As you begin your journey through project based learning, you need to remember how all encompassing it is. And that there is an investment of time and preparation in advance as a teacher and then the focus and locus of control shifts more to the students.
It is hands on and collaborative and builds team work. Technology is an integral part of PBL. It's empowering for students and teachers and should be considered a journey. We need to remember that today's students are technology ready. And that projects are worth doing. This is real world experience for students and they will learn a great deal.
We need to view blogs and various websites and get very comfortable with technology. We need to know the foundations that sponsor this type of learning, Edutopia, Bill and Melinda GAtes Foundation, etc. And to focus your journey and itnerests there are sites for social bookmarking such as Furl, del.icio.us, and Flickr that will help you gather ideas. PBL also means that you think of creative ways to classroom manage and how we assess students and ourselves.
There are numerous benefits to PBL. Students develop commuication, inquiry, and flexibility skills. Student's learning becomes richer and larger. The focus on inquiry and student engagement and empowerment is really important in today's classroom.
I like how you said that students are technology ready. Since kids now are immersed into technology at such a young age we are well aware that kids younger than us are more prepared when it comes to technology however I feel as though a number of people see this in a negative light. That they know how to work the television or a game system because all they do is stare at it all day but when you said that they are ready it made me see it as a good thing, and that they're eager to learn.
ReplyDeleteI like that you bring up the fact that it is a time consuming effort. Unlike the "traditional teaching method" where there is a strict, easy to follow lesson plan used every day, and is often made up a day or two before the actual lesson, a project used in the PBL method can take months or even a year prior to plan out and account for all of the kinks and possible issues the project may have down the road.
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