The document outlines the design of a learning environment that incorporated 21st century skills like collaboration, knowledge building, use of ICT, self-regulation, and real-world problem solving. Students collaborated locally with each other and community organizations, and globally by creating documentaries shared with other schools. They researched and interviewed immigrants and refugees to build knowledge and solve the real-world problem of learning about diversity in their rural community. Students used technology like videos and websites to enhance their learning and share their work.

1. Design of the Learning Environment
Our unit was planned with the Backwards by Design (UbD) framework in mind. The “big
ideas” and outcomes were presented at the beginning of the unit so that the direction of
learning was transparent for the students. Expectations were always clear. The students
helped create the rubrics that they would later be graded upon and as a result they had
the assessment tool in their hands before they started their project.Our creativity and
collaboration makes our project innovative.
The five dimensions of 21st century learning were always on the forefront in our learning
environment.
Collaboration:
The students collaborated with; one another, immigrants &
refugees, and ELL (English Language Learners) students from
various schools throughout our school division. Collaboration
extended past our school walls into the community as we
collaborated with the Prince Albert Multicultural Council, Y.W.C.A,
and the SWIS (Settlement Workers in Schools) program.
This collaboration required that the students share the
responsibility in creating a documentary. All group members were
required to make important decisions together about the content
they were including, the process – “who is doing what?” and the
final product.
Knowledge-building
Students used inquiry to relate the curricular outcomes (objectives)
to real life situations and build their knowledge.
Their main learning activity was knowledge building as they had to
synthesize the information they gathered from multiple sources to
create one group documentary.
The documentary is interdisciplinary as it had the students to meet
their English language arts & their social studies outcomes.
The Use of ICT for Learning
ICT was an integral part of this project. The students would not
have been able to come to the same understanding without the

2. assistance of computers, camcorders, and various pieces of
Microsoft software.
The video recordings of the student’s interviews with the
immigrants and refugees were edited and later added to their
documentaries that are now being shared with the rest of the
students in our school division. The students from our school
division, that are a part of remote communities, would not have
otherwise had the opportunity to learn from our student’s
experiences.
The students used various web 2.0 tools to enhance and reflect
upon their learning including sites such as;BeQrious, Museum Box,
Tagxedo, Voki, and Weebly.
Self-Regulation
As teachers we took the “guide-on-the-side” approach to teaching
this unit of study. The students were given the assignments and a
timeframe for its completion. We would circulate as the students
researched, created and completed their tasks. We would provide
assistance and check-in with the students as required.
The individual tasks ranged in length from 3 days to 2 weeks.
Students collaborated with the teachers to create rubrics that
evaluated their assignments.
Real-World Problem-Solving and Innovation
Our real-world problem was learning about immigrants and
refugees in a small rural community that doesn’t have any new
immigrants or refugees. The new curriculum asks the students to
analyze Canada as a multicultural nation. We wanted to make the
learning more engaging and authentic for our learners so we
decided to solve this problem for ourselves AND for other students
in our school division; students that live in remote communities that
may not have access to real people as resources (immigrants and
refugees.)
The solution to this problem was to create documentaries to share
with others within our school division and our province via our
website.
Our second real-world problem was to help the Prince Albert
Multicultural Council create a webpage outlining their services as
they did not currently have one.

3. The website creationwill help the PAMCadvertise their services to
immigrants and refugees that come to Prince Albert and area,
hoping that they will have a smoother transition into our
community.
The students work was innovative as it solved real world problems
thus benefiting themselves and others (students in remote areas
and immigrants and refugees) in our community.