PBL and Technology
Resources to Help You On Your PBL Journey
What is PBL?
Significant Content and 21st Century Skills
In-Depth Inquiry
Students are required to discover meaning rather than simply being frontloaded with information
Tools that can help:
Entry Event
Break the routine, spark interest, raise questions, and leave bread crumbs for your students to follow into the project
Entry Event Ideas:
- Video - find a video or create one that gets your kids excited about the project and gives them hints at what they will be doing
- Guest Speaker - invite in a community partner to talk to your kids and get them excited. Excitement is contagious so let them catch it!
- Field trip - take your kids on a field trip, and it doesn't have to be far away. Consider places your kids might even be able to walk to, like the public library.
- Letter from a Community Partner - Contact a community partner and ask them to write a letter to your students that poses the task or challenge set before them. (It's OK to help your partner write the letter so that key components are sure to one included).
- Skype - If there is someone who would really motivate your students but they can't come to your classroom and you can't go to them ether, Skype with them. You could even have guests from other countries!
Tools that can help:
- http://www.animoto.com
- imovie
Driving Question
Tool that can help:
- Buck Institute's Tubric http://bie.org/object/document/driving_question_tubric
N2K (Need To Know)
Get the students thinking about the skills and information they will need in order to be successful with the project
Tool to help:
Voice and Choice
It is critical for the students to be stakeholders in the project. They must be given voice AND choice.
Tool to help:
- Google Forms
Revision and Reflection
Students need think through what they are doing and why they are doing it
Tools to help:
- Googledocs
- Google Survey
Public Audience
A public audience proves to students that the work they are doing is important and that it matters
Tools for presentations:
Community Partners
Involve EXPERTS and COMMUNITY MEMBERS every chance you get! You might be surprised how willingly your community will participate and give of their time.
Teacher Management
FREE LMS Options:
- http://www.edmodo.com
- http://www.schoology.com
- http://www.haikulearning.com (Will give you one class for free)
- Google has a newly released LMS!
Benchmarks
Additional Resources
- Buck Institute for Education has a plethora of FREE resources, including projects, videos, articles, and wonderful rubrics: http://bie.org/for/teachers
- Buck Institute also provides FREE online courses hosted through Edmodo. These classes aren't held year round, but they are broken down into small chunks so you can focus on one aspect of PBL at a time. They are well worth your time and you can sign up or check out what's offered here: http://pblu.org/classes
- Start simple by using one of pblu's predesigned projects. You can always tweak it to serve your classroom the best, but you can also rest assured that you are addressing all of the components of PBL in your project: http://pblu.org/projects
- Plan to attend the PBL Academy next summer in Indiana. It is a week long institute and it is hands down the best training I have ever attended. This summer (2014) the cost was $20 per day, which included breakfast, lunch, snacks, and FREE child care (they actually had a rocket camp for the kids that was taught by certified teachers - my kids loved it!). Check out the flyer here: http://pblacademy.org
PowerPoint Presentation
Contact Information
Email: jennifer.montgomery@eminence.kyschools.us
Website: www.eminence.kyschools.us
Twitter: @EISMontgomery