Reflecting on the tasks which SEDL facilitated for us during the "Active Learning Environments" portion of our workshop, we can see that they hit their mark.  The tasks achieved the top level of the 3 indicators for tasks for engaged learners according to the "Learning Through Technology: Study Group Framework and Profile Tool" (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, Illinois State Board of Education).  Such tasks are:

       Authentic- derive authenticity from student interests, work with experts, societal value and
                                public assessments.  They often involve inquiry and/or research, but not as
                                an end in itself.  (build a Power Point presentation which will help the Chamber of
                                 Commerce bring industry and tax dollars to our community.)

      Challenging- complex and designed so that the students have to stretch conceptually and take
                                 greater responsibility for learning (required knowledge of the community not
                                  readily known by everyone, required technology skills not possessed by everyone)

      Multidisciplinary- multiple disciplines must be integrated in order to complete a task or solve a
                                        problem.  Teachers and other support staff, e.g. library media specialists, take
                                        responsibility for more than one discipline and assist students  making
                                        connections across disciplines. (math, social studies, language arts,
                                        reading, were easily involved- some groups included science)
 

Many of us have either experimented with, or regularly use, tasks such as these in our classrooms.
Write your ebuddy and briefly tell them about one of these such activities that you have used, or read about and would like to use.  If you have used it, was it successful ?  What made it successful?  What challenges did you face?  If you have never used such tasks, talk a little about some ideas that you have that you might attempt to apply soon.

Also, talk to your ebuddy about the things you are doing or planning to do to get your 15 hours outside of school time for our project.