The workshops were over, attendees were filtering out, and the conference staff was busily dashing around getting ready for the first general day of the NCAECT conference. I’d just met Will Richardson in the hall when a group of educators floated up. Their eyes were spinning. Their complexion was a bit pale, while the willowy vapors of overheated brains rose from the tops of their heads. I was correct in my original suspicion that they were suffering from six-hours of Web 2.0. They had just stumbled out of Will’s workshop
…and they hadn’t had enough.
|
| Interestingly, a search of Flickr creative commons pictures for Senior Project brought up 169 photos. |
The conversation came around to North Carolina’s move to require all high school students to submit and defend a senior project for graduation, and that it begins with this year’s freshmen. You can read about it in a January 10 article from our capital paper, the News & Observer — an articled called Senior project goes statewide by Marti Maguire.
Throughout our conversation, we tried to repaint this concept with the spirit of the new web. What finally came out was that perhaps the project should not be called a Senior Project, implying that it is something that you do your final year, and instead be called the High School Project — and that students be urged to begin their work on the first day of their freshman year.
In addition, their work should be public, that their progress and evolving products should be something that is available to the public via a blog, wiki, or some other social information construct — and that the project would become a conversation between the learner, teachers, and the community. I would suspect that the typical student would likely change the topic of their project during their four years, perhaps several times. But that would be OK. It’s part of being a life-long learner.
The affect, I think, would be the development of true learning literacies, an appreciation of, and membership in their adult community, and graduation with not only grades, test scores, and a project — but they would also be graduating with an expertise. It would be one of many to come.
Image Citation:
Lacy, Adrianne. “Brendan’s senior project.” Adrianne Lacy’s Photostream. May 1, 2006. 13 Mar 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/adriannelacy/138733300/>.
David,
This is a groundbreaking idea! You mentioned that the project is an opportunity to build a conversation between teachers, students, and the community. I would also add that the students should be given the freedom to connect with anyone who can help them work on the project. Thus, the notion of community becomes truly global. Who says that they can’t work with a historian from Barcelona or an artist from the Czech Republic to complete the project. Inspiring stuff!
I really like the idea of the high school project. On a tangent to your note that the students’ topic of study will likely change (maybe more than once) over their four years of high school…. I wonder out loud what sorts of web-based tools they’ll be using as they approach graduation in the spring of 2012 (when most of this fall’s freshmen will graduate).
After all, what were wikis, blogs, podcasts (some of the hallmark tools of Web 2.0) like four years ago? Surely there will be some distinctly different tools for those future seniors in 2012, but I don’t know if I’m really able to imagine exactly what those tools will look like!
David, the project is actually known as the Graduation Project here in NC and is supposed to begin in the Freshman year. While this has not officially moved it into the blog or wiki environment, it is expected that the culmination during the Senior year is a presentation to invited faculty, students, and community members. There is a mentorship/real life experience expectation as well as a final paper based on the research the student has done over the four high school years. Truthfully, it’s still a work in progress here in NC, but we already have many high schools in the state that are doing this quite successfully.
I actually was part of a high school faculty that did senior projects in the early ’80s. I cannot express what an impressive, important aspect of these students’ education their project was. I am delighted that the State Board of Education is moving this forward as a statewide expectation–and as a culmination of work over a four-year span rather than one year or one semester project.
While I love the idea, your vision would not fly in Illinois (“In addition, their work should be public, that their progress and evolving products should be something that is available to the public via a blog, wiki, or some other social information construct — and that the project would become a conversation between the learner, teachers, and the community.”) as there is a legislative movement currently in progress to ban “social information” sites. There are too many fearful people trying to protect our young people!
Dave,
You continue to impress me with your keen ability to take an idea, perceive it in a unique way and take it to a different level. This post is an example of that. Another example, I heard you recently say, regarding questions and Google,
“The question shouldn’t be “What did we do BG (before Google)?” but “What are the questions everyone is asking Google?”
I remain a admirer and thank you for your insightful contributions to the conversations.
The idea of a four-year project is so appealing, and yet I recall the trouble my eighth graders had holding onto a topic for a single semester in order to find out what information they could find and comment on about it. At the time (back in the dark ages five years ago) we were investigating how to use information databases to which our school subscribed. The students chose any topic of interest that they were willing to work with for a full semester. We broadened, narrowed, brainstormed, picked it apart for keywords and phrases, and then we checked out information sources. Their job was to create an annotated bib/web-liography that would lead others to the best sources about their topic. Many tired quickly, partly because their topics were shallow and limited (“Friends” TV show); the best results came from open-ended investigations of topics with far-reaching implications (fast food). (Anyone remember the garbage-in garbage-out mantra from “back in the day?”)
So how do we introduce such a project, how much input does the mediator have on it’s structure, and how do we maintain true intellectual curiosity and energy for 4 years?
The senior project is the most riddiculous thing ever created. It adds more stress to the students then they already have.
I would like to echo the thoughts of Lucy. In today’s society teens in the underserved counties of NC have enough stress with grades, society, regular day to day teen stuff, not enough quality teacher availability, school responsiblity to teens etc. The idea is ok, but the actual working of the concept is ridicoulous. Example, we were advised of the project at the end of the eighth grade and were told the project would be a senior project ( ie: one year long at the 12th grade) and the guidelines were to follow. it is now May 4, 2007 (a year later) and the guidelines have not been distributed to us yet. Now we are scheduled for a parent/teacher/student group conference next week( during exams) and we are told it is a project that should last 4 years and Raleigh has not made up it ‘s mind as of yet how it will be grade, what the guidelines are, who will be looking at it etc.etc.etc. As usual, the people in charge do not know what they are doing and are only telling the masses what to do and how when they do not know themselves. This makes me irate!