Application of RIDLR to STEM Education Discussed at Terra

At a recent Terra Foundation Educational Technology Conference Dr. Tiffany A Koszalka gave an invited presentation about RIDLR and its potential application to STEM education. At the beginning of the session participants (primarily K-12 teachers and administrators from central NY) were prompted to explore seemingly unrelated objects, determining how best to describe them and then develop ideas on how to use them in their own teaching.  Interesting ideas emerged about each object and its potential to be a learning resources.This activity was followed by a more formal overview of the work of RIDLR describing our ideas about the key characteristics of powerful learning resources.

An application example was used to deconstruct a digital learning  resource (website) used to teach middle and high school students about the multiple aspects of volcanoes. The audience helped to identify how the characteristics of the site demonstrated this learning resource’s ability to prompt generative learning, cognitive flexibility, levels of engagement, and reflective thinking. Many participants shared ideas about how some of the learning resources they used had or did not have these characteristics. A PDF of Dr. Koszalka presentation, “Designing and Using Digital Learning Resources to Prompt Critical Thinking”, is available here.  

The 2016 Terra Science and Education Conference was held on November 10, 2016 at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center.