And What Do You Mean by Learning? (9780325006390): Seymour Sarason The 8 Elements of Project Based Learning: A Model Project | As most of you know, the uber gods of PBL are BIE. I was first introduced to the BIE PBL ‘model’ from mate Dean Groom who handed me over what I still refer to as my ‘PBL Bible’ – a ring-binder full of the BIE Freebies that help teachers plan effective projects and keep students on track as they move through the different phases of each project. The cool thing is that you can use as much or as little as you want … PBL is a very personal process that (like all good teaching) should be tailored to the expertise and needs of the teacher and students. However, there are 8 Elements of Project Based Learning that can be called the ‘essential elements’ of PBL … keeping an eye on these and ‘testing’ your project design based on them can help you determine if what you’re creating isn’t just a ‘project’. I really like this statement from BIE contrasting PBL and traditional ‘projects’: The Emo Project Here is the project outline that I gave my students: Does the project teach significant content?
CEM Kickoff: Connected Education In The Education Landscape and Day-To-Day The opening sessions of CEM featured a spectacular lineup of thought leaders and influencers. Even the keynotes were highly interactive and audience-driven–as events about online community should be–and we’re sorry if you weren’t able to attend in person. But we can offer you the next best thing–full recordings of every session, video, audio, audience chat, link-sharing, and everything. Connected Education and Peer Professional Development Panelists: Judi Fusco, Scott McLeod, Howard Rheingold, Tom Whitby; Steve Hargadon moderating Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: 21st Century PD Panelists: Cathy Gassenheimer, Jackie Gerstein, Caren Levine, Stephanie Sandifer, Kathy Shrock, Will Richardson; Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach moderating Knocking On The Door: Connected Education and New Technologies Panelists: Drew Davidson, Chris Dede, Cable Green, John Katzman; Steve Hargadon moderating Kickoff Keynote: Deborah Meier Teacher, Principal, Writer, Advocate. Loading
How to select great topics for PBL in Australia | The Playable Classroom The driving question is always a sticking point for teachers new to PBL. Writing a few powerful words in a sentence or two, powerful enough to charge curiosity and enthusiasm is a skill. This is why great copyrighters get paid vast sums for writing relatively little. The driving question, I always found to be an awkward and misleading term. What PBL is trying to do is drive a topic, not a reply to a philosophic question. I prefer to think about topics. PBL in Australia is significantly different to the US (warning to those gazing at US consultancy networks for the answer) – our and their frameworks are significantly different as is the culture and side of the road we drive on. PBL is better (in Australian contexts) to be thought of as topic based. Not every aspect of the Australian curriculum (or a topic in it) is suitable or needs it! So what is the criteria for topics? Like this: Like Loading...
Forum Kickoff: Professional Learning in the Learning Profession This is a recording of (and related links/resources for) the kick-off of Professional Learning and the Learning Profession, one of the main forums for CEM, covering such questions as: What and where are the best (social) opportunities for educators to work on and learn for their practice in the coming year?What steps should every educator consider taking to become more connected, and what are the key resources that can help?In what kinds of learning do teachers (and other educators) need to be engaged in the 21st century, and how will technology help?What are the key methodological and content trends in the classroom (e.g., flipped classrooms, core standards) with which technology (in general) and communities or networks (specifically) can impact and help? The kick-off consisted of panel and open discussion moderated by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. View The Session Need help viewing the program? * Want to continue the discussion, have something you want to say?
In defence of PBL Over the last month or so, I’ve felt increasingly like I’m on the defensive when it comes to project-based learning. I guess the fact that it is starting to become more well-known and teachers outside of the online clique are starting to get interested is turning some people off. No one wants to get caught out supporting a ‘hip’ edu fad, right? But I’m stoked that it’s coming to the attention of more teachers, and even better that it’s coming to the attention of teachers not in the ‘clique’ of online edtech peeps. That means it’s actually going to move from being something people talk about to each other in online spaces, to something that real, working teachers actually do in their classrooms. I am just one parent who has already seen the change that PBL can make to her child’s learning and attitude towards school. So what are some of these criticisms I’m hearing? Like this: Like Loading...
Connected Educator Month 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. We did make a decision early on to plan the unit using the principles of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & Tighe) and this meant we had a driving question to help us focus. 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. Sharpening the hook
A Teacher's Guide to Building a Professional Learning Network (PLN) 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...
Twitter for Teachers: Discover #hashtag PD! When I first joined Twitter about a year ago, I signed on to follow my teenage daughters (stalker mom extraordinaire). Among their group of friends, they frequently used hashtags (#) at the end of their tweets such as #justsayin or #awkward to express their feelings at the time. Some of them are quite amusing! After I began using Twitter for professional reasons to help build my PLN (Personal Learning Network), I saw hashtags being used by people at conferences: #NAIS, #ISTE11, etc. Here’s how it works: With a free tool like TweetDeck (my choice) or Hootsuite, Twitter users can create a search column for #ISTE11 and the software will filter all tweets carrying that hashtag into that column for review. As soon as I grasped this concept, I started keeping track of tweets related to Powerful Learning Practice by keeping a column filtered for #plpnetwork and later #vflr (Voices from the Learning Revolution, where you are now!). Months later, I have an #ahamoment But wait, there’s more!