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Recommended Books/Articles
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Good Video Games + Good Learning by James Paul Gee
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I'm not a huge fan of assigning homework because many of my students seem to end up refusing to do it, but on the first day of school I assigned something that almost every one of my students completed. The assignment was to play a video game for 20 minutes then answer a few questions on a work sheet. The questions revolved around the learning process that goes in to playing a video game, picking up clues by reading the screen, figuring out puzzles, and also how to get help when stuck.
The next day, I told my students that this year they were going to learn government and geography as if they were learning a video game. Using PBL as a tool, I gave complex questions and some, but not all, tools to find the answers, then made them demonstrate it to me, just as is done in video games. My students didn't believe they were learning anything while playing and many felt as if their brain was shut off. Far from it, I told them. When I asked how many of them had ever fallen asleep watching television, the entire class raised their hand. When I asked how many had fallen asleep playing video games, no one did. Contrary to what many mothers say, video games don't rot your brain, instead they stimulate your mind. These are some of the ideas presented to us in John Paul Gee's book, Good Video Games + Good Learning. He describes the value video games has on learning development but also notes that learning really takes place when reflection is added in afterward, just as it is in PBL. |
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The Main Course, Not Dessert
How Are Students Reaching 21st Century Goals with 21st Century Project Based Learning? by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller |
One of the first articles I read on the topic of PBL was found on the BIE website. This helped answer some questions I didn't know I had: Do I teach before the starting PBL or during? I'm doing projects, isn't that the same? What else besides content are students learning?
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Teaching critical thinking skills through project based learning
by John Mergendoller |
Critical thinking is difficult to define and therefor difficult to teach. This article helps to identify how critical thinking is readily available to teach through project based learning.
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This is likely the next step for someone beginning the transition from direct instruction to project based learning after reviewing this website. The PBL 101 workbook was a huge help initially in learning how to run PBL, but I found myself referring back to the workbook often during my first year.
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Links
www.bie.org
The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is considered the premier organization for promoting and teaching PBL by many, if not all, PBL teachers. The wealth of information regarding PBL on this website is staggering and it is filled with a lesson bank of high quality, free PBL lessons for almost every subject, that can be printed out and used immediately.
www.edutopia.org
Published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Edutopia is a source that advocates and promotes innovative teaching, such as PBL, in schools.
www.pbl-online.org
BIE, the George Lucas Foundation, and the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University provide another great source for PBL as well as access to a lesson bank that, once you have registered, can add to, get ideas from, or use in your classrooms.
http://www.learningreviews.com/Project-Based-Learning-Lesson-Plans.html
Another source of lessons for every subject and grade level.
www.edmodo.com
Edmodo is like Facebook for school. It is a great and safe way to have students collaborate, post work online, speak with students outside of classroom hours, and administer quizzes online. One huge benefit is to join communities, specifically the BIE community where teachers routinely post projects they have created, many times relating to current events.
The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is considered the premier organization for promoting and teaching PBL by many, if not all, PBL teachers. The wealth of information regarding PBL on this website is staggering and it is filled with a lesson bank of high quality, free PBL lessons for almost every subject, that can be printed out and used immediately.
www.edutopia.org
Published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Edutopia is a source that advocates and promotes innovative teaching, such as PBL, in schools.
www.pbl-online.org
BIE, the George Lucas Foundation, and the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University provide another great source for PBL as well as access to a lesson bank that, once you have registered, can add to, get ideas from, or use in your classrooms.
http://www.learningreviews.com/Project-Based-Learning-Lesson-Plans.html
Another source of lessons for every subject and grade level.
www.edmodo.com
Edmodo is like Facebook for school. It is a great and safe way to have students collaborate, post work online, speak with students outside of classroom hours, and administer quizzes online. One huge benefit is to join communities, specifically the BIE community where teachers routinely post projects they have created, many times relating to current events.