Having to mention something from the Authentic Learning file is rather simple, as the very first paragraph is my exact teaching philosophy. Having been in the IT field for more than 25 years, most, if not all of what I have learned has been hands on experience. This also also my teaching philosophy. During my time as an adjunct instructor, I used a hands on teaching approach. Although not all students learn in this manner, I found that even those students that did not learn in this manner, did, in fact, benefit from this teaching style as well.
Since given it my desire to get back in the college classroom, my intended grade level will be 13-14, or junior college grades. My reasoning behind this is that although there are recent high school graduates that will be in the class, a good percentage of the students will be non-traditional students. And some of these non-traditional students have never seen or used a computer or a smartphone. And even students that have a smart phone, some have never used a computer.
Narrowing down my IDP real-world authentic topic has been a bit daunting, however. I want my topic to be challenging and provoke higher level thought, but at the same time I do not want to make it so hard that the students contemplate quitting altogether.
- After studying about Analog vs. Digital, cell phone features, and cell phone carrier features, students will design a new cell phone and cell phone carrier service, scoring Proficient or higher on the rubric.
- After designing a new cell phone and cell phone carrier service, students will create a multimedia presentation to convince the class to vote for their new cell phone, scoring Proficient or higher on the rubric.