Project-Based Learning

              Before we can assess our students innovatively, we must teach our students innovatively. One of my favorite instructional approaches is project-based learning in which students engage in authentic learning activities. After a question, problem, or challenge has been presented, the students participate in a motivating and engaging process of inquiry. Groups of students work collaboratively on a project in response to the driving question. The students are held accountable for their individual input as well as the overall final product. Students are also given the opportunity to give and receive feedback, reflect on their process, and make revisions.  

                With an endless supply of information available through the Web, we can hardly expect students to sit through a long lecture to receive information when the same information can be found in seconds using the internet. PBL gives students a chance to learn in a way that is natural to them.

                Students are given a degree of freedom in their research, organization, and presentation. This can be scary as a teacher to let go of some control. The students must learn communication, team work, responsibility, organization, and various ways to present learning. The teacher must teach these prerequisite skills and design and a project that requires students to use 21^st century skills to learn academic content. The teacher must also monitor, manage, and assess student learning.

                Many Web 2.0 tools can be used in PBL. Google docs, wikis, PrimaryPad, and many other tools are available to help students organize, collaborate, and present. www.go2web20.net offers an extensive list of online tools and applications. Not all of these are appropriate for classroom use, but teachers can explore and decide what would be beneficial for their students.

                PBL can be use as the main instructional strategy used in all academic areas, or it can be used on occasion. Projects may vary from a few days to a whole semester and can be used in any grade level in any subject. Teachers can assess student learning by using rubrics that measure objectives displayed in the students’ presentations. Rubrics are a great way to measure meaningful learning. As students use various Web 2.0 tools and presentation software to display their learning, the teacher can have a list of criteria that must be met. A rubric allows the teacher to list what objectives are to be met and to what degree the student demonstrated mastery of these objectives.

                This innovative approach to learning gives students the opportunity to exercise critical skills for the 21^st century such as problem solving, critical thinking, inquiry, collaboration and communication. The students can create something for an audience of more than just the teacher and take pride in their finished product. This is an exciting way to look at the learning process and students may not even realize all that they are learning. This approach is a more natural way to learn and helps students retain information and apply it to real life rather than simply cram for a test and forget the content almost immediately.

BIE.org offers many ideas and resources for PBL.

Integrating Web 2.0 Tools into PBL Webinar

Why Use Web 2.0 Tools in Assessment?

            Assessing 21^st century students does not necessarily mean we must use only Web 2.0 to do so, but it does mean that we must not ignore the fact that our students will need the skills to be able to participate in our increasingly technological and global world. We must also consider what is engaging to students and what will allow them to use higher-order thinking skills. Students are so often forced to express their learning in an outdated, inaccurate, boring written test that requires mostly recall. Why not use Web 2.0 tools that so many students are familiar with to truly assess meaningful learning? Educators can find any excuse to not use these type tools to teach and assess students: not knowledgeable about the tools, not enough access to technology, too complicated, hard to grade, and so on. Let us find some reasons we should use these tools in instruction and assessment.

In college, I had some experience with presentation software and e-portfolios. These forms of assessment were actually fun! I was able to do my own research as well as take what I had learned from class and experience and create something that I could be proud to show to my professors and fellow students. Now, in my masters courses, I am using a blog to showcase what I am learning. Our students are fully capable of using these tools and should be given the opportunity to do so. Learning should not be an uninspiring, tedious process. We as educators are responsible for developing life-long learners who enjoy the learning process. After all, our world is changing so fast that our students must be able to keep up.

Formative assessment is a great way for teachers to monitor learning and check for comprehension of content at intervals. If a student is not grasping a concept, we msut intervene to ensure mastery of knowledge and skills. Blogs are a great way to do this. A teacher could require that students post a weekly blog about what they are learning. The teacher could give certain criteria that must be met in the blog, and the students could have the freedom to express what they have learned in their own words. This type of formative assessment is appropriate for college students all the way down to kindergarten (as I mentioned in my previous  post).

                Summative assessment is critical in order to assess what content students have retained and their overall gain from instruction and experiences. Collaborative wikis are a great way to assess learning at the end of a unit. E-portfolios, such as the one I created at the end of my college career, are a great way to assess learning at the end of a semester or year.

I have attached some links that I found interesting in relation to this topic.

This link shows a great example of how younger students can use blogging and e-portfolios.

This link offers definitions and helpful tips for formative and summative assessment.

To view an example of an e-portfolio I created at the end of my college career, go to this link and type in this pass code: CB1531D8  Then click “Visitor Pass Entry” and click “Beth Graham Professional Portfolio”. You can view each section under “Table of Contents" to the left of the page.

Twitter List

>Link to ED 529 Twitter List<

As I created my Twitter list, I realized the potential use of this tool. For my personal research, this list will be a valuable resource for me to refer to for information, quotes, articles, news, and ideas. As an educator, it is a great way to keep up to date with current technology tools and stay in touch with other professionals in my field. It is also a way to hear what the experts think about current issues. In the tweets of various professionals, I found many links to very informative and useful sources.

Before I began my search, I decided on some criteria for inclusion in my list. I wanted them to be professionals, preferably in the field of education or technology. They had to be mostly professional posts on their profile. I wanted them to be experienced users of various Web 2.0 tools. I was specifically looking for feeds that included tweets about assessment in the 21^st Century. I wanted to focus on formative and summative assessment of digital natives using Web 2.0 tools. I also looked for tweets about authentic assessment and support of metacognition.

This list includes many resources about using technology in the classroom in general. There are many tweets about connectivism, digital citizenship, and 21^st Century learning. I hope that this list will be helpful for education professionals who are looking for ways to integrate technology into their instruction, and particularly assess students in a more meaningful way.

Some of the resources I found during my search really caught my attention. I found several articles about connected learning. In Dr. Scott McCleod’s blog “Dangerously Irrelevant”, he says that learning should be interest-powered, peer-supported, and academically oriented. This kind of learning involves a shared purpose with others who share the same interest, collaboration with various individuals, and connections with other cultures and communities. This blog also shows an infographic that visually represents how this kind of learning works.

Another resource that piqued my interest was “Digital Portfolios for Primary Students!” by Kathy Cassidy. In the past, I have thought that Web 2.0 tools were for secondary students more than elementary students. This article proved me wrong. She shows how primary students are using digital portfolios, podcasts, and blogs to showcase their learning. The students are able to personalize the presentation of their acquired skills and knowledge, and they obviously find this task very exciting.

I admit that exploring Twitter has been challenging for me, but as a growing professional, I enjoy learning new things that will make me a more effective teacher. I have seen how technology has caught the attention of our students, and it is critical for educators to harness that and use it make our instruction more relevant, engaging and modern.