Project-Based Learning Made Easy

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challengeof 21st Century Learning10 to 11 September Cebu City, Philippines

Sonia M. Alensub, Ph.D.

10 September 2008

What is Project-Based Learning?

• PBL• a systematic teaching method that engages

students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

Elements of PBL

• An essential question• Specific learning activities and tasks• Definite ending point: product/outcome• Built-in assessment of progress• Combination of group and individual work• Reflections on a regular basis

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

PBL Teaches 21st Century Skills

• Communication and presentation skills• Organization and time management skills• Research and inquiry skills• Self-assessment and reflection skills• Group participation and leadership skills

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

PBL In Our College Curriculum

• Create and apply PBL in unit plans for unit portfolios that pre-service teachers are expected to develop in the Educational Technology courses (Ed 105A and Ed 105B)

• One of the instructional approaches taken up in Principles of Teaching (Ed 107N)

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

First Challenge Encountered

• How to make PBL real and easy to Second Year and Third Year students who are still enrolled in or have just completed the general education courses

• little exposure to real classroom situations and still starting to learn about the principles and methods of teaching

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

How I Taught PBL: Ed 105A

• Present the ready-made multimedia presentation on PBL

• Tell my students to come up with project-based activities

• Tell them to plan for the technology support for these activities

• The result: No PBL ( show samples of unit plans)

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

How I Taught PBL: Ed 105B

• Evaluate the unit portfolios that students started in Ed 105A

• Conduct an enhancement activity on “PBL Units” where they were instructed to: turn samples activities into PBL then, later, develop their own PBL ideas

• Still, PBL seemed something abstract to them

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

How I Taught PBL: Ed 105B

• Conducted the activities on designing web-enhanced learning activities in conjunction with the end-of-the-semester topic on online treasure hunts and web quests

• Result: in a week’s time, Ed 105B students were able to create PBL activities when they designed WebQuests

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

Is a WebQuest a PBL Activity?

• A WebQuest is “an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing”.

• It is “an inquiry-based activity developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March in 1955 at the San Diego State University”.

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

Is a WebQuest a PBL Activity?

• The elements of a WebQuest are elements of PBL

• Both: are inquiry- and technology-based; involve learners in taking roles and doing tasks; promote collaboration; expect learners to create products; have built-in assessment and reflection activities; teach 21st century skills; and target higher-order thinking skills

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

Challenges

• Teachers have to be creative and patient, lifelong learners/researchers, the first ones to open “new portals of information”, and ensure sustainability of technology-supported learning activities

• How can I reprogram the activities on “Designing WebQuests” to suit the needs of pre-service teachers within a limited time frame?

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

Reflections

• Students believed that using WebQuests in the classroom would definitely change the way they teach and their role would have to shift to being a facilitator/guide/mentor.

• If I were to teach PBL again, I would conduct the activities on “Designing WebQuests” in Ed 105A, right after the multimedia presentation on PBL.

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning

Works CitedArinto, Patricia B. “WebQuests: An Overview”. Web_Enhanced Learning Activities: An

Instructional Design Workshop. FIT-ED, 2005.

Dodge, Bernie. “Some Thoughts About WebQuests”. 1997. San Diego State University. 18 Aug 2008 <http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html>

“Project-Based Learning”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Aug 2008. 13 Aug 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning>

“Project-Based Learning: Bridging the Gap Between Education and Technology”. Intel Teach to the Future: Pre-service Curriculum (v. 2.0). Intel Corporation, 2005.

“What is Project-Based Learning?”. 18 Aug 2008 <http://pbl-online.org/About/whatisPBL.htm>

Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning