Organizing Learning

You will work to answer the following questions in the Organizing Learning section of this WebQuest:

• 1. How do we organize our learning?

  2. How does organizing our learning help us better understand our thinking (making meaning)?

  3. How do we organize our learning in Social Studies?

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Assignment 1: How Do We Organize Our Learning?

Task A> Mind Maps || One way we learn is by organizing similar information into categories in a mind map. We can create a mind map around a central idea and then add ideas to it. The visualizing of our thinking in the mind map is what makes them so powerful!

You will use a tool called Mindmeister to record your research from this WebQuest. Your teacher will show you how to set up an account, create mind maps, take notes using a mind map and share it with your teacher. To learn more about mind maps, review the following sites.

•Mind Maps and Mind Maps II

•Video on Mind Maps

You are to set up your own Mindmeister account, share it with your teacher and then create 5 mind maps on the following topics: Organizing Learning - Learning & Thinking - Organizing Time - HIS Culture - eFolio. You will use these mind maps to record your research for this WebQuest.

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Task B> Reviewing Information & Note Taking || Your laptop provides a digital way to review and better understand new information. Whether you are writing down what you hear and see in your classes or are taking notes from reading a book, a Web site, watching a video or listening to a podcast, it is important to know how to review information and take notes for organizing your learning The key to good note taking is to then review your notes and make connections between old learning and the new learning. This means adding a few more thoughts to what you already wrote down. Remember to use your own words when taking notes.

Some of the main note taking and review techniques are:

Cornell Method & More Cornell || Mind Mapping || Outlining || PSQ3R || Review of Note Taking Techniques || Tech in Taking Notes || Visual Note Taking

The following are other sites to help you learn about good note taking:

•Note Taking Tutorial

•Note Taking Tips

You are to review all of these Web sites using the PSQ3R reviewing technique. Then use the outlining technique to take notes in Google Documents. Google Docs allows us to collaborate with classmates and teachers. Name your Google Document “7Hums-Notetaking-YourName” and share it with your teacher. Your teacher will show you how to set up an account from Gmail.

You are to review all of your notes and create a top ten list of reviewing and note taking tips.

Note: For the remainder of your research and note-taking on this WebQuest, you will use your Mindmeister mind maps.

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Task C> Bookmarking || We can organize the Web sites we find as bookmarks either in our browser (social bookmarking) and/or on the Web. When using Firefox it makes sense to organize our bookmarks into folders. (Remember, we are answering the question of how we organize our learning.) Go to the following tutorials and review them. Then organize your bookmarks into folders in whichever browser you use the most. Your teacher will show you how to customize your toolbar for easy access to your bookmarks. The tutorials also go into Themes and Extensions. The Extensions are tools to help you be more productive.

Firefox Tutorials: Video 1 || Video 2

After viewing the two tutorials on Firefox, go to the Firefox “Add Ons” page. First, choose a new theme for your Firefox browser. Then download at least 2 extensions including “Foxmarks” which will let you backup your bookmarks online.

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Task D> Social Bookmarking || We will use a social bookmarking site called Diigo to save and share bookmarks for collaborative projects. We will use a system to organize our Diigo bookmarks that is called “tagging”. The following are tutorials to help you begin your understanding. Review all of them. Your teacher will share information about tagging as well. After you review the sites, write a blog post describing tagging.

•Social Bookmarking: Video

•Tagging Tutorial

•Diigo Button in Browser to save Tags

Diigo is a also good place to search for information. Go there and search for “geography”. Go to one of the provided sites and start reading about geography. You will use this in the next assignment.

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Assignment 2: How Do We Organize Our Learning in Social Studies?

The National Council for the Studies of Social Studies shares “social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology...” NCSS Site

Our focus will be on the following areas of study:

Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Religion, Arts, Technology and Geography (ESPRAT+G). The Geography is separate because it influences so many other areas of Social Studies.

Task E> ESPRAT+G || You are to research and build your understanding of what ESPRAT+G means by going to the ESPRAT+G site. Take notes in your “Organizing Learning” Mindmeister mind map. Create a new node and name it ESPRAT+G. Then create nodes from it for each area of study (one for E, one for S, etc.). The next step is create a node off each area of study for each research resource. Your teacher will show you how to add nodes, notes and links to the sites from your research.

Use the PSQ3R reading note taking technique. Remember to use World Book Online for each area of study in Humanities. It also can be helpful to search at the Diigo site for Web sites to help you learn more about social studies and the study of ESPRAT+G. Your goal is to be able to write a full and complete paragraph using your own words to define each of the following components of social studies.

Now go to Learning & Thinking