The Third Active Learning Blog Carnival

Inspiring And Defying

Welcome to the third edition of the Active Learning Blog Carnival. Last month readership topped 605.

The cartoon is provided by Nearing Zero, a great resource for Science Cartoons http://www.nearingzero.net/

This Month’s Big Question - Student Motivation
What motivates students to participate actively in learning? Is it fun, marks, interactions with others or more altruistic goals? Does standardized education put more emphasis on marks and less on thinking? Are students more extrinsically motivated because of increased competition for jobs and scholarships? Are defiant students lacking motivation?

WritopiaLab submitted several posts about this important topic:

• Was it worth it? – thoughts on an 8th grader’s submission to an award program http://writopialab.blogspot.com/2007/11/was-it-worth-it.html. This article was particularly meaningful to me because my daughter started writing plays in 7th grade. She was devastated in Grade 9 when a creative writing teacher (who had never written a play or studied creative writing) gave her a very poor mark on a piece she had written. I subsequently took the play to a professional playwright who loved it and thought the work showed incredible talent. Which brings up another question – How do you validly assess a genre that you aren’t familiar with?
• Yah motivation by an 8th grader talking about what motivates her http://writopialab.blogspot.com/2007/12/yay-motivation.html
• Poetry Slam discusses competition’s effect on motivation http://writopialab.blogspot.com/2007/12/poetry-slam-now-thats-competition.html

The University of Honolulu provides an excerpt from Tools for Teaching http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motiv.htm

The Teaching Effectiveness Program, University of Oregon has a very thorough resource on this topic. http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/faqs/motivatingstudents/motivating.html

The University of Berkley provides some techniques for inspiring university students to do their best work. http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/sectionlists/sect20.html

K-12
Three students at the University of Maine submitted Activity One for: Cooperation in the Classroom that combines learning visual organizers and VoiceThread. http://umoedt555.blogspot.com/2007/12/activities-for-cooperation-in-classroom_14.html

Rebecca Wallace-Segall writes about teaching students to write memoirs http://writopialab.blogspot.com/2007/12/back-in-public-school.html

General
The E-Learning Curve writes about The Principles of Constructivism http://elearningcurve.blogspot.com/2007/12/constructivism-pt3-principles-of.html .

If You Build It ... Wait They are Already Here discusses the results of a social networking and education study http://mrmaher.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/if-you-build-itwaittheyre-already-here/ .

Creating Livelong Learners learned some lessons from Jim Cramer about energizing the classroom http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/?p=201 .

Meming of Life talks about Thinking by Example – a parents guide that is also meaningful for teachers http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/?p=181

Total Wellbeing writes an article about The Power of Music http://totalwellbeing.blogspot.com/2008/01/power-of-music-link-between-musical.html

Tools
Homeschooling Journey lists Online Spelling Resources http://homeschoolingjourney.com/online-spelling-games/

Larry Ferlazzo lists The Best Web2.0 Applications for Education http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2007/12/21/the-best-web-20-applications-for-education-2007/#comment-630

Langwitches lists the Best Web2.0 Applications for Elementary School http://www.langwitches.org/blog/2007/12/22/best-web-20-applications-for-elementary-school/


Website of the Month
The Institute for Learning Centered Education http://www.learnercentereded.org/
The Institute offers support and resources to persons engaged in developing learner-centered schools through innovative educational strategies founded on constructivist approaches. The Institute's activities will model inclusion of and respect for the diversity of people in the society at large.

Thank you to everyone who submitted this month. Submit your blog article to the next edition of active learning blog carnival using our carnival submission form before February 3rd. Next month's edition will be dedicated to assessment methods in active environments.