Activity+6

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**Activity 6: Design an Authentic Learning Activity for Your Unit **
 * Unit: ** U.S. Politics

After majoring in political science, you have decided to take an entry level position as a political analyst. A political analyst is involved in carrying out research on political and public administration issues such as relations between different countries and institutions and politics of various countries. They are also involved in analyzing the working of the government and conducting opinion polls and surveys.
 * Introduction: **

Today, it is no secret that many Americans are unhappy with our current political system. One can hardly avoid the constant barrage of media attention given the nation’s financial meltdowns, social crises, bank bailouts, health care issues, employment and wages woes, and multiple Occupy movements. Suppose you are not satisfied with at least one aspect of the nation’s current political system. After much research and investigation, you and several others of your political analyst colleagues, decide to develop a solution to one of the country’s growing problems.

Political culture refers to what people believe and feel about government and how they think people should act towards it.
 * Activity: Is Our Political System Broken? **

In August, The Daily Beast printed, //America, the Dysfunctional//. []

In September, CNN Opinion published, //Why Our Government is Broken//.  []

Using various resources, you will responsible for demonstrating an understanding of the current political climate from different perspectives and presenting your findings using technology application or tool.

** Purpose: **  After completing the activity, the student will have identified one aspect of the nation’s current political system that needs attention. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Objectives: ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Instructions: **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The student will investigate various political climate and culture current events and news articles.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The student will use articles to state opinions about current political system.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The student will compare and contrast various articles.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The student will connect his or her own experiences with those of other students in the group.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The student will listen critically to interpret the opinions of peers.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The student will contribute to the organization and interpret information using a technology tool or application.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The student will evaluate and critique their peer’s performance.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Review //Guidelines for Working in Group// (link) and be sure to reach out to your team members.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Research information pertaining to nation’s current political climate and culture.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Locate an article that illustrates one aspect of a political issue or area you are not satisfied with.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Post a discussion response to your article in the forum reviewing your findings. Minimum 200 words.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Once you have identified your article and responded in the forum, collaboratively determine a venue to share your document (Crocodoc or Google Docs).
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Each team member is responsible for comments, insights, or highlights to each peer’s selection.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Using video conferencing, meet with your group and collaboratively determine which of the nation’s political culture or system you are least satisfied with. There must be evidence of all group members’ participation.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Share your group’s presentation via classroom Wiki.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Assess your peers using the //Peer Assessment Form// (link).
 * 10) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Assess your experience. A reflective essay is an exploration of your personal thoughts and perceptions of a particular event or subject. Reflective essays are different from academic essays because in addition to demonstrating mastery of the material, you are writing to reveal something about the learning process to the reader. Your essay must be a minimum of 400 words. Upload and submit in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are many definitions, descriptions, and explanations of authentic learning. According to Lombardi (2007), “Authentic learning typically focuses on real-world, complex problems and their solutions, using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and participation in virtual communities of practice” (p. 2). As Herrington (2006) contends, true authentic learning environments are process driven, not content driven. They require students to complete complex real-world tasks, often over a period of time, in collaboration with others as they would in a real workplace. And, as Woo, Herrington, Agostinho, and Reeves (2007) point out, because authentic activities are directly related to a student’s real-life experiences, they can nurture meaningful learning. Herrington, Reeves, Oliver, and Woo (2004) condense the characteristics of authentic activities from several literature reviews on authentic learning environments from the literature on situated learning, anchored instruction and problem-based learning:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Real-world relevance. ** Activities match as nearly as possible the real-world tasks of professionals in practice, rather than decontextualized or classroom-based activities.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Ill-defined: ** Activities require students to define the tasks and subtasks needed to complete the activity.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Complex, sustained tasks: ** Activities are completed in days, weeks, months rather than minutes or hours. They require significant investment of time and intellectual resources.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Multiple perspectives: ** Provides the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Collaborative: ** Collaboration is integral and required for task completion.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Value laden: ** Provide the opportunity to reflect and involve students’ beliefs and values..
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Interdisciplinary: ** Activities encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and enable learners to play diverse roles and build expertise that is applicable beyond a single well-defined field or domain
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Authentically assessed: ** Assessment is seamlessly integrated with learning in a manner that reflects how quality is judged in the real world.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Authentic products: ** valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">** Multiple possible outcomes ** : Activities allow a range and diversity of outcomes open to multiple solutions of an original nature, rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of predefined rules and procedures.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> According to Woo et al. (2007), it is not uncommon for students to complain about the relevance of their academic learning tasks assigned. However, if the learning task is authentic, then students can make direct connections between the material and their prior experience. The unit I selected for the development of my authentic activity was designed to incorporate the elements most associated with the aforementioned definitions of authentic learning. In addition and thanks to the emergence of a new set of technological tools, with the help of Internet and a variety of communication, visualization, and simulation technologies, educators can now offer students a more authentic learning experience based on experimentation and action (Lombardi, 2007). The unit is a complex and sustained task, written for 11-12 grades students, with the activity incorporating Herrington et al.’s authentic learning environment characteristics.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The unit’s introduction illustrates and delivers a problem-based topic that is process driven, collaborative, and real-life oriented. The constructivist learning environment was designed on three perspectives: pedagogical, social and technological (Wang, 2009). Lombardi (2007) indicates educational researchers have found that students involved in authentic learning are motivated to persevere, as long as the exercise simulates what really counts—the social structure and culture that gives the discipline its meaning and relevance. The purpose of this activity is for students to utilize their existing knowledge and experiences to construct meaning relative to their learning needs, backgrounds and interests (Di Margules, 1996). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The activity begins with students individually pursuing research that supports their current belief system regarding the nation’s political state. Cognitive constructivists claim that learners are most likely to construct knowledge individually dependent on their personal experiences and newly obtained information. Knowledge construction is a process of internalization and reconstruction of external reality, in which individual interaction with the content plays a vital role (Wang, 2009). Beginning the lesson with an individual component ensures the learner has active buy-in and is engaged from the start, as well as provides the opportunity to reflect and involve students’ beliefs and values (value laden) per Herrington et al.’s (2004) characteristics. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Authentic tasks include opportunities for students to examine tasks using a variety of sources and from multiple perspectives. A collaborative environment is essential to task completion (Herrington et al., 2004). Once students have researched and discussed their individual findings, their next step is to share their findings, as well review their peers, using a cooperative technology tool such as Google Docs or Crocdoc. As shared by Smith and Parker (2011), a more student-centered learning approach that includes pedagogical strategies such as online collaboration using web-based applications to create life-like situations can help students work together on group projects and will better prepare students for the workplace. Once students have reviewed and commented on their peers work, they are required to come to consensus on the group’s choice of political discord. Woo et al. (2007) To achieve a challenging authentic task, students must interact—sharing their thoughts, relating their ideas to past experiences, collaborating with their peers, actively constructing their own meaning, and incorporating the diverse perspectives of others. Because this is an online course, consensus requirements will need to consist of the use technological tool that enables instant communication i.e. video conferencing, Skype, IM, etc. In contrast to cognitive constructivism, social constructivists argue that knowledge is the outcome of collaborative construction in a social-cultural context mediated by discourse. Learning is a social process in which learners collaboratively construct knowledge through interactive processes of information sharing, negotiation and modiﬁcation (Wang, 2009). Therefore, this exercise, according to social constructivists believe learning can be enhanced through these types of interaction, provides an authentic learning moment.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Once consensus, the group is responsible for developing a collaborative presentation to the class regarding their topic using a selected technology tool of choice. Authentic learning can utilize educational software developed to simulate typical scenarios that mirror real-world settings (Lombardi, 2007) and tasks that require students to use technology as cognitive tools to construct knowledge, communicate and collaborate effectively have the potential to improve student engagement and outcomes (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2006). The group’s presentation will be shared using the classroom Wiki and students will be responsible for evaluating their peers. The presentation will allow for multiple possible outcomes and solutions, rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of predefined rules and procedures (Herrington et al., 2004). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The activity will conclude with a self-reflection essay. According to Woo et al. (2007), under the influence of social constructivist learning theories, many educators have become interested in students' active construction of meaning grounded in their own experience. To support the construction of meaning, students need to interact with one another, as they did for this activity, therefore enhancing the construction of meaning and the students' intellectual growth. Today’s Web-based learning environments give students access to many of the same resources that professionals use in their research (Lombardi, 2007) and here students can find the benefits of authentic activity through careful design of Web-based learning environments.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">References ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Di Margules. (1996). Instructivism or Constructivism: which end of the continuum? Presented at <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">the AUC Academic Conference “From Virtual to Reality” The University of Queensland. Retrieved from http://www.auc.edu.au/conf/conf96/Papers/MarguleD.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Herrington, J. (2006). Authentic e-learning in higher education: Design principles for <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> authentic learning environments and tasks. In T. Reeves & S. Yamashita (Eds.), <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Healthcare, and Higher Education 2006 (pp. 3164-3173). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Herrington, J., Reeves, T., & Oliver, R. (2006). Authentic tasks online: A synergy among <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">learner, task, and technology. Distance Education, 27(2), 233-247.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lombardi, M. M. (2007). Authentic learning for the 21st Century: An overview: ELI White <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Papers, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative.

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Smith, T. and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> [|Parker, J.] <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(2011) <span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">//Designing an authentic blend: Development of a real-life// // learning environment for higher education. //<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> In: Eculture 2011: Internationalisation and diversity, 9-10 November 2011, Edith Cowan University (Joondalup Campus), Perth.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Wang, Q. (2009). Designing a web-based constructivist learning environment. //Interactive// //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Learning Environments //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">, //17//(1), 1-13.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Woo, Y., Herrington, J., Agostinho, S., & Reeves, T. (2007). Implementing authentic tasks in <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">web-based learning environments. //Educause Quarterly//, //30//(3). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/ImplementingAuthenticTasksinWe/161831