects created daily. After working so hard on a project, it is encouraging to know that others have viewed, critiqued, and at times appreciated the work that you have done. Encouraging our students to provide these things to each other is something I believe is imperative to this learning environment. One way to help facilitate communication in our own classrooms is to utilize some of the social networking tools that are already available. One way to do that is to integrate programs like Facebook (groups) or Edmodo. These sites are specifically designed to enhance interaction between users; and in the Edmodo setting, users are grouped in their classes which allows for a more structured setting. Teaching our students to create and communicate is an important part of how they will become successful lifelong learners today!

-Marie

Badges for Learning?

The concept of badges was new to me in the context of earning badges for learning. The parallel concept of that to the Boy Scouts seemed like a very interesting approach to learning today. The positive factors of using the badge system seems to be an increase in motivation to learn as well as the more specific interest-based learning experience it creates for the learner. However, are these truly the best way to achieve a positive learning environment today?

If employers start to base hiring expectations off of badges instead of degrees, I can see how a competitive job market, that is out there, turns into a bigger one. Would learners still be obtaining badges for the sake of wanting to learn more about that skill or would it be to beat out their rival in the same field that they are researching and looking for a career in? Essentially, you would still be learning the information but the motivational influence and the personal connections to the learning could be hindered in an environment where each person is trying to one-up the other.

Another area that made me question the badge approach to learning is the concept of who creates and awards the badges. The varying levels of badge creation should carry weight. Having any old university hand out a badge versus an accredited university should be taken into consideration. Also, if badges are allowed to be created by employers, would these rank equal to the badges earned from students studying the same content at other institutions?

The motivational factor behind the badges does provide for a great gain in education. Allowing learners to earn badges for what they are interested in and for providing more skill specific learning is a wonderful benefit to this approach; however, I believe it would still be achieved even in there was no badge system. If a learner is truly motivated to learn about something, they will create the environment in which to do so. The learner will create their own learning network of people who can help them achieve their desired goal or who can work alongside of them in obtaining a similar goal. The teacher’s role then turns to facilitator and coach in this case which is what was described by Richardson.

Overall, I believe that a student’s self-motivation ranks a lot higher than personal achievement badges that are rewarded for learning. I know personally that the badge system of learning did not work for me because I am a Girl Scout drop-out!

-Marie

Week 8–Learning Networks II

Together we can achieve so much more. I think that this point is successfully backed by the theories of Dede and others when discussing fluid epistemology. I really liked that it was pointed out how “informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experiences. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning. Learning now occurs in a variety of ways.” This quote demonstrates that teachers are no longer the forefront knowledge holders that expound the knowledge to their students. Instead, students are growing up and learning in a time when personal connections and self-motivated learning is occurring. There are so many experts in various fields that are willing to share their personal testimonies, information, and experiences with those who are interested in the common area. I believe that building these connections will only help to facilitate a stronger learning passion within our students. Students will have the ability to research and learn about many things instead of just a given topic. It is important that through this process, we teach our students how to find reliable sources of information, how to respectfully question the knowledge that is so freely found on the web, etc.

One thing that was particularly unclear to me at the beginning of this course was the use of an RSS feed. After viewing the video, it is clear that if we are to obtain knowledge in a manner that reflects the building of personal learning networks, we need to have a way to organize and help connect information that is relevant to our learning. The RSS feed tool allows us to mainstream our ideas and finds into one central location that will help us to sort, obtain, and connect various pieces of the web to enhance our knowledge base.

Overall, the theme of today’s learning tends to reside on the power of connections. Teaching our students how to build and maintain these for their learning is essential.

-Marie

Group 1-Curator Post for Week 7 “Learning Networks”

This week’s topic of audio and video technologies brought some very interesting views and points to light. Our group drew various elements of importance from the assigned readings and included examples from our own personal lives that solidified these key findings.

First, Courtney stated what each member in our group felt which is “education is changing!” Courtney and I felt similar about the Richardson and Mancabelli article at first. She wrote that she, “…was a little frightened up until the article mentioned that we need to teach our students how to effectively learn online.” Courtney reminds us that teachers and knowledge are not scarce. We need to teach our students how to create their own education using these technologies. By using these technologies, we allow our students to make real world connections as exemplified in the Anthropology classroom. These students will build deeper connections to their learning which will by everlasting. Courtney also shared her own personal example of using podcasts in her classroom for lessons. Students can then access the information at their own pace and can listen to them over and over again until they are comfortable with the information. This is a great example that ties to this week’s lesson.

Cheryl stated that she learns best by watching others. She offers insight that when using audio/video, we help to “bring alive a subject.” When teaching a subject in this manner, it becomes a “powerful tool to expand the base of knowledge and increase rate of knowledge gain.” She also suggests that these tools help to facilitate motivation within the interaction they provide and that this type of motivation will eventually foster a heightened motivation to learn.

Jordan believes that the integration of audio/video provides depth and authenticity to content. He believes that it helps to make knowledge “stick” with the learner due to the increase in interaction. Jordan referenced Richardson and Mancabelli when discussing the idea that, “…it is more about how much information you can access in your personal learning network, rather than how much information you have in your brain at any one time.” He realizes that when students are following interest based learning then they will seek the resources they need to learn. He provided his own example of this when describing his interest and need to learn Spanish in his new location (Miami). He shared about the resources he is now using on the internet to help him communicate and learn Spanish for his everyday life.

In my own personal reflections, I echoed much of what my other group members have stated. I believe that when students are self-initiating their learning through an interest, they will work to seek answers to less commonly asked questions; questions that will inspire deeper thinking, a heightened engagement in learning, and a wider collaborative base when researching a similar topic. The biggest advantage that I see when using audio/video in the learning environment is an increase in the motivation of learners.

Collectively, two members of our group felt that the measure of literacy about “managing, analyzing, and synthesizing multiple streams of simultaneous information” was the most challenging. Jordan discussed the idea of needing to stay focused when learning a certain subject instead of becoming distracted by the social networks or web activities that are so ever-present. Cheryl believes that this is challenging due to the lack of hardware or software for student use. I believed that “building relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally” would be the most challenging because of the importance of teaching our students who you can trust as a reliable source.

Overall, each member provided some great reflections and insights into the topic of audio/video technologies and learning networks.

Submitted by: Marie

Blog 7: Learning Networks

Teachers today need to rethink what teaching looks like within the four walls of their classroom. I believe that the article by Richardson & Mancabelli clearly states that today’s classrooms should be driven by a host of teachers from around the world instead of one sole instructor lecturing to the class. At first, I was a little taken back from the idea that “teachers are no longer needed” which was the impression I got from the start of the article. However, after further reading, I liked that they pointed out the need of teachers to still be facilitators and coaches to their students in the educational journey involving technology.

When creating communities of learners centered on specific topics and trends, the learner becomes more engaged in their learning and tends to produce higher level thinking throughout the process of learning. This is a very important concept to consider when thinking about the benefits of including audio and still/video media into the classroom. Learners in these types of settings become more motivated to learn. Although the focus may be on one primary interest, the cross-curricular learning that is happening simultaneously is an example of how important this “new” style of teaching can occur in classrooms today where standardized testing, scores, and curricular goals and standards are overly stressed.

I feel that these tools allow users to communicate freely and openly in a safe environment with other interested learners and experts in a realm that would normally not occur. The power of communication and collaboration when deriving meaning from a self-initiated interest will help to facilitate a community of learners seeking answers to less commonly asked questions. The engagement of student learning would be at a heightened level. I know from my personal experience in college, I often took my laptop to class only to check facebook or chat on instant messenger with friends. I was disengaged and not interested in the elective courses I was in. I learned and read websites that interested me. Allowing students to use these tools in today’s classroom should not be an option, it should be a requirement.

Out of the six measures of literacy provided by Richardson and Mancabelli, I believe number 2, “Building relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally” would be the most challenging. The importance of teaching our students who you can trust is a large portion of the success of this learning approach. We need to teach our students how to determine reasonable and reliable resources and information. We need to model and monitor appropriate interaction and teach our students how to learn who they can trust and believe when working collaboratively.

-Marie

Week 6: Wikis and Learning

Wiki’s seem like such a neat tool to use when collaborating as a group on a project. I like that wiki’s help students to work together to derive meaning from the research they are doing on a particular subject. From the readings, I believe there are many benefits to using wiki’s in the classroom.

First, wiki’s allow students to feel comfortable contributing to their group project. Wiki’s allow every student to have a “voice” or input when researching and documenting the information the group is collecting. Also, students are able to not only collaborate with members of their group, but they can collaborate and gain insight from other students or professionals who live around the world.

Another benefit of using wiki’s is that the quality of research that is done by students increases. When viewing the websites from before and after on the University of Michigan Chemistry page, it is evident that student learning had occurred because of the extensive information, links, and references that were included into the after-edit pages. Knowing that students will be required to cite, link, and reference their sources brings the research and learning level to a heightened bar. Even if students are unsure of a source or information, they can work as a team to make decisions on what finally goes into their wiki project. One important point is that students need to know when it is appropriate to edit another student’s work. I liked that the first article we read, The Art of Using Wiki pages to Teach, reminded us of the rules of editing. We need to be respectful of other languages and other’s input. However, by working in the collaborative setting, we can make decisions as a team to decide what is valuable.

Finally, I liked that wiki’s allow users to organize information they are collecting. One thing that I noticed from the Wikipedia pages I looked at was that there were tags at the bottom of the pages to link them to other sources. We learned earlier in the course that there is a benefit to having students tag and classify information for organization. Wiki’s would also foster this type of atmosphere as students work to cite sources, share information, and link to other relevant pages.

Although the typing skills and the computer/internet navigational skills of my second grade students may be minimal, I believe that wiki’s still could be used within my second grade classroom to some capacity.

-Marie

Week 5: Blogs and Learning

This topic was particularly interesting to me because of the use of our blog for this class. It was neat to see how some of the suggestions for teacher use of blogs in the classroom are being implemented with this course. Blogging is a fun tool to integrate into the classroom. This is the first time I have had interaction personally on a blog; although recently, I have been reading more educator blogs. Through the use of pinterest, I have been able to read various teacher blogs for ideas that I have liked to try in my classroom. After reading the assigned articles and having personally explored teacher blogs in the past, I believe that these are positive tools to use and integrate into the classroom.

In formal learning environments, blogs can be used to help student derive meaning from lessons. Students have the ability to participate socially with peers as they post about their learning and follow up with comments. When commenting, students have the ability to reflect on the thoughts and inquiries of others in a way that could be much different than their own thinking. If this occurs, students could possibly be driven to research and negotiate their thoughts in relation to peer posts. I like the idea that, as much as possible, the teacher should allow the students to take ownership of the blog. When teachers start to interact and post in a blog, the view can still be seen as teacher-directed learning. When it is left in the hands of the students, still with clear expectations of what should be posted, the students tend to stretch their thinking and reflecting of learning. Blogs in the classroom could be used as discussion boards for topics being presented in class. Students can respond, post questions, or even offer linked ideas or concepts to the content being covered in the classroom.

Outside of the formal classroom, blogs also play an influential role in learning. Just as Balsley pointed out in the article, Ten Good Reasons to Start a Blog, blogs allow us to become inspired. It helps the creator want to learn more, to distribute more information, to expand inquiries of others so that both you and the reader can learn. Sharing ideas and advice for the classroom on blogs has helped me personally grow as an educator. I have been inspired by other teacher ideas that have been posted on blogs in either content-related activities or classroom management strategies. Knowing that someone else in a similar position (elementary/second grade) has tried these ideas, gives me excitement to try them in my own classroom.

As far as application of blogs in the classroom, the first major point that I liked from, Three Teachers Answers’ to Questions on Classroom Microblogging, is the idea that especially in the primary grades, these technology tools are new to students. The first thing they will want to do is to explore what the tool can do. The quote, “It is natural for young students to be slightly distracted by new technologies, but the “newness” wears off quickly. I remember a day when a student introduced the smiley face —  — to a discussion, and the other kids were fascinated! A majority of the students lost focus of our activity and tried to make their own smiley faces. For this age group, many of the text symbols had never before been introduced. So, instead of immediately directing them back to our discussion, I took the opportunity to briefly explain text symbols and discuss appropriate usage, then we were able to get back on topic. For some students, our class time is the only exposure they have to computers, made me envision something similar happening in my own classroom! It is important to remember that sometimes we need to take a sidebar to explain something unrelated to the core content just so that we can regain focus of students for the task at hand. Also, another important thing to remember is that we need to teach our students how to use the tool before letting them use it. With blogging, it is important to teach the idea of proper posts and comments. We need to spend time teaching students how to disagree with other views in a respectful way. Also, we need to remember to reinforce the idea that what they write on public blogs will be seen by many, which will require careful monitoring on our part!

When considering blogging as a tool in my classroom, I need to consider the ability level of my students to access the blog and type posts. Although it is a great idea, sometimes voice led posts may be the most effective way to dispense student knowledge. One idea that has grabbed my attention from one of the blogs I checked out was the idea of integrating blog reading into reading workshop times. I can easily see myself adding a rotation to my reading workshop time, where I already have some students reading fluency passages with me, some at their desks reading self-selected books, some at my carpet reading special themed books, and some at our large posters. At the added rotation, students could be reading other primary leveled blogs and could possibly be making comments on them. Not only would this be great reading practice, it would also become an exciting task for students as they see what other second graders are doing across the country or world. Overall, I believe blogging can allow students and teachers alike to become inspired and excited about new ideas and concepts which would initiate further research and learning in and out of the classroom!

In my podcast, I interviewed Mike Hammel. He is one of our district’s technology integration coaches.

Podcast EDTEC 467

-Marie

Week 4: Application of Web 2.0 Tools

After reviewing all of the Web 2.0 tools discussed in the chapter by Hsu et al., I was convinced that all of the tools described could be associated within each category listed in table 1. It is amazing to see specifically how these tools can help to facilitate higher-level thinking within our students. These tools enable students to metacognitively approach their learning. They need to be able to reason and critically define the importance and accuracy of resources they reference through these Web 2.0 tools. For me, it was interesting to see the category of tagging listed in these Web 2.0 tools. I never really thought of tagging as being something of importance in learning. After reading this chapter, I now realize that tagging allows the learner to define and classify the information/resource they are viewing. For me, tagging comes naturally because I strive off of organization. By tagging websites, I am able to organize the information I found of value in a meaningful way that makes it easier to reference again. In my own experience, I LOVE pinning/tagging items on Pinterest. There are so many ways to classify and sort websites for future use. Since this is a natural thing for me, I never really thought about using that in the classroom with my students. Each tool listed in the table, allows students to derive their own meaning/learning either independently or collaboratively. When students to take ownership of their learning, it becomes more meaningful which in turn allows students to push themselves further. These tools, although more difficult to assess, would be ideal to use in the classroom in order to facilitate these cognitive processes.

These tools all play significant roles in the classroom. Students would become higher level learners as they take ownership of their learning. Students would be able to build their knowledge together when collaborating using wikis or blogs. Although I have not used any personally in my classroom, I can see the value of using blogs or even GoogleDocs, where students could collaborate on a given task. Like I have mentioned before, students at my grade level are not given email accounts with our district. In order for me to utilize these tools, I would need to have them work off one shared account. The value that these tools hold academically, cognitively, socially, and motivationally are definitely worth integrating into lessons. I believe that the tips that were listed for educators in the Horizon Report are important to remember. The one that was forefront for me was the idea that we need to start small and work big. We need to take time to use the tools before we teach the tool to our students. Also, we need to teach our students how to properly use the tool before “cutting them loose” on a given assignment. Although it may be harder to first use and harder for teachers to assess, the value that these tools hold cognitively far outweigh those hardships.

Personally, I know that I am going to try utilizing some of these tools this summer at a camp that I work at. I am a head coordinator for a youth aged group at a camp called Rawlinsville Camp. Although we do not have electronics or internet at camp, I thought that one of the tools mentioned in the Horizon article would be neat to try. I really liked the idea of the Polls Everywhere website. I can see utilizing this mobile tool at camp. We could ask students to respond to a given question (multiple choice or open ended) using a text message. Then, we could gather the results later that day (when we run to our homes to shower and finally have internet access) and we could present them at our evening gathering. This would allow students to contribute to the presentations, activities, etc. at camp in a fun way.

-Marie

Week 3: Learning Philosophy

Wordle: Web 2.0

When reflecting on my education over the years, I noticed that the way that I currently teach is very similar to the manner in which I received my learning. Most of my life, I was taught the core curriculum’s through teacher directed discussions and lectures. Occasionally we would have projects to complete, some even involving technology (mostly PowerPoint); but even within the description of the projects, our hands and creativity were bound to certain expectations. Due to this traditional learning style, I find myself striving to do my best in lecture driven classes. I prefer to have all criterion spelled out clearly so that I know the expectations for how I can get the best possible score. If I obtained that highest score, I know that I am learning what the teacher intended for me to know! After reading these articles, I could relate to them in this manner. I find myself being very competitive with peers and co-workers on a daily basis, hoping that I am the “top dog” who will gain recognition and/or approval. I seek perfection and am very afraid of risk-taking. It was not until I took a course last year at a local college that really examined how the brain works, how people learn, the impact of design, and the power of play; that I started thinking about how I could make changes in my classroom in order to allow all of my students to achieve higher-level thinking when solving inter-curriculum woven projects.

My philosophy of learning simply lies in the sole point that EVERYONE can learn. Wrapping my head around this concept is easy; executing it the way that it should happen is difficult. In a typical day, I find myself pacing my teaching on the curriculum timelines. I teach mostly lecture style lessons due to the time constraints we have on getting all subjects covered. I try to tie in student interests and allow them to make choices in their learning, but ultimately there is a lack of time due to expectations of performance on standardized assessments. My heart breaks every time a student asks a question related to a subject but is “outside” the guidelines of their expected knowledge and we have to hold off on researching or digging deeper on their inquiry because of the push to get everything done. At our monthly data meetings, we examine every student’s progress on standard assessments. If students are in the “green” we know that they are learning and mastering skills set for their specific grade level. To us, that signifies that learning has occurred and that our teaching has been effective. I particularly liked the quote from The Classroom or the World Wide Web? Imagining the Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age that stated, “On the K–12 level (primary and secondary public schools), governmentally mandated programs, including those such as “No Child Left Behind,” tend overwhelmingly to reinforce a form of one-size-fits-all education, based on standardized testing. Call this cloned learning, cloning knowledge, and clones as the desired product. Such learning models—or “cloning cultures”—are often stultifying and counter-productive, leaving many children bored, frustrated, and unmotivated to learn.” This quote directly impacts my thinking on what I have been trained to look for as far as student learning in my classroom. We often wonder why students today are constantly being tested for learning support and other issues or are being unnecessarily medicated, when majority of the time the core “issues” with these children in our classrooms stem from lack of interest in learning. To me, learning would happen best in a student-driven classroom setting where each individual child has the ability to take risks, experiment, play, discover, be innovative, collaborate, etc.

As we move forward, Web 2.0 tools and participatory-style teaching should become more of the norm. The classroom would look more like a chaotic office space. Students would each be working on an interest based project that stems across many curriculum’s and extends far beyond the expectations originally outlined by standardized tests. Students would be willing to discover and play. They would take risks, ask questions, and discover many outcomes or non-outcomes to their inquiry. Teachers would be facilitators that work with students to guide their research, their project building, to facilitate an experience that probes students to think deeper into what they are working on. In this instance, teachers would also become learners aside of their students. They would model what it means to be open thinkers who are free of feeling judged by their peers, educators, or selves. Students who had the ability to learn and express their knowledge in a way that is reflective of their unique interest and learning style, would be self-motivated to dig deeper for understanding in what they were researching or experimenting on.

Looking into the future, by the year 2025, I would like to see myself teaching in a classroom that is free of standardized teaching and assessing; one that is led by student-driven inquiry and the idea that collaboration across the Web is necessary and okay when learning about many core curriculum’s  I would take a role as a coach/facilitator in my students learning. I would encourage them to dig deeper, build connections, explore via the internet and other Web 2.0 tools. These tools would become essential in facilitating learning, not just an added bonus or tag-on to a lesson as it seems to be now! In this style classroom, students would be willing to take risks and to be open thinkers. I watched two videos last year from the TED Foundation that discussed the importance of play today. Both examined the idea that adults today are not associated with play. We are afraid of being judged. We don’t take risks. Both of which hinder our ability to design, create, and experiment with anything in life. If we can get past the insecurities of making mistakes, we can become better facilitators of learning in a project-based, student-led classroom environment.