Customized Learning
projects and assignments are designed for Open-ended Design choices based on individual interests and stregths. This concept is based on Google and other innovative companies that allow employees to work on projects that they choose and/or with a team that they pick. At Google, this happens 1 day out of the 5 day work week. The other 4 days are structured to have employees working on the projects that the company dictates. In the classroom, students pick a project that relates to the course they signed up for. They plan & estimate the time it will take to complete the project and then G-mail me the final product or progress documentation during each grading period. When a project is complete, students will immediately repeat this process with a new project until we run out of days.
In general, projects choices allow students to customize what they are learning is our daily work enviroment. On Mondays, students pick a professional trade magazine on-line and read articles regularly about the specialized areas in Engineering or Architecture. This is shared with me regularly in a few sentences through a G-mail.