Attributes of a Learner Supporting Inquiry

A Learner: Since ETEC 510 was my fifth course, I was starting to feel very comfortable working with my MET cohorts completing group projects. This course was about designing technology supported student learning environments and our group created a website that promoted inquiry learning. I had a general idea what learning by inquiry was all about, but I learned that much structure is needed to see the full benefits and cultivation student learning using this type of learning environment. We designed this website geared towards intermediate elementary school students. As part of the project, our group had to research what kind of learner this age group was. A website designed for intermediate students will be different than one created for university students. In saying that, we believe our site could be used with older learners. As well, to ensure that scaffolding was occurring, we created a teacher page with instructions on how to use each of the different pages of the site. A lot of work went into this site and the organization around it and I believe that this amount of organization is needed when creating my own websites. Google Docs was the preferred collaboration site by many of my cohorts and this group was no exception. We corresponded synchronously using Skype and asynchronously using Google Docs. I was introduced to a new presentation platform, Weebly, which I thereafter used for my presentation platform for subsequent projects. I found that it was so much more user friendly than WordPress or Wikispaces. My technology and media skills were becoming more honed and I felt comfortable creating websites at this point in time. In saying that, I did need to learn how to use Weebly as this was the first time I used this platform to create a website, but since I had background knowledge creating sites on WordPress and Wikispaces, I was able to pick up the skills needed to create and navigate on this site. I had a good work ethic and was accountable to the group. I attended all online meetings (using the Google Docs chat function and Skype), met all group and partner deadlines, edited my own sections, as well as the others, and participated in responding or answering cohorts questions when they viewed our Supporting Inquiry site and posted questions or comments. A Thinker: This project, as with the ETEC 512 Group Constructivism Project, really promoted the use of social learning, collaboration, and cooperative learning. As an educator, I was intrigued by the idea of organized self and peer reflections, as this was one of the first courses I had taken that requested a self, peer, and group reflection. I had participated in self-reflections and group summaries, but this time our final paper was to include all three types of reflection. I would later use self and group reflections, as well as evaluations, in group projects that my students were participating in. Most times, peer and selfevaluations are quite similar. I am interested in the thought processes and reflection when they are not. In addition, I am also trying to increase my students metacognition. Inquiry-learning allows students to choose their own topic or questions to explore instead of being given prescribed information by their teacher. The students interact with the curriculum and actively take part in their own learning. Relevancy and interest in the material is the best stimulus for learning. Teachers can help scaffold student learning within their zone of proximal development to help students achieve deeper understanding of the material. Inquiry-based learning incorporates questions, exploring,

and reflecting into meaningful learning experiences based on student-centered and student-directed learning. In the classroom, teachers promote questioning, researching, discussion, creating, and reflection to enhance student learning through inquiry-based methods. For this project, we did have a group member that wasnt always on the same page as the other group members and it was hard to come to an agreement or an understanding of what needed to be done. In the end, I believe that through continual communication, patience, and respect for others opinions, we were able to find common ground. This is a good reminder that people may have different opinions, but one must always approach the situation in a positive and polite manner. A Collaborator: While working on this project, I gained a deeper understanding for the concept of inquiry learning through researching and communicating with my group members, as well as going through each of the website's pages to gain a deeper knowledge. I appreciated everyone's input and point of view. There is always a different perspective on terminology, how to create a site, or the direction of the site, but through communicating, providing feedback, and constructive criticism, our group worked well together. A Contributor: I contributed to the Supporting Inquiry website in several ways. Firstly, I helped build and finish our proposal for our Support Inquiry website by researching information on Key Concepts and Contexts and by helping edit the rest of the paper. Secondly, I researched and created my own webpages on presentation platforms. I was open to suggestions or edits to my page. Thirdly, I contributed to the group by communicating my thoughts to the other group members, as well as providing feedback and editing others work. Finally, I contributed to a global community by responding to people's posts in the discussion forum Supporting Inquiry Thread. I helped build upon and expand on an idea that had already been created. An Innovator: One of my strengths creating websites is making pages have a polished look and that are easy-tonavigate. For this project, I came up with the idea to have button links mid-page on the Present page to lead the readers to different presentation platforms. My reason to do this was not to overload my page with too much information and to still keep a polished look to the page.