Learning Opportunities
Elementary and middle schools (K-8) are expected to incorporate more technology in the next few years as we move to Common Core Standards nationwide. The SpacePlace platform offers dynamic solutions addressing the needs of this growing market:
Addresses Organizational Needs
SpacePlace encourages young students to develop their executive functioning skills by allowing the tracking of assignments and virtual projects all in one place. Students will be able to visually assess their work as well as the work of their peers. The “OurCal” feature promotes responsibility by encouraging the completion of work on time. And our “My Part” feature promotes delegation and equal distribution of tasks.
Addresses Social Needs
Group work is a social endeavor and an important part of learning. Teachers of elementary aged students have many strategies for managing groups in a physical space. SpacePlace will allow students to collaborate in a virtual classroom. Students will be able to share their work with their group members before sharing with the rest of the class or larger group.
Providing a safe environment for students to work within SpacePlace will help build a community of learners.
Addresses Motivational Needs
Students are often unmotivated to work in groups when they feel the efforts are not shared equally. SpacePlace will allow students to see the work of their peers while it is in progress. Teachers, in addition, will have full transparency of the works in progress as well and be able to clearly view who has contributed and how much. This will aid student accountability for their own portion of a project and encourage equal contribution and time on task.
Additionally, SpacePlace will provide public recognition for student's accomplishments through the use of profiles which will allow students to highlight their individual strengths and interests. This will be further complimented with a badging program. Badges may be awarded to students for their skills and achievements. Students will also have the ability to nominate their peers for badges which will be approved by the teacher.
Addresses Institutional Needs
For teachers, the uses of the management tools provided in SpacePlace will aid aid in sorting students into affinity groups based upon a number of criteria. From a student perspective the groupings for projects will seem more random. For the teacher, the groupings may be random, but they may also address the strengths, or developing skills of the students in the groupings.
Providing complete transparency of student progress will also aid the teacher in assessing the needs of students as they work through project based learning assignments. Teachers can provide guidance and 'just-in-time' aid to help students, further their learning.
Consequences of NOT meeting this need in current day practice:
Project based learning provides opportunities for students to grow and expand their 21st century skills. It is difficult, however, for students who struggle and do not seek help. Teachers in this situation today have to resort to collecting physical papers, conferencing, or 'catching' students who are not completing their work. The current reality is that there is no foolproof way to track student progress as they work through assignments. There is never enough time to conference with every student and students can easily slip through the cracks. Students, for the most part, are aware of who in the class struggles. They may choose to help him/her or not based on their relationship or they may choose to report him/her to the teacher. By providing 'just-in-time' information the teacher can support the struggling student without 'catching' him or having his peers report his lack of progress. This will promote more learning and ease the social interplay between students as they move through assignments, thus allowing all students to contribute their best work and complete the assigned mission on time.