Power Learning 2.0 Beyond Interpretation to Synthesis Welcome to this hands-on workshop which is designed to give you experience creating new ideas while employing various information literacies - understanding in service to invention. Expected Outcomes Experience firsthand the challenge of moving beyond interpretation and understanding to synthesis - the actual construction of new ideas. Learn how to focus classroom investigations around decisions and problems drawn from the community and the global neighborhood. Engage students in making their own meaning (constructivism) from the vast new information landscape that is made readily and rapidly available thanks to new technologies. Consider how the role of classroom teacher changes in such a program. Witness how we may provide structure and scaffolding to maintain quality and focus. Explore how students can learn to build their own new meanings and solutions upon conventional wisdom, contributing fresh thinking to important social issues or scientific challenges. Begin to develop a personal repertoire of synthesis skills. Identify opportunities to teach to curriculum standards by emphasizing decision making and problem solving. Taste the power of Inspiration™ to support this kind of thinking, investigating and inventing. Consider the benefits of teams sharing wireless laptops. Activities Module One - How is Synthesis Different? (brief lecture) - download PPT file. Module Two - Synthesis with Visual Literacy - Go to the lesson. How might we use photographs, drawings, paintings, and other visual material to spur the creation of a new idea, a product, a campaign? Module Three - Synthesis with Numerical Literacy - Go to the lesson. How might we employ databases and statistics to predict what might happen in the world around us? Module Four - Synthesis with Text Literacy - Go to the lesson. How might we work with electronic text to develop a personal sense of writing style and a deepened repetoire of writing strategies? Module Five - Making Good New Ideas - Go to the lesson How good are the free information sources available to our students? It's a "mixed bag." See for yourself . . . Module Six - The "Slam Dunk Lesson" How can we build standards-based lessons that are highly structured, require synthesis but are relatively quick and efficient? Take a look at Module Maker 2 at http://questioning.org/ and consider its value for your own program. © 2002 Jamie McKenzie, All Rights Reserved

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