A journey of inquiry for IUPUI course S574

Well, yes, we must cite or be in danger of plagiarism. For my personal use, I really like the BibMe site. The ISBN feature is way cool. I also like that I can save several bibliographies for future use. As a current grad student this will come in especially handy. I still think I will use Citation Machine with my students. I like that they get to know what is entailed in creating a citation. We sometimes use EasyBib for items that are not included on Citation Machine.

Does anyone think that middle school students should create citations from “scratch”?

As I look back at this project, I have learned so much about Hawaii. I really do hope that my husband and I will take this dream vacation one day. I have also learned much about the inquiry process – its frustrations, its challenges, its wishes, and its triumphs.

* The inquiry process is often frustrating in that the process is not linear, but instead, cyclical. About the time I felt like I had answers for my questions, new questions and sometimes tangents arose. But all of this wondering, wiggling, and weaving ultimately led to the end product. Now I understand a premise stated in Inquiry Learning,

The goal is not to find an answer but to uncover layers of knowledge and ultimately, deeper levels of understanding…The inquiry never comes to an end as each layer of knowledge presents new inquiries. (Harada and Yoshina 16)

* The travel brochure was a challenge because I wanted to convey every fascinating detail, sight and sound to the reader. What to include? What to leave out? Maybe I should create a PowerPoint or a video? Ahhh! The ultimate product would be a video presentation of my dream vacation. I think a “field trip” is needed!

* I wish I could have had time to spend 2 or 3 days of concentrated time to complete this project. By working here a little and there a little, my learning often felt disjointed. But then, to really gain depth of understanding took time. As a teacher, I need to keep this in mind – students need time to process their learning.

Be patient with yourself and with your students. Resist the temptation to overwhelm students with a catalog of facts and a list of activities to be completed. Instead, allow time for discovery, exploration, and observation. (Harada Yoshina 18)

Yet there will be students who want to get the process going and finished. (Little do they know yet that inquiry is never really finished!) There will be a fine line between the amount of time given and depth attained, and no two students’ time frames will be the same. Inquiry is a personal journey.

* As I reflect, I feel a sense of triumph. I have faced the frustrations and challenges and developed what I consider to be a pretty good plan for that dream vacation. I have completed my goal. I also understand my wishes for the brochure and for the ultimate vacation may continue to evolve and grow. So is the inquiry process really completion for the moment and evolution in the future? Hmmm…

Two weeks ago, I had the TV on to Extreme Makeover while I was researching on the Internet. Guess what…The show was on location in Hawaii! Earlier in the day, I had been listening to a music CD that came with one of the Kauai books I had ordered. I loved the music. The music made me feel as if I were in Kauai. Then as Extreme Makeover continued, a famous musician, Keali’i Reichel, began to sing. Suddenly I realized this was one of the songs I had listened to earlier in the day. This was the same musician! My Hawaiian inquiry process has contained so many of these serendipitous moments where new learning connected to my own life.

Yes, this has been a journey for learning as well as a journey to Hawaii. I wonder is “inquiry” Hawaiian? For in Hawaii, hello and goodbye are the same word, a cycle without end.

And now… I wish you ALOHA!
Ka Nohona Pili Kai Ka Nohona Pili Kai by Keali’i Reichel

“Waving is communicating ideas to others through presenting, publishing, and sharing. Students share their ideas, try out new approaches, and ask for feedback. You’ve carefully explored issues, identified problems, and developed solutions. Who needs to hear, see, or read about your ideas? How can you have an impact? How will you share or communicate your ideas with others?” Lamb http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/waving.htm

I stayed with my original idea of presenting this project as a brochure. I had also thought of a series of post cards in a PowerPoint with Hawaiian music in the background, but the writing component and processing is so much stronger in a brochure. A brochure conveys more of my learning, and travelers read brochures more than they view PowerPoint presentations.

Below are screen shots of my brochure. You may also click on the links for the PDF’s.
Hawaii Brochure Side 1

Hawaii Brochure Side 2

(Pictured at the top of this post is the Hawaiian State Flag)

I feel as if I have a box full of Hawaiian goodies ready to wrap to give to you. Who is “you?” Anyone wanting to know more about a Hawaiian dream vacation. How can I effectively convey all of my ideas to you? I’m thinking about a travel brochure. This makes sense to me because people who want to go on trip usually refer to a brochure somewhere along the line. But then I think of all of the wonderful places and ideas I have to share. Can I get everything in a brochure? Maybe I’ll have to wrap and re-wrap this project a few times to get just the right amount of the just-right information in the brochure. I really do want to try the brochure idea.

While weaving and webbing and wondering and wiggling – kind of sounds like a hula dance doesn’t it? – I watched this video. Let’s see, what does it say?

With Elvis as your personal guide to America’s exotic Eden, our Polynesian paradise. Elvis brings you the vacation of your life.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/wV2AoExmPGA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

This part of the inquiry process has been messy, not linear at all. About the time I feel that I have evaluated the materials and I am ready to go on to the weaving, synthesizing, portion of the inquiry I talk with another person or find another resource and then more questions arise. Callison decribes the wiggling phase as often being the most difficult. (p. 54) I would agree because it was hard for me to leave that phase and go on. The cyclical aspect to inquiry really became evident. Bertram Bruce’s model (p.53) kept coming to mind – ask, investigate, create, discuss, reflect, ask, investigate, create, discuss, reflect, ask… This could go on forever. So I need to take what I have and go on, knowing that the inquiry process never really stops.

Now that I have a framework, I am beginning to wiggle .LOL

I know where, but exactly what, when, how. I know that I want to include the two islands for the 5 and 3 days mentioned in the movie. I want to see if those hotels are really there. I want to drive the red convertible, visit a pineapple company, eat at a luau, buy a music box, wear a lei, and walk along the beach. But…what else.? Again I do an Internet search, but using the keywords “things to do +Hawaii.” I find “Discover 101 Things To Do! Find HUNDREDS of things to do and an insider’s look at travel ideas and bargains in your favorite Hawaii vacation spots!”
This is what I was looking for. I want to do some typically “Hawaiian” activities, but I also want to find places and people not so typical to tourists. From here, I decide to go to Amazon.com to order some travel books. I search in the books with keywords “Hawaii +travel.” I order three books and a Hawaii for Dummies book. I also purchase the download for the Dummies book so I can get to the information sooner. This was my first time to download a book from Amazon. It is always a rewarding feeling to learn a new technology and to have it work easily. At the end of the week, I will be interviewing people who have visited Hawaii. Until then, I will continue wiggling.

I loved !!! watching the movie and really looking at the geography and the coastline and listening to the music. I realized that I must have been in 1st grade when this movie was first released. Wow, the power of the media and visual images. This connects so much to Trail Blazer 3 that I am about to do on visual literacy. I realize that going to Hawaii will not be the movie experience I just watched, but the emotional connections still keep the idea burning within me. So… I’ve webbed what I saw. While I will not include all of these activities in my project, I will cover 2 islands in 8 days. I now have a framework from which to plan.

As I look over the KWL chart I created, I don’t think I know any more than when I started. Well, I guess I know what I know, but I am not sure what to do with what I don’t know. It seems to me that I need to do a little “presearch” before the research. I need a little more certainty of what information I need. I need to decide on what questions I need to be asking. Is there an order to the question? It seems to me that I need to narrow down where in Hawaii I want to go. I have friends who have gone on a cruise around the islands, but I am a “land” person. I want to explore the land and go at my pace and whim. I don’t want a schedule to follow.

So… first I need to decide “where.” Part of where is dependent on “what” – what is located there to visit or to do. Next would be “when.” For my husband and I there could be Christmas break, also our anniversary, spring break, or summer. Lastly,”how.” How do we travel? How much does this cost?

First things first…where? I do a search on Google for “Hawaii.” I find the Hawaii’s Official Tourism Site. This leads me to a down-loadable visitors’ guide. Hey, there are 6 islands! Wow, more choices! I look through the guide. I do another search, this time with “Hawaiian Islands: as the key words and find the Hawaiian Island Guide. From what I am reading, I decide to focus on the main 4 islands.

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While “wondering” about Hawaii, I realized that I really didn’t know too much about it, really not enough to plan trip to it. I have had relatives who have lived there – years ago, and I have had a few friends travel there. I see the travel brochures and post cards, hear the “Oh, it is so beautiful” remarks. But I know very little about our 50th state other than the usual leis, luaus, and leisure images with which the chamber of commerce entices prospective tourists. Callison and Tilley (p. 70) discuss media literacy as decoding for reality. Hawaii has been glamorized through the media from the movie Blue Hawaii to the travel email I receive almost weekly from expedia.com. Callison and Tilley go on to state that all media is constructed and that “people filter media through their own personal experiences, beliefs and knowledge.” I want to believe that Hawaii is a beautiful paradise where young Elvis is waiting to sing his way into every girls’ heart… but

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