About MLToolbox:

This database of tools and model curriculum units are the result of five years’ work to develop technology that fully supports meaningful learning in the classroom. We define meaningful learning as the achievement of deep understanding of complex ideas that are relevant to students’ lives. MLToolbox is innovative in its integration of technology into a larger instructional environment that creates a workflow from conceptualizing units and lesson plans through implementation in the classroom.

In addition to two curriculum units designed to model how these tools can fully integrate meaningful learning using technology, www.mltoolbox.org enables teachers to co-author curriculum and accompanying Web-based lessons on the Unit Creator/Lesson Builder - a tool that scaffold’s teachers thinking about such important curriculum considerations as standards, assessment, enduring understandings, and resources. The resulting lessons allow students to make full use of the integrated MLToolbox tools through links on their Lesson Launch sites.

The complement of meaningful learning tools includes:

iMail:

iMail is an internal mail system allowing students within a class or between classes to send and receive messages with their colleagues and teacher. While mirroring standard e-mail system features, this system eliminates inherent dangers found on public systems.

iJournal:

iJournal is an online student journaling system designed to support inquiry and making students’ thinking visible. The tool allows teachers to post a question or series of questions for students working individually or in small groups to respond to online. Fully searchable responses can be projected with or without student names to generate whole class discussions.

Inquiry Station:

The Inquiry Station guides students through a recursive inquiry process resulting in the creation of student Websites built in response to student-generated investigative questions. Students, working individually or in small groups, create data/information clips, organize them into a coherent interpretive accounts and publish their sites online.

Source Explorer:

The Source Explorer tool allows students to carefully evaluate data and record their findings as they respond to sources including primary sources, maps, charts, images, literary pieces, Websites, and short video clips. A series of teacher-created prompts guide students as they simultaneously view a source and enter their responses to what they are viewing. Teachers have immediate access to the fully searchable database of student responses and are able to project them for whole class discussion, respond to them via iMail, and use them for assessment of student work.