Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age

THESE ARE MY NOTES FROM THIS SESSION AT NECC 2007. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

By Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss (the session title is

other teachers from Ankara, Turkey and London, England

We decided a few years ago we wanted to bring together all the things we’ve learned and seen with project based learning (PBL) and technology
– looking at both K-12 but also informal, community-based education (PBL) for adults as well as kids

Suzi has been in journalism for many years, Jane has been in education
– Suzi has been writing about technology in schools
– had been working to showcase teachers that were doing marvelous, PBL lessons as innovators but had perhaps been under the radar
– goal is to make those educators, their ideas and their lessons more visible to others in the world

We are trying to keep a global view and perspective

how many people are:
– from other countries
– in a changing educational context (small-schools or 1:1)

Are going to talk about ways to extend the conversations

Why “reinventing?”
– new contexts for learning in the digital age
– new contexts for teaching with collaboration and digital tools
– new possibilities for reinvigorating PBL to achieve greater results

Goal of our Flickr group: show PBL in action!
– Join us! http://flickr.com/groups/reinventingpbl\
what we are really doing is reinvigorating a better model for learning

Lots of discussion now about new standards for schools
– this is all about REINVIGORATING learning and how you and your students are connecting with other learners around the world

What is the relevance of problem-based learning in today’s world
– product-based knowledge learning
– creation of project-based learning
– real-world
– not artificial
– authenticity
– highly motivating
– students invested in their own learning
– cross-curricular and interdisciplinary
– prepares students for the future, but also helps them see how education is part of their future

[MY THOUGHT: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE FUTURE, IT’S ALSO ABOUT THE PRESENT! THEY WAY KIDS WORK NOW, THE WAY OTHERS WORK NOW!]

– requires performance-based assessment to keep things flowing (process
– can build a bridge to portfolios
– provides multiple
– often students exceed our expectations, go far beyond minimum expectations
– meets multiple learning styles
– fun
– good application of what kids have learned
– authentic engagement
– allows for deep learning

We are taking a field-guide approach
– treat the teacher’s entry and use of PBL as a journey
– 1st you get your bearings, ID you travelers, set your course, go on your adventure, solve problems on the way,

are profiles of 30 or 40 teachers in the book
– is a guided instructional design process discussed in the book (understanding by design, the Buck Institute, etc- there are other models, we add an interactive process that adds technology, and invites learners to examine possibilities they may have not considered otherwise)

Essential learning functions of digital tools: what functions the tools serve that support PBL (not just technology for technology)
Suggestions to guide collaborative practice

Book includes spotlights on schools and teachers, technology focus, side trips for more reading…

Who do we imagine will read and use this book?
– capable, optimists, learners, connectors
– teachers willing to break the mold a bit, respond to students
– learn something new, ask for help when needed
– teachers who really get excited when their learners are as excited as they can be when they are engaged in authentic work, collaborating, etc.
– educators who are connectors, share their ideas and passion, they become better teachers and their students become better learners as a result of their connections
– NO WHINERS!

[I THINK THEY COULD ADD REASONED RISK TAKERS]

lots of examples of teachers who “just get it done”
– use the resources they have to make project based learning happen

Venn diagram showing overlap of PBL and Technology

We really want to talk to the general education teacher who doesn’t feel comfortable with technology yet
– we want the marriage of both PBL and technology

The arc of a journey

killer apps for planning this:
– our wiki
– IM for just in time feedback
– skype: VOIP all the time
– del.icio.us used all the time for tracking bookmarks, sharing notes, etc.

“the beautiful mess of a project”
– many of these activities are not easily scripted, they get into the “art” of teaching
– need to use skills and tools to keep organized, teach the standards you want to hit, etc.

Steve is our technology scout
– taught us about personalized desktops
– Julie Lindsey and Vicki Davis used netvibes and protopage in their project that is seeing a lot of buzz

Tom from Ankara on skype’s comments

Tom’s background has been with rural development, community development, social development, work with refugees
– was hired as a project manager not a teacher at my current school
– coordinator of int’l baccalaureate program
– I don’t distinguish between teachers and students in the work that I do, I just assume everyone is a learner

Logical framework analysis, project planning tools are things I brought to the table
– I help with monitoring and evaluation, to learn from one project and apply the learning the next time something similar is done
– many other projects fail to look at measurement and impact issues

First portion is teaching thinking, next step is getting students involved
– Know – Wonder – Learn process

look at discourse, questioning strategies, formative assessment

should celebrate with your kids, esp if the projects have the rigor we expect
– very important for students to reflect on their work and evaluate

Google Lit Trips by Gerome: mapping out great literature with Google Earth
– great use of placemarks
– students mark and annotate great locations

iHistory podcasts

Sample activity: Asset Mapping
– people are frequently conditional about moving into project based learning
– what are your assets now?
– what can you draw on
– community stakeholders come together to look at what they have, very different from the typical “deficit model”

– talked about their own interests inside and outside the school, resources they have inside and outside the school
– lots of ways to start
– is a generative process that often reveals great wealth that has yet to be marshalled

[I THINK THIS WOULD BE GREAT TO INTEGRATE FOR OUR DIGITAL LEARNING ACADEMIES THIS SUMMER]

We’re going to do a parallel activity now

[MY QUESTION: WHAT ARE SUZIE AND JANE’S DEL.ICIO.US ACCOUNTS (AND STEVE’S) AND WHAT DEL.ICIO.US TAGS HAVE THEY USED FOR RESEARCHING THIS BOOK? THOSE WOULD BE GREAT TO ACCESS AND VIEW.]

Technorati Tags: education, educationreform, n07s606, necc07, pbl, projectbasedlearning, necc

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On this day..

• Tweeted Learning from iPadPalooza 2016 – 2016
• iPad App Smashing with Google Forms, Haiku Deck, Explain Everything, and YouTube – 2014
• Mapping Media to the Common Core: Volume I eBook Now Available – 2013
• A Live Action Charlie Chaplin Google Doodle #gct – 2011
• Google Docs now supports free Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – 2010
• International Spy Museum Report and iPhone GS powered Google Maps – 2009
• K12Online09 Call for Proposals and Keynoters announced! – 2009
• Monitor NECC 2008 Ning discussions with RSS – 2008
• links for 2008-06-25 – 2008
• NECC 2008 certain to challenge conference bandwidth limits – 2008