2. Outline of today’s talk
• Introduce myself
• Connections to Moodle
• Why IBL?
• Introduce Interest-Based Learning
• Zombie-Based Learning (an example)
• Response to ZBL
• Who would IBL empower?
• What would we need to do?
• Recap
3. Who Am I?
• Teacher
– Masters in Teaching
– Social Studies / Language Arts
– Seattle, USA
• Curriculum Designer
• Project-Based Learning
• Blended classrooms
• Professional Dancer
4. Who Was I?
• Merchant Mariner
• Dishwasher
• High School Dropout
– Couldn’t connect learning and school
So Now…
• Very interested in engaging students
• Promoting the power of education
• Promoting the fun of learning
6. Why Interest-Based Learning
Address these issues:
Student Engagement
Effective lessons
Teaching to high academic standards
Relate learning to the real world
Encourage deeper thinking
Promote 21st Century Skills
8. PBL (Project/Problem Based Learning)
• What is PBL?
Extended process of inquiry in response to
complex questions, problems, or challenges
Rigorous
Learn Academic content and 21st Century skills
Collaboration
Communication
Critical thinking
9. Interest-Based Learning
• Project-Based or Problem-Based Learning
• Set through the lens of different interests
• Allowing Student Choice
– Curriculum
– Application
• Creating connections to real world applications
• Encourage deeper thought
• Encourage multiple modes of application
10. What it would look like:
• Multiple curricula for students and teachers to
choose from
• Standards-based
• Real-life or narrative driven
• Could be local
• Open-source + Shared
• Similar framework to encourage sharing
11. How it could work:
• Students and teachers go to a source of
Interest-Based Curricula
• They choose the learning standard or concept
they are going to learn
• (For example: G-MG.3. Apply geometric
methods to solve design problems)
• Students could choose the interest they want
to learn through.
12. Through this resource
There would be a menu of curricula
Could learn through:
Zombies
Skateboarding
Fashion design
Graphic design
Engineering
Etc…
13. The Curricula Comes From…
• Teachers
• Community Members
• Professionals
Each would follow a similar framework and
include Real-life or narrative-based applications
15. Intro to Zombie-Based Learning
• Includes all Middle School Geography
Standards (5-8th grade)
• Standards based on the “Geography for Life”
standards created by multiple geographic
professionals and organizations
• Narrative set in a Zombie Apocalypse
• Problems, projects, scenarios for learning are
set within the narrative
16. The Standards
• 18 Standards set within 6 sections
1. The World in Spatial Terms
2. Places and Regions
3. Physical Systems
4. Human Systems
5. Environment and Society
6. The Uses of Geography
17. The Standards
• Standards designed with the outcome to be a
person:
• “who sees meaning in the arrangement of
things in space;
• who sees relations between people, places,
and environments;
• who uses geographic skills;
• and who applies spatial and ecological
perspectives to life situations” Geography for Life, 1994
20. Preparing for the Outbreak
Standard: How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and
technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective
Example Application: An outbreak might be heading your way.
Using data, students map the movement of the zombie infections.
21. Post-Outbreak Survival
Standard: How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places
and environments in a spatial context
Example Application: Using Mental Maps to navigate.
22. Finding a New Settlement
Standard: The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and
importance of resources
Example Application: Based on resources, climate, hazards, and physical
geography, students develop a plan for finding new places to settle.
23. Building a New Community
Standard: The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement
Example Application: Discuss requirements for new community and develop
models to grow and construct a safe and sustainable community, based on actual
facts of community growth.
24. Planning for the Future
Standard: How to apply Geography to interpret the present and plan for the future
Example Application: Develop innovative, specific, and long term
recommendations for rebuilding a working society.
27. Response to Zombie-Based Learning
• Teachers
• Education professionals
• Geography Professors
• Home-school parents
• Former students
• Zombie enthusiasts
• Text book creators
• Video game studios
28. Why so Positive?
• Is it just zombies?
• Is it just geography?
• Is it a new way to learn?
• Is it an interesting way to learn?
29. What if we created a network of
Teachers and Community Members to
design Interest-Based Lessons like ZBL?
Who would it empower and
what would it require?
30. Empowering
Curriculum
Interest-Based Learning Empowers
• Students
• Teachers
• Community Professionals
31. How IBL Empowers Students
• Choices based on individual interests
• Explore realistic applications
• Explore conceptual connections
• Foster creativity
• Encourages connections to local world and
personal life
32. How IBL Empowers Teachers
• View teachers as professionals who make
important decisions regarding student
learning
• Expects effective curriculum, puts emphasis
on effective teaching
• Provides tools to practice modifying curricula
33. How IBL Empowers
Community Professionals
• Teaches professionals to create lessons and
curricula
• Challenges community members to show how
they use academic skills in the real world
• Creates connections between school and
professionals in the community
34. What would creating
this community require?
• Educating teachers and community members
on effective curriculum design
• Framework of effective IBL curriculum
35. What would
effective IBL framework include?
• Consistent, but open
Lesson plans
Authentic Assessments (Pre, Post, Formative)
Rubrics
Standards-based Learning Objectives
Real-life connections
Project and Creative outlets
36. Recap
• Combine Project or Problem-Based Learning
• With an INTEREST or real-life APPLICATION
• Design a curriculum based on high academic
standards
• Make it open to everyone
• Repeat ad infinitum to create more engaging
teaching resources
