Search

Used wisely, academic technology empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. "In Leonardo's Laptop," Ben Shneiderman provides teachers with a powerful framework, "Collect-Relate-Create-Donate" (CRCD), for designing student-centered learning opportunities using computers. Shneiderman developed his model by applying new insights from creativity researchers like Mihaly Csikszentimihaly and Howard Gardner to established methods for creative problem solving. In particular, Shneiderman's framework emphasizes the importance of the social aspects of learning in generating creative work. In CRCD projects, students research information, work collaboratively to create a meaningful product that demonstrates their learning, and contribute that project to a larger learning community. Shneiderman designed the "Collect-Relate-Create-Donate" framework as a vehicle for preparing young people for a twenty-first-century world where innovation, creativity, and collaboration will be more highly prized than retention and repetition. This article provides a case study of how the CRCD framework shaped the development of the "Day in the Life of a Teenage Hobo Project," a multi-day investigation into the social history of teenage homelessness during the Great Depression. Using the framework, Tom Daccord, a former U.S. history teacher and current academic technology specialist in Massachusetts, designed a project that used multiple technologies--search engines, blogs, and podcasting tools--to help students investigate the political, economic, and social history of the Great Depression. (Contains 5 resources and 10 notes.)

Used wisely, academic technology empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. In Leonardo's Laptop, Ben Shneiderman provides teachers with a powerful framework, Collect-Relate-Create-Donate (CRCD), for designing student-centered learning [...]