Problem Based Learning is NOT the teacher assigning students random topics to research independently. Problem Based Learning is NOT assigning students to design a board game summarizing a book's plot events or themes. It is NOT a diorama, book report, or a skit. (The skit may end up being the culminating product of a PBL project, but its purpose must be to address the PBL's driving question.)
It is not a group project where the high achieving students carry all the weight for the low achieving ones, but everyone earns the same grade. Problem Based Learning can NOT flourish in a vacuum. In a PBL, the teacher does NOT run the show, will NOT work if desks are arranged in perfectly straight rows, if talking is forbidden, and if inquisitive students are perceived as annoying smart-alecks. Culminating PBL products are NOT frilly posters with glitter, buzz words, catch phrases to decorate a classroom, or hallway, or a 5 to 10 page essay or research paper. Problem Based Learning is NOT easy. What PBL Is PBL is so much more than "hands on" learning. It's a teaching and learning experience giving students a choice to explore a real world topic of interest, and a voice to express original verbal or written content. PBL begins when students, under the teacher's guidance when necessary, generate "Driving Questions" which will help students focus their investigations. Critics and skeptics may wonder, "How can students who struggle with literacy, and lack motivation, choose what they want to learn, how they want to learn, and how they will share what they learned with others?" A well designed PBL, properly executed, gives all students, regardless of their learning challenges, an opportunity to not only pursue a topic of interest, but also express his/her voice about that issue. No matter what our station in life is, every human being has a natural desire to learn something. PBL can be the catalyst to engage students and bring back that loving feeling toward learning they once felt as kindergartners. PBL with ELLs and struggling readers may require more preparation and accommodations, but learning through inquiry and discovery should not be exclusive to gifted or high achieving students. All students deserve learning experiences where they must investigate, where they are in charge of generating the questions and finding texts or people who will answer their questions. All students need to experience collaboration, communication, especially with people of diverse backgrounds, deep analysis of a text, problem-solving, creating and sharing original work with real people, not just the teacher.
Students need to practice how to think, not what to think. PBL makes this possible. Students need to learn how to respectfully debate their ideas, and logically support their opinions not only to have a competitive edge in the the 21st century work force, but also to sustain our democratic way of life. PBL also makes this happen. A PBL project takes lots of time and energy, requires teachers plan extensively, model questioning effectively and prepare students so they can take the reigns of learning, discover a solution, plan of action or educated hypothesis about a real world problem they identified in the first place. PBL is about student inquiry of our real world issues, whether they be local, national or global, social, environmental, political, or economic. PBL is also about seeking real world high interest print and non print sources that inspire students to generate driving questions that will guide them in their research, leading them to conduct further investigations, draw conclusions, pose more questions, and ultimately present an original solution, product or content to an authentic audience.
Problem Based Learning Projects Require:
TEACHERS:
STUDENTS:
The key to effective Problem Based Learning involves creating the right conditions in the classroom so PBL can occur. Whether a pre-service teacher, beginning teacher, or veteran, the PBL conditions require teachers have strong classroom management skills and rapport with students, an ability to generate driving questions, and an ability, among many others, to model the skill of asking and answering thought-provoking questions.
In the next series of posts, I will:
discuss each of the 4 steps in the PBL process: Searching, Solving, Creating and Sharing, and what each step entails for both student and teacher, including rubric design, embedding CCSS, assessments and more.
explore what PBL projects in various grade levels and subjects look like in more detail.
provide examples of organizations offering opportunities for global PBL.
share lots and lots of PBL resources and web 2.0 tools that facilitate PBL.
Join me on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 10 AM EST in the Global Education Virtual Conference for a conversation on designing Problem Based Learning Projects using international sources, such as blogs, world newspapers, non-print texts and world literature. I will share lots of ideas, tips and resources for grades K-12 Here's a playlist of worldwide sites which will help students gain global awareness and competence of social, political, economic and environmental issues they may otherwise never know about. These print and non-print sources, initiatives, and PBL guides for teachers will enable students to identify and analyze global issues, motivating them to take action on a local, state, national or global level.
The internet sustains an educator's need to be a life-long learner, to create, share, network and collaborate with others. MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses can provide educators with the means to boldly create and engage with one another for professional and personal development like they've never done before. MOOCs are FREE online courses offered by reputable universities around the world. Anyone can sign up and pay nothing. As a matter of fact, I signed up for a course on E-learning and Digital Cultures taught by the University of Edinburgh that begins January 28th, 2013...paid nothing! (If you want to join me, please sign up. I would love to engage more personally with my followers.)
I can't wait to create my own content, and also interact with my teachers and peers globally to see how they will influence the content and products I will create. MOOCs are different than traditional courses, many following the connectivist learning model, where the learner is in control, and many still being more teacher-centered. In the connectivist MOOCs, or cMOOC, the instructor acts as a facilitator, a coach who models proper online communication, helps learners identify credible content among other roles, but does not "pave the path" for what or how students will learn. Yes, the instructor sets learning goals for students to meet at the end of the course, but it's up to the student to decide if and how those goals are met. For students who enroll in a MOOC for credit, the instructor will be the assessor, as in a traditional class, but for non paying, not for credit participants, the learner both self-assesses and is peer assessed. The instructor provides specific readings and other content, but this teacher selected content is meant to spark conversations among learners, prompting learners to take charge of their own learning. Learners set out to build their own personal learning networks searching for credible content via various credible sources to share with other learners. Learners organize the variety of credible content found and prove they've made sense of it all by creating original digital content in the form of learning spaces, such as a blog, wiki, video, social media, etc. showing what they have learned so everyone can then learn from it.
Although it may sound like learning is haphazard, it's not because the theory behind learning in a connectivist MOOC, or cMOOC, contends there is always chaos in learning, and part of the learning process is for the learner to find effective ways to make sense of that chaos. Learning should be an ongoing process that never ends the way it does now in traditional courses; learning never stops if we continue to have conversations by blogging, tweeting, emailing, videocasting, and creating digital content about the topics and subtopics we set out to learn in the first place (Watch George Siemens, cMOOC pioneer explain.)
It may sound a bit confusing, but just think how learning takes place now. Let's say we're taking a class about incorporating problem based learning in our curriculums. In a traditional course, the teacher selects the content, students read, discuss, and may even create a product, but the learning stops once the course objectives chosen by the school or teacher have been met. The interaction with fellow students is finite, and the teacher and the texts he/she select are the only sources for learners to acquire knowledge.
In a cMOOC, knowledge comes from many credible sources, and learning about the original subject becomes infinite since students create their own original space to learn, whether it be wikis, Twitter hashtags, blogs, videos, FaceBook group pages, Google Hangouts, etc. The interaction about and around the original topics never ends because the students create content in these learning spaces based on the knowledge they gain from the networking experience. Isn't this what life long learning is all about? Passionately pursuing a subject in as much depth as possible and learning not just from one source or from one person, but from a MASSIVE group of people's sources and perspectives? Connectivist MOOCs use aggregation tools to organize participants' individual learning spaces so that students can make sense of it all and then create their own valid digital interpretation.
George Siemens, cMOOCs pioneer explains, "The content isn't what you're supposed to master at the starting point; the content we provide you with at the start should be the catalyst for you to converse to form connections with other learners in the course, with other academics around the world. To essentially use the content as a conduit for connections."
Now, as excited as I am about taking my first Massive Open Online Course, I understand from my research that MOOCs aren't perfect, nothing ever is, and I accept that. From what I've read online, it appears that the Coursera course I'm enrolled in will be more teacher centered, or xMOOC, following a more traditional approach where the learners consume the information from several sources, but don't necessarily get to create an original product. However, whatever my MOOC turns out to be, connectivist or traditional, I think what's perfect about any type of MOOC, for now, is the fact that learning is open and free, monetarily (also, at least for now) and intellectually. I hope I get to choose how I synthesize what I learn, and how I network with participants through a blog, wiki, videocasts, social media or whatever digital format I want. Dave Cormier, another MOOC pioneer who coined the term MOOC, says, "In a MOOC, YOU can choose what you do, how YOU participate, and only YOU can tell, in the end, if you've been successful, just like real life."
What I don't get about MOOCs is why educators haven't leveraged the power of this technology to improve the quality of professional development. I guess the answer to my question is the same as why so many still don't incorporate tech in their classrooms. We really have no excuse now, the power to improve our content knowledge and even our teaching methods is instantly available at no cost.
Whether connectivist or not, I would also love to see MOOCs disrupt the status quo in higher education, so once and for all we realize a test score doesn't determine a student's intellectual worth; there are a gazillion and one ways of learning something, as much as there are a gazillion different sources and presentation formats for the same topic; above all, MOOCs prove every student is worthy of the opportunity for global-networking, problem-solving, and creation to make a valuable contribution in a medium of choice to further his/her learning and the world's.
Check out the video with Dave Cormier explaining how MOOCs work:
Here are some MOOCs you may want to explore for yourself or to recommend to older students:
MOOCs may use both synchronous and asynchronous tools.
cMOOCs encourage students to engage with both teacher and student selected materials throughout the course. The teacher and student select digital content, such videos, guest speakers, blogs, tweets, articles, FB discussions, emails, etc. are meant to spark conversations and interactions so learners can in turn create original content. The content is aggregated so "the massive" group can then "re-mix" the information, creating a solution, product, or outcome.
When participants pay for the MOOC since some students do sign up for college credit, then the learning outcomes are set by the instructor, but when you enroll in a MOOC for no credit, you determine your own learning outcomes. You assess if you met your learning goals, and your peers in the class evaluate you through the level of engagement you receive on your culminating or ongoing digital product.
As a teacher there are learning management systems allowing you to create your own MOOC like courses. Visit Canvas-Instructure. I'm working on creating a course now for sharing my ideas on problem/passion based learning. Look for a future blog post about this.
I recently moved to upstate New York, near Fort Ticonderoga, a historic gem which I am embarrassed to admit neither my children, nor I ever had a chance to learn about in history books or visit in person until a few months ago. Although, my family and I have been lucky enough to do some extensive traveling in and out of the United States, after visiting the Fort, I began to think about so many places, museums, and historic sites, I will never have the opportunity of visiting and learning about in person, whatever the logistical reasons may be.
However, I have realized interactive technology can make travel around the world possible for students of all ages. I started thinking about how web 2.0 encourages virtual travel when I learned about Thinglink.com, a tool that lets you upload images and make them interactive by adding links to any site be it music, video, text, or another image to enhance the original uploaded image. For example, view a picture of the Eiffel Tower on Thinglink with links to its sights, sounds and history. Thinglink.com got me thinking how traveling to exotic places, meeting new people and learning a new language or culture need no longer be hampered by logistics. Thinglink.com and other web 2.0 lets students become armchair travelers, well traveled curators of information from around the world.
Exploring the features and possibilities for learning with Thinglink.com, I also got to thinking:
How are museums and historic sites around the world using web 2.0 and social media to make their sites more accessible for a virtual experience?
How are museums and historic sites distributing their exhibits, history and instruction to reach visitors far beyond their physical walls?
How are educational programs in these organizations leveraging the power of free web 2.0 tools, social media and MOOCS to expand learning on a global scale for students of all ages and means?
How globally participatory and networked are the current program in museums and famous sites around the world?
Seeking answers for my questions, what I discovered available in terms of virtual tours of natural landmarks, historic sites and museums left me as amazed as if I were visiting the places themselves. First, let me tell you about the Google Art project and Google World Wonders Project. With Google Art, I didn't have to drive four hours to visit The Museum of Modern Art in New York city. I took an up, close and personal tour, observing every brushstroke of Van Gogh's Starry Nightwithout ever leaving my home thanks to the same technology Google uses when we zoom in and out of Google Maps.
The Google Art Project works in conjunction with 17 museums worldwide which integrate web 2.0 tools and social media to increase virtual and physical visitor accessibility, engagement, connection and learning to create a global community. Virtual visitors can sign into their Google accounts to curate their favorite pieces from different galleries, post comments and then share via social media. How cool is that!
Second, Google World Wonders took my breath away! Using the Street View technology of Google Earth and Google Maps, aptly named Google World Wonders gives virtual visitors a 360 degree view of 132 historic natural and man made sites in 18 countries, including Stonehenge, Yosemite and Yellowstone! And, just when I thought it couldn't get better than this, the site also provides educators with free primary and secondary sources, presentations and lesson plans! Teaching history, geography or any subject really takes on a novel approach because students can now virtually visit world sites and not just imagine what they look like from looking at a 2-D picture in a book. With MentorMob another free web 2.0 that lets you curate what you want to learn about, making virtual travel possible as well by creating or visiting playlists of favorite audio, video, text, or image links, I have created a playlist of Virtual Field Trips available for students. Free web tools like Thinglink.com and MentorMob allow students to travel around the country, let's say from Crater Lake, Oregon to Mount Rushmore, or basically anywhere you can think of, seeing, hearing and experiencing the sites through audio, and video links that take people there virtually. Now, for the purposes of this post, I explored MentorMob and Thinglink, but imagine the myriad of free web 2.0 tools historic sites and museums can use to make learning accessible not just for K-12 schools in a particular region, but for K-12 schools around the world. Imagine the partnerships schools can form with these organizations to hold virtual field trips and chats using social media engaging in a learning experience that may not otherwise happen in the physical world due to costs. Through an endless array of interactive tech including, blogs, wikis, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, ScoopIt, etc., museums and historic sites can extend their experience well before and after a physical or virtual visit through forums, message boards,image, video and audio sharing. The possibilities for engagement are never ending! Here is a playlist of museums that are already taking advantage of offering a virtual experience, and sites which offer videoconferencing for virtual field trips to other places of interest. Also be sure to visit NoodleTrip.com, an online directory of virtual field trips and distance learning opportunities. From an interactive tour of the White House, to the inside of the Sistine Chapel, the opportunities for virtual learning through virtual tours are limitless!
I also want to include information about an interesting article I read on MOOCS. Again, I think about the power of open source education, and its future use by historical sites like Fort Ticonderoga near my home, and thousands of other museums and historical sites around the world where the possibilities for teaching and learning for students of all ages are endless. What if museums and historic sites began offering their workshops via MOOCS?
How are historic places and museums beginning to use web 2.0 tools so that students don't have to just dream of ever visiting these notable sites?
Will there ever be a time when anyone can visit a noteworthy site and learn virtually regardless of logistical issues?
In an ideal world, no one should ever be denied the opportunity travel the world to learn because they don't have the means to do it; interactive technology opens up opportunities for virtual travel because we all deserve the experience to discover our shared human history. If museums, and historic sites exist to remind us of our past, present and future and inspire wonder about our existence...if we want to learn, evolve so we are more globally connected and tolerant, then we should all have access to experience these sites, whether physically or virtually. Interactive technology invites us to explore the world together!
Assign a random or irrelevant writing prompt with teacher as sole audience or an unknown audience.
Expect impeccable writing skills from every student.
Skip any type of modeling of the type of writing to be done. Students should all know how to write by now.
Provide no rubric, or checklist or give rubrics and checklists students don't understand.
Complain when students don't live up to high expectations; blame the previous year's teacher(s) for students' inability to write.
Accumulate piles of student writing assignments on or underneath desk, on empty book shelves, all over other classroom spaces, or scatter them on floor of the backseat of a car.
Tell students and parents you have a tendency to lose writing assignments so they need to keep extra copies.
Procrastinate grading student writing for months. Spend weekend before grades are due grading students' writing, including lengthy comments on every student's paper about skills students are clueless about.
Mark up almost every grammar mistake in red, purple, pink or green.
Return writing assignment a month later with a letter grade; let students trash it, or file writing away in student folders never to be seen again.
Repeat every few weeks, and complain all year students can't write to save their lives!
How do students learn writing is a process without ever speaking to their teachers at different stages of writing?
How do students learn how to interpret and apply feedback to correct mistakes and grow as writers if writing is returned to them without any chance of conversation to understand and correct errors?
So many students develop a negative attitude about the writing process and their own ability to express themselves in writing because there is no modeling or discussion at different stages of the writing process. Prompts are assigned; students write in isolation; teachers grade and return writing without discussion; writing piece is never seen again. Then, we wonder why so many colleges now require freshmen writing courses to ensure students have basic writing skills to survive.
SOLUTIONS: One of the most important activities when teaching writing is the act of conferencing with students. In so many classrooms, overcrowding, time constraints, and lack of teacher training in teaching writing, among other factors, prevent students from experiencing what it means to talk about writing so they can grow as writers. There's nothing more damaging to student writers, especially a struggling reader/writer, than a writing assignment without any teacher modeling of the type of writing to be done, and no opportunity to talk with the teacher throughout the writing process.
Individual writing conferences with students serve many purposes, save time in the long run, and improve students' writing ability, and confidence in the power of editing and revising. In the beginning stages, conferencing with students involves concerted time and effort for the teacher to establish routines and structures for students to internalize. Conferencing is not easy and can be exhausting at first; however, the time and energy teachers dedicate to teaching the act of conferencing are well worth it because ultimately, student teacher conferences reduce the amount of time teachers spend identifying fault in student writing so they can focus instead on what's right.
There are many tech tools with specific features which facilitate and complement writing conferences. For example, on Word or Google Docs, teachers can use the "Insert Comment" feature to add feedback prior to a face to face writing conference. Adding these written comments and following-up with a conference to discuss the comments are always the most effective way for students to benefit from the feedback; otherwise, written feedback, without a one-on-one discussion, will often fall on deaf ears...or should I say eyes. Struggling writers will rarely read teacher comments or understand how to apply the feedback to improve their writing because they simply haven't been taught how. There has to be an opportunity to talk with the teacher about the feedback for growth to occur. We want students to internalize basic writing traits but circling them in red ink accomplishes nothing; we have to talk about the mistakes with students individually or in small groups. We must ask students questions as they write so they learn how to ask themselves questions.
Unfortunately, so many classrooms are often overcrowded with 40 plus students making conferencing difficult, but teachers must find creative ways to overcome this problem. Here are some tips for formal and informal writing conferences:
If class time is not long enough, use tech tools likeVyew.com,Skype, Collaborizeclassroom, orGoogle Hangoutsto hold individual writing conferences after school while students are at home. You can even involve parents if you like to participate during the writing conference.
Pair up students according to their writing strengths and challenges so they can mentor each other prior to their individual conference. Be sure not to pair an extremely low student with an extremely high achieving student. The point is not for one student to do all the work for another, but rather for both to be able to help each other identify areas for improvement. Model what effective peer editing looks and sounds like. Provide students with a list of questions they need to ask themselves and their partner about each others' writing. Have students read their writing aloud.
Plan ahead and prepare. What will students do while you are busy conferencing with individual students? Prior to holding conferences, provide specific instruction of writing tasks students should perform independently, in pairs or small groups. Discuss norms beforehand and let students know exactly what you expect them to do. Be sure to discuss what you expect in terms of noise level, interruptions, mobility and work completion while you are conferencing.
Structure informal and formal conference sessions so students receive the time and attention they need. Walk around the classroom, stopping by to "chat" with students as they write to monitor student progress, answer questions and provide encouragement. Determine at what stages in the writing process you want to formally confer with students or set up a sign-up sheet so students choose when they are ready to confer. Also, determine how you will follow-up when necessary. Spend between 5 to 15 minutes per student in class, but obviously, if students need more time, schedule a time before, after school, in person or online using one of the tech tools mentioned. If students are working on a longer piece, prior to conferencing, reading through a writing piece to pinpoint skills or traits you want to address saves time as well as having students generate questions they want answered about their writing. Having a checklist of traits and questions to address during the conference can also help move the conference along smoothly.
Monitoring and assessing mastery of skills can also be done through conferencing. Keep notes on each student about the skills or traits discussed at each conference. If you identify a particular skill a student needs to master, make note of it and follow up with that student to assess student mastery. During the editing and revising process, allow students plenty of opportunities to write drafts until they are able to show mastery of the skill or trait discussed.
Focus on a few traits or skills at a time so that the entire writing workshop process is not overwhelming for both teacher and student. The goal is for students to show growth even if it's just one minor aspect of their writing. Significant growth will happen over time after extensive writing practice and opportunities to conference.
ask and answer questions about the writing craft they may hesitate to ask in a large group.
discuss specific aspects about a writing piece at various stages of the writing process.
brainstorm ideas with the teacher's guidance.
read writing aloud to the teacher to learn how to edit and revise.
learn why we write and how to improve their own writing.
learn how to interpret teacher feedback and generate feedback for a peer.
learn how to carry out the role of peer editor through the experience of the teacher-student conference.
internalize specific writing skills because of the opportunity to talk about, practice and apply the specific skill.
If we want our students to be effective writers, then we must talk with them about their writing. We must be introspective about how we teach writing, so we can teach students to become introspective about their own writing. Writing cannot be a silent or solitary activity. Regardless of age or ability level, all students have a voice worthy of expression in writing. Tech tools today complement writing conferences and help teachers overcome whatever issues may have prevented writing workshop success in the past. Writing conferences build a community of writers and thinkers. When we empower students to talk about writing, students' natural desire for self-expression will always prevail over choosing to be off-task.
Critics and skeptics may wonder, "How can students who struggle with literacy, and lack motivation, choose what they want to learn, how they want to learn, and how they will share what they learned with others?" A well designed PBL, properly executed, gives all students, regardless of their learning challenges, an opportunity to not only pursue a topic of interest, but also express his/her voice about that issue. No matter what our station in life is, every human being has a natural desire to learn something. PBL can be the catalyst to engage students and bring back that loving feeling toward learning they once felt as kindergartners. PBL with ELLs and struggling readers may require more preparation and accommodations, but learning through inquiry and discovery should not be exclusive to gifted or high achieving students. All students deserve learning experiences where they must investigate, where they are in charge of generating the questions and finding texts or people who will answer their questions. All students need to experience collaboration, communication, especially with people of diverse backgrounds, deep analysis of a text, problem-solving, creating and sharing original work with real people, not just the teacher. 
