Project Based Learning

Curriculum driven by Pro Ject structure, typically inter-disciplinary

http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/01/project.php

Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic43.htm

http://www.projectapproach.org/

http://www.edutopia.org/start-pyramid

http://delicious.com/tag/PBL

Buck Institute For Education http://www.bie.org/

The Coolest School In America ISBN:1578861861 about the creation of the EdVisions Minnesota New Country School

I'm not a huge fan of the book Reinventing Project Based Learning.

Jeff Robin of High Tech High on the importance of Planning, Management, and Exhibition.

Aug'2011: Jane Krauss is Crowd Sourcing "ProjectSketches".

compared to Problem Based Learning.

Hmm, I wonder whether a Project needs to be Iterative so the student can "try again".

• at the very least, every Project should have a Post Mortem for Reflective Thought on what possible next steps might be, or what problems/challenges were hit, which ones may have been avoidable, how one might totally re-do given that hindsight, etc.
• Apr'2012 thought: should Projects be specifically designed to be Wicked (at least after a few years of "normal" projects)? That guarantees non-formularity...

Yet, in Raising Kids, there's nothing I dread more than a danged Project. Why is this?

• The deliverable is still just documentation, whether a written report or presentation. Sometimes an art artifact which is supposed to be driven from some complex learning.

  • since it doesn't do anything, there's no independent D And D FeedBack

• The kids have to mostly do it at home, alone. Meaning it's really Parent Based Learning.

• The real meta-project is often to teach them Time Management. But they don't really get taught that, so it just becomes the parent's job (at least into Middle School) to track milestones, quality, etc.

• Another meta-project might be physical Arts And Crafts work, but since there's limited time available, and a project-level grade at stake, there's no room for Trial And Error on this, so it falls back to Parent Based Learning.

• There's not enough time for Iterative development.

• Variants:

  • Design Thinking 2012-08-23-McintoshDesignThinkingVsPbl
  • High Tech High vs BIE: 2012-08-28-ZhaoWorldClassLearners

Likewise, until maybe Business School, I found "Group Projects" to be a pain. Why?

• again, same old boring outcome, only bigger/messier

• output hard to separate-then-reintergrate, so too much coordination hassle

• any Real Time coordination a hassle to schedule/follow

• dealing with variable efforts or outcomes per individual a nasty thing for a kid to deal with

• Dec'2011: Bryan Caplan thinks scoring changes can solve the problem. Interesting comments.

I've started to collect Stimulating Learning Projects.