9 PBL On-line Resources That Put Students At The Center… Voice, Input, Contribution Welcome to the fifth in a series of PBL Mania Posts . For the last few weeks I am celebrating Project Based Learning. In this post I will introduce you to some outstanding online tools found on the web that will put kids in the center of PBL. Before reading please take a moment to subscribe to this 21centuryedtech Blog by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans. In this post I am going to introduce you to some resources that can clearly put students at the center of their own education. Socrative – This is an amazing online tool that promises to engage the class using any device. Remind101 – Now you can manage your class and ongoing PBL projects.Remind101 is a safe/free way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. Survey Monkey – What a great tool to survey the class to gauge interest, understanding, and provide their input. Google Forms – Let’s not forget the power of Google Docs for assisting students in collaboration. Like this:
Projects: A better way to work in classroom groups | Several months ago, we locked our programmers away in a secret laboratory with a single, all-consuming directive: find a better way for wiki members to do independent classroom group work. We’re calling this new feature Projects. Whenever you have a particular assignment or activity, you can create a project for it, then define teams of members, each with its own unique pages, files, and permissions. As of today, projects are available on all Education-plan wikis (both K-12 and higher education), Plus- and Super-plan wikis that are categorized as Education, and all education Private Label sites. Wiki organizers If you’re an organizer of your wiki, it’s up to you to create and manage projects. Creating a project Go to Projects in the action menu.Give your project a Name. Assigning teams When you create your project, you have four choices about how to assign teams: No matter how you assign teams, you can always rearrange them later. You can change these permissions at any time. Wiki members
How To Kill A Learner's Curiosity In 10 Easy Steps How To Kill Learner Curiosity In 12 Easy Steps by Terry Heick Ed note: This has been updated from a 2012 post that you may or may not have already read. So, there’s that. Killing a learner’s natural curiosity doesn’t happen overnight. It can take as long as 12 years, and in some rare cases even that isn’t long enough. Learning environments focused on standards, assessment, and compliance allow for the implementation of research-based strategies in pursuit of streams of data to prove that learning is happening. And who ever qualified for a job by demonstrating how strong their curiosity is anyway? Below are twelve tips to help stifle learner curiosity and keep the learning nice and tidy in your classroom this school year. Step 1. Whether physical or digital, individual or group, you’re the teacher (or “district curriculum coordinator”). Step 2. Voice and choice sound great in theory, but who knows better what a learner needs than the teacher. Step 3. Right is right. Step 4. Again, see #3.
Ask a TAS teacher about PBL “I want to get into PBL”. Something I hear and see a lot of recently. I’ve been an advocate of PBL for a while, so in lieu of people understanding what PBL is, I take it as a sign they want to do something new (to them) in their classroom. Romance: They often head off to Buck Institute or start consuming Edutopia content. For the more wealthy, they hire in US consultancies like New Tech Foundation who offer seemingly “off the shelf programs “and “pay-for-databases of projects”. If you are an Australian teacher interested in PBL, I give you fair warning that all these findable things will not transform your classroom – and in my view, will more likely raise alarm bells among parents and suspicion amount school-executives who will generally “like” the idea, but only if the reality dove-tails into their expectations (after all, most school execs are instrumentalists by nature of their job-description and that’s not a bad thing IMO). Like this: Like Loading...
Math Projects About Project-Based Learning Projects help students personalize their learning and are ideal for gaining key knowledge and understanding of content and answering the question: Where am I ever going to use this?" Among the greatest benefits of project-based learning (PBL) are gains in students' critical-thinking skills and development of their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. PBL is also an ideal way to help learners gain speaking and presentation skills indentified in the Common Core Standards. PBL in mathematics, particularly when completed in teams, helps learners "model with mathematics" as they "apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace," "use tools strategically," and "construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others," as noted in the Common Core Standards (2010) for Mathematical Practice. Finally, projects should include the element of reflection. What do we mean by building 21st century skills? Dr.
Project-based learning Project-based learning (PBL) is considered an alternative to paper-based, rote memorization, teacher-led classrooms. Proponents of project-based learning cite numerous benefits to the implementation of these strategies in the classroom including a greater depth of understanding of concepts, broader knowledge base, improved communication and interpersonal/social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing skills. John Dewey initially promoted the idea of "learning by doing." John Dewey, 1902 Markham (2011) describes project-based learning (PBL) as: " PBL integrates knowing and doing. Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that matter. Project-based learning has been associated with the "situated learning" perspective of James G. Structure[edit] Elements[edit] Comprehensive Project-based Learning: Examples[edit] Roles[edit] PBL relies on learning groups.
Inspiring Curiosity in 12 Easy Steps « Learning Is For Everyone -LI4E A tongue-in-cheek piece ran in Alternet recently titled, “How to Kill Student Curiosity in 12 Easy Steps.“ “Each year,” wrote the wags at Alternet, “it seems, our school systems commit themselves ever more profoundly to the corrosive idea that test scores and “instruction” – not learning” – must be prized above all. Alternet drew up its anti-learning list as a complement to Teach Thought’s must-read “12 Characteristics of an iPad Ready Classroom” , which called for a classroom that’s adaptive, dynamic and digital, and instruction that, among other things, is student centered and diverse. courtesy TMWillingham.com “Killing a learner’s natural curiosity doesn’t happen overnight,” Alternet points out. “ It can take as long as twelve years, and in rare cases even that isn’t long enough.” Since a “Curiosity Driven Life” is our hallmark here at LI4E.org, we thought we’d keep the conversation going with our own top 12 list. 1. 2. 3. See #2. 4. Knowledge is as much a journey as a destination. 5.
Venturing into Project Based Learning I’ve been reading about Project Based Learning for some time now, and I struggled trying to find a way to integrate this kind of pedagogy into my regular classroom practice. I think I do a fairly good job of challenging my students and getting them to think beyond the obvious, but my English classes do tend to follow what would be perceived as traditional structure. This last term we studied Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It took us some time to get to this question in one of our planning sessions, but I’m so glad we went to the effort of doing this. Our classroom was full of spirited discussion and some moments where we employed drama techniques, but our intent was to understand the complexities of the play in order to respond effectively in a text response essay at the completion of our study. Ramping up our multimodal task I’m sure we’ve all been there. A “Main Course” project: These points are elaborated here – I suggest you take a look. Sharpening the hook Our student assignment
Project Based Learning Resources (image from education-world.com) Project Based Learning (PBL) is a great way to teach students content, 21st century skills, and engage them in something fun and educational. I spoke more about PBL in an earlier blog ( and we had some great reader comments (Tech&Learning, May 2009, page 14). Today I'd like to give some tips and ideas on how to get started with PBL in your classroom. First of all, PBL can be used in any classroom, in any subject, at any grade level. Projects can be one class period, or take weeks to complete. PBL does take planning. For instance, I teach physics and developed a project for my classes on structures and stress and strain. Another example of PBL is having the students research a topic and present it to the rest of the class through a multimedia presentation, website, or poster. Start small. Another idea for projects is to look at your school or community and see what they need.