Project-Based Learning Made Easy

1. Project-Based Learning Made Easy Teaching the Net Generation: Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Challenge of 21st Century Learning 10 to 11 September  Cebu City, Philippines Sonia M. Alensub, Ph.D. 10 September 2008

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Works Cited Arinto, 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