Teaching With Technology and Inquiry: An Open Course For Teachers

INQ101x is designed with K-12 teachers in mind. Teacher candidates, higher education instructors, and other educators may also find it relevant. In six weeks, we discuss some of the major themes and challenges of integrating inquiry and technology as a community of practitioners. We collect and share resources and exchange ideas about what works for specific topics and age groups.

In Week 0 we get to know each other and learn about the course.

Week 1: Inquiry and student-centred pedagogy

• We review dominant inquiry frameworks and examine general themes in technology integration in teaching and learning. We follow the process of a technology-integrated inquiry-based science lesson design.

Week 2: Designing Activities and Assessments

• We examine opportunities and challenges in designing technology integration in teaching and learning. A physics teacher reflects on assessment design in relation to the learning outcomes of a technology-integrated inquiry lesson.

Week 3: Collaborative learning

• Research and practice show barriers to engaging students in collaborative learning activities. We review challenges of designing for collaboration and examine design approaches to promote student engagement. A visual arts teacher explains his online collaborative critique lesson design

Week 4: Handheld/mobile devices

• We review various forms of handheld devices and examine where in lesson design and implementation can these devices be integrated. A biology teacher reflects on the design and implementation of a lesson that uses a mobile app.

Week 5: Knowledge co-constriction

• We examine design factors in promoting student-contributed knowledge. A math teacher and researcher share their collaborative experience in designing a statistics lesson that emphasizes knowledge co-construction.

Week 6: Inquiry Enactment

• We discuss challenges of classroom management and student engagement in technology enhanced/integrated learning and examine strategies to overcome such challenges. Teachers who shared their lesson design reflect on challenges they faced and decisions they made accordingly.