Bringing learning to life – Bringing Life to learning!
To start with, I think Project-based learning is the future of education. It puts students into real situations where they have to:
- Act professionally
- be a team player
- understand their assigned role
- Stick to deadlines as a team
- Problem solve
- Project manage
- Communicate ideas
… I could go on for a while here!
Photo by USdagov
These are the skills the world, employers, charities and universities are crying out for, far more than any specific content schools might have traditionally taught. The world is changing too quickly to be concerned with static content and these general skills that enhance one’s ability to learn new things quickly will be key to success in this century.
Fortunately, I don’t have to cover PBL in much detail as there are a number of sites and Youtube channels that do it brilliantly, especially EDUTOPIA and BIE.
Here’s Edutopia’s introduction:
Just one Important distinction!
Project-based learning is not ‘doing projects’. PBL is student-driven and specifically open to interpretation to ensure students learn through carrying out a project and not doing a project pre-designed by the teacher. They are driven to answer a ‘big’ question and carry out their inquiry and design in teams. They are also under pressure to present their results to a third party of some kind. The students decide on how to achieve the goals and are not carrying out teacher-designed tasks.
PBL APPS (version 1)
Here’s my quick representation of PBL by iPad App. The process is not necessary linear but the apps might help you start various stages and help students and teachers understand the task at hand.
EDUWELLS 