Inquiry Learning: An Innovative Style of Learning

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Today’s educational environment is leaning away from learning facts or particular skills and heading more towards learning to think. The world is simply changing to quickly to keep up with all the facts, plus what is really needed in our world is innovation and creativity.

A new method of learning is being created and developed to help our newest students better develop creativity, innovation and adaptation. This new method is called ‘inquiry learning.” This new style of learning is an integrated approach that includes several basic learning skills: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. Students are encouraged to think about the choices they have made through the process and the way they feel as they learn. In this new style of learning these observations are just as important as the content they learn or the projects they complete.

“We want students thinking about their thinking,” said Leslie Maniotes a teacher effectiveness coach in the Denver Public Schools and one of the authors of Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. “We want them reflecting on the process and the content.”

These are five tools used to guide students to this new approach to learning:

  • Create an ‘Inquiry Community’: The classroom is the inquiry community. Each student seems himself as a member of this community, exploring a topic related to the same class subject. Students help each other clarify ideas. “All of this is set within the social context of an inquiry community,” said Maniotes. “We value that community and we’re using all these other tools to inform the level of conversation we might have within that community.”
  • Keep an Inquiry Journal: One of the most important and powerful tools in the inquiry learning process. The journal is where students reflect on the process and the content they discover as they go journey through learning. Students should be encouraged to write down their feeling during the learning process and which ways they feel they learn the best
  • Set up an Inquiry Circle, which is a small group in which students can talk to each other about a more specific topic related to the more general subject matter. Inquiry circles are where students can feel free to talk about any “crazy” ideas they might have about a subject. Students feel less inhibited when teachers are not around.
  • An Inquiry Log will help students to keep tabs on their learning journey. Every choice, change in direction or exciting moment can be jotted down in the log. “When they are able to see where they came from and where they got to it is very powerful for them,” said Maniotes.
  • An Inquiry Chart is wonderful device which can help students to discover a central question or problem.

The effect of using these tools is to give students the experience of true in-depth creative thinking. So pull up a few folding chairs, set them up at the computer table, and get to work!

 

 

 

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Educational High-Tech Toys

Even in schools where the classroom furniture is modern and cool, it can’t compare with some of the coolest gadgets available which make learning fun.

LeapPad from LeapFrog

LeapPad from LeapFrog

HEXBUG Nano Collection

OK, this toy is way cool! If your child (and whose child doesn’t) love insects, these tiny robotic creatures were created to behave just like bugs. They crawl; they flip; they swarm; and they even look like a colorful version of your most robotic looking insect around. Kids can build habitats for their Hexbugs and track them on-line. Think of it as a terrarium experiment in your house, just missing the real bugs.

Boogie Board

Remember Etch-a-Sketch? Well this little baby is the 21st century version. It is paperless (of course) LCD writing tablet, complete with its very own stylus, allowing you to write whatever you want, and then erase it by just the press of a button. (No shaking necessary!) Use the Boogie Board to practice handwriting, spelling, numbers, letters, drawing, doodling, games; anything paper can do, this can do better! Think of how many trees this device can save.

LeapPad

From the trusted company LeapFrog, the LeapPad is a tablet just for kids age from 4-9. It is similar to an iPad for younger users, and much less expensive. Kids can play games right for them on this device, plus they can draw, do math, read, take photos and just about anything else a grown-up tablet can do.

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Writing Skills and High-Tech Aids

Creativity can flow with speech recognition software

Creativity can flow with speech recognition software

One of the main objects of education is to teach writing skills. No matter how modern the school furniture, or how comfortable the classroom chairs, it is not important compared to the learning going on in the school. One of the most important things taught in school is writing skills.

It is useful to point out the writing actually depends on combining several skills together, which for many children can be fraught with difficulties. Some of the skills necessary are the ability to organize thoughts, finding the correct words, and then putting those words into understandable sentences.

In our current society, with the development of high-tech solutions, there are tools to help children to develop the skills they need to become competent writers. The following is a list of such useful tools.

•    Portable word processor
•    Tablet PC
•    Speech recognition software
•    Word prediction software
•    Electronic spell-checker and dictionaries

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Gadgets Galore for Kids Who Need Extra Help

Every classroom is full of children learning at different levels. Every student who sits in school chairs listening to their teacher absorbs

Audiobooks can be a great way to learn

Audiobooks can be a great way to learn

information in a different way and at a different place. Luckily for the kids who need a little extra help there are many devices to make learning easier.

One of the most important skills, if not the most important, is reading. Fluency in reading is the most crucial element for students to absorb the growing amount of information teachers impart to them. If reading is a difficulty for students they can fall behind and have a difficult time catching up. Luckily there are tools available to assist children to improve their reading ability.

Audiobooks are a great way to garner information, and a great place to find them is through Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic, which has a library of over 100,000 recorded textbooks at every grade level. The books are read out loud by experts in each subject so charts, graphs, and illustrations are well described.

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Helping Children with ADHD

A PDA could be just the thing your ADD child needs

A PDA could be just the thing your ADD child needs

There are many gadgets and tools to help children with Attention Deficit Disorder to do better in school. These tools can help children when they are sitting at their school desks trying to get their homework done or when they are studying for tests.
Don’t become overwhelmed by the large number of products available to help children compensate for their learning struggle.

First concentrate on just two or three of your child’s most critical problems in school. Look for easy-to-use products that deal with these particular needs. Try and purchase these tech-tools long before school begins so that our child will have time to understand how the tool works and how it will help him. If he/she seems to not be getting the knack of it then think about getting a tutor who can help with the gadget.

Help your child stay organized and get places on time with a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). This hand-held mini-computer can help children from about 12 years old and up stay organized. PDAs include planners for keeping track of assignments and activities, a to-do list, a note pad, and alarms to help your child get there on time. A visual timer is a great way to help kids with ADD keep track of time with external cues. For $25 you can get the “Time Timer” which uses a diminishing red disc to graphically display the passing of time.

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Introducing Some Great Ideas to Make School More Fun

Explore these great ideas to make students better students and their parents happier.

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Amazing Gadgets For Students

We have arrived at an age when classroom furniture, a teacher and a blackboard are just not enough anymore. Now there is a device for everything, from laptops to phones to electronic textbooks. Take a look at the following items and see if there is something that will enhance your school performance, or that of someone you love.

Livescribe Wi-Fi Smartpen

Livescribe Wi-Fi Smartpen

Livescribe Wi-Fi Smartpen

This tool is amazing. No need for paper, notebooks, erasers, or a bag to carry it all in. Just write or draw in the usual way- you know, taking notes at a lecture, and this pen not only records the lecturer’s words, but remembers what you wrote. Go back later and tap a word, symbol or even just a doodle and the pen will play back the lecture. The pen also synchs digital copies to an Evernote account through Wi-Fi. Now the lecture and your notes are on your computer for you to look at and listen to at your convenience. Be careful not to lose this fantastic gadget.

iPad Mini

This device offers a fantastic way to access digital textbooks, and iTunes U, which gives the student free and easy access to college courses, either as podcasts, videos, lecture notes or other media.

Old Fashioned Alternatives to Hi-Tech gadgets

Tired of all the hype about electronic devices? Try some old fashioned educational fun, such as:
Biking, walking, kissing, holding hands, chit chatting, cooking, swimming, doodling, thinking, hugging, dancing and laughing.

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