Evidence Based Posting: Choosing Learning Activities

Evidence-Based Posting #3

Chapter 5 Cunningham and Billingsley

Once I started reading this book with a focus on the webquest I'm
developing, I started finding it quite helpful. Previously, I didn't
think it was much more than a lot of pedagogical jargon. When I read this
chapter, I found myself thinking of ways I might make slight changes here
and there in my webquest. For example, when I read about differentiating
the curriculum, I thought that maybe I'll have an easier website and a
more detailed website for each section. Then students can choose which
ever site best meets their needs. (Problem is, they will probably all
choose the easier ones.) Reading this chapter helped me think about
different ways I might incorporate group work into the activities.

I did find this statement on page 95 to be rather fascinating. ". . . they
(student demands as the basis for curriculum ) seem more appropriate in
preschool and graduate school situations." I've never heard preschool
and graduate school put in one category with the implication that k-12
belong in different category. At one level it seems a rather absurd way
of dividing our educational system. As different as preschool and
graduate school may be, I do see how the authors could make this
statement. Although in terms of a curriculum based on student demands, I
do think the preschoolers are far ahead of the graduate students.
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost the ability or perhaps only
the opportunity to drive our own curriculum. Or at least the paid-for and
credit-based curriculum.

Chapter 5 "Choosing Learning Activities"
Curriculum Webs: Weaving the Web into Teaching and Learning
By Craig Cunningham and Marty Billingsley
Second Edition