Are you wondering how to engage students in more real-world learning? Are you looking for inspiration for and examples of project-based learning that connects students and adults with authentic issues challenging our citizenry? I am. John Hunter, Jamie Baker, and The Martin Institute help me do so…
“World Peace Game Creator John Hunter Named Martin Institute Fellow”
Press release from January 5, 2012, by The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence…gives details of partnership between Martin Institute and John Hunter, provides information on film about John Hunter’s classroom approach, and offers dates for summer institute on developing curriculum and instruction that innovates like the World Peace Games
“#PBL examples, courtesy of TEDxWomen”
Blog post from January 11, 2012, on It’s About Learning – about finding examples and inspirations for PBL…links to two other posts about PBL
Whatever it is I think I see becomes a PBL to me! [sung to the tune of 1977 Tootsie Roll commercial embedded below]
If you were alive and watching TV in the mid to late 1970s, then perhaps you remember this 30 second advertisement from Tootsie Roll…
Simply replace “tootsie roll” in the jingle with “PBL.” Occasionally, my wife and sons will catch me singing this around the house. Truly, just about everything I see becomes a PBL idea to me. This visioning, though, is the result of purposeful and deliberate practice, as I have tried to grow in my capacity to develop “uppercase PBL” opportunities.
On January 4, 2012, I published a blog post about “Contemplating pbl vs. PBL.” In the post, I constructed a two-by-two matrix that helps explain how I think one can move along a spectrum of “lowercase pbl” (essentially project-oriented learning) to “uppercase PBL” in which learners are addressing genuine community challenges and engaging with authentic audiences of co-interested citizens. But how does one even think of such capital PBL ideas?
Based on countless conversations over the past few years, I get the feeling that more than a few educators struggle with the notion of originating and implementing uppercase PBL ideas. Actually, I think the struggle resides more in the implementation than in the origination, but that may need to be its own separate blog post. For now, let’s stick to the topic of originating, or concepting, the uppercase PBL ideas – creating the grand challenges that tend to integrate studies and promote community engagement from our student-learners and ourselves.
A Habit of Seeing and Recording
Concepting and brainstorming ideas for PBL is as simple as developing a habit of seeing and recording. Some may feel that such is easier said than done, but I believe it is really that easy. To form a habit, of course, one must commit to trying and rehearsing. Anyone with vision can develop a habit of seeing and recording, but it does take practice – just like anything else. In today’s world, though, the tools at our disposal make it easier and easier to develop a habit of seeing and archiving potential PBL ideas. Keeping a digital observation journal is a fabulous practice and discipline, if you want to build a resource pool of possible PBL opportunities.
I imagine there are countless ways to keep an observation journal. In essence, though, an observation journal is simply a space in which to record thoughts, questions, and images about the things that one sees while walking around. Because I almost always have my iPhone in my pocket, I rely heavily on this tool to keep my observation journal. As I walk around school and the greater Atlanta area, I often take pictures of things that raise my curiosity. For example, over the Christmas and winter break, I walked my dog quite a bit, and I captured the following images around a few bridges traversing Nancy Creek – the bridges are very close to my school, and Nancy Creek runs through my school campus.
Just from recording these images with my iPhone, I am wondering about fieldwork investigations of the science, math, economics, and history of Nancy Creek. Myriad questions come to mind…
What is the water quality of Nancy Creek? How does it change over a year’s cycle? What kind of life is supported by Nancy Creek? Is it safe for my boys and dog to play in Nancy Creek?
What data is collected by that big metal box? How does it collect the data? Where does the data go? Who uses the data and how is it used? How could schools help the organization named on the sticker? Could students participate in this data journalism of Nancy Creek?
What was the significance of the Nancy Creek area during the Civil War? What is it’s economic and ecological significance now?
Often, to record these images and questions, I upload my pictures and observations to an email-based blog system called Posterous. Then, with categories and tags added, I am developing a significant library of PBL ideas. In Synergy, we use a group Posterous account (see related post) so that all 26 of us are contributing to the pool of potential project ideas. During the first semester, we accumulated over 400 observation-journal posts. Out of those posts, we developed six projects together.
Imagine if a school faculty and/or the entire student body employed such a school-group Posterous (or any such collaborative tool for seeing and archiving) to collectively organize a virtual fleet of observation journal ideas! The PBL opportunities could be endless!
To develop such a habit of seeing and recording is to follow the initial practices espoused in design thinking:
At Design Thinking for Educators, where the above image was screen captured, this five-stage process of designing is more fully explained. For now, though, just think of observation journaling as a means into “discovery and ideation.” As one takes pictures and records questions for one’s observation journal, one is also engaging in a bit of “interpretation.” By posing questions and potential research curiosities, we begin to interpret what we are seeing, as we begin to formulate what projects could emerge from such wondering. To engage in such design thinking is to return to our roots as childhood learners. As Robert Fulghum has said, “LOOK!” may be the most powerful word we articulate (after mama and dada, of course!). And Mary Ann Reilly, in a recent post about “Making Art & (In)Forming Life,” reminds us of the power and potential of observation. We just have to re-open our eyes to that which we might have started to take for granted. We need to teach ourselves to see again…with that childhood enthusiasm for discovery!
A Key for Innovation
Relearning and leveraging our amazing human capacity for seeing is not just a fun way to generate ideas and enjoy the possibilities of challenge in school curricula and instruction. Seeing – as a multi-step, complex system of discovery, interpretation, and ideation – may be the key to educational innovation. In my eyes, innovation is about dreaming, teaming, seaming, and streaming. To dream is to envision. To dream is to “see” with more of our senses and being. To dream is to contemplate what could be.
May we dream big for our schools and our students. May we dream big for the challenges our world faces. Here’s to seeing…together.
If you are a student, educator, parent, or other-labeled learner, then do you ever wonder about this acronym “PBL?” In my daily work, I hear people ask such questions as, “Does it stand for ‘project-based learning’ or ‘problem-based learning?'” I hear others respond, “I thought it stood for ‘place-based learning.'” Still others ask, “Is PBL the same thing as CBL (Challenge-Based Learning) or DBL (Design-Based Learning)?” And a host of others curiously wonders, “Isn’t PBL just inquiry-driven instruction?” I hear some 30-year veterans declare that they’ve been doing PBL forever, and I work with master educators of various career stages that puzzle and struggle with the complexities of PBL…wondering if they’ll ever be able to “do PBL.”
I may spend the better part of a full-life career in education contemplating and practicing PBL. Personally and professionally, I find PBL fascinating and a critical component to all this talk about 21st century teaching and learning, as well as to school transformation. For me, I can think of at least a few major waypoints on my path of better understanding the depth and breadth of PBL.
Becoming a middle-school principal and realizing that all of my real-world work, all day long, is project-based…and that I am supposed to prepare students for life in the “real world.”
Serving in a sabbatical that was largely geared to understand more of how the “real-world” works in projects.
Watching my two sons, currently ages 7 and 4, emerge in the world as master learners…simply because they are humans. Realizing in a “duh” moment, that has lasted for years, that their learning is primarily project-based…or passion-based…or problem-based…or place-based. And starting #FSBL (Father-Son Based Learning) as a Twitter hashtag to chronicle some of how my sons and I explore and discover in order to learn stuff that fascinates us!
Reading, studying, and immersing myself in the book The Falconer, by Grant Lichtman (who is now an invaluable colleague).
Undertaking a multiyear project to operationalize my research in 21st century learning – and to enact a Falconer-type class – by creating and co-facilitating a course known as Synergy (community-issues problem solving, transdisciplinary, non-graded but heavily assessed).
Connecting with Jonathan Martin, currently at St. Gregory School – especially over a blog-based discussion about PBL (examples here and here).
And, in the last month, I may just have added another significant waypoint on my path to understand better the depth and breadth of PBL. In September 2010, I read an article in Educational Leadership, but I have only recently returned to the article to study it intensely – because my team of PLC (Professional Learning Community) facilitators is using the article to support the creation of a lesson study devoted to PBL.
For over a year, I have been thinking about the spectrum which is PBL. For PBL is not a monolithic construct, nor a dichotomous light switch. PBL is a spectrum, and I think of the spectrum as ranging from lowercase “pbl” to uppercase “PBL.” Well, what in the world causes a learning experience to move along the spectrum from lowercase pbl to uppercase PBL? I think a number of factors contribute to this spectrum location and dynamic. Two such factors are: 1) degree of focus on a community issue, and 2) connection to an authentic audience. [In future blog posts, I may discuss a number of the other contributing factors.]
Students might replicate the kinds of tasks done by professionals—but even better, they might create real products that people outside school use. (from “7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning”)
And…
Schoolwork is more meaningful when it’s not done only for the teacher or the test. When students present their work to a real audience, they care more about its quality. (from “7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning”)
In my opinion, there are sound reasons why teachers and schools should pursue projects all along this spectrum. There are appropriate times for operating in the lower left quadrant, as well as appropriate times for operating in the upper right quadrant. But the more we work in the upper right quadrant, the more that we uppercase and capitalize the PBL. Ultimately, if education and learning are about making a positive difference in this world, then perhaps we are all striving to engage in more work at the upper right quadrant.
What do you think?
[That’s all the time I have to write this morning, and I want to publish this post 24 hours prior to our PLC-Facilitator meeting on Thursday morning, so, like most things, this is a work in progress!]
What’s Coming Up on It’s About Learning? How I use observation journaling to discover and ideate about possible PBL opportunities… Stay tuned!
As usual, Heidi Hayes Jacobs makes some intriguing and thought-provoking points. Among them…
Are we educators studying television literacy and its effect on learning, especially given its force relative to print media? If not, why not?
Are we upgrading (making strategic replacements of outdated curriculum)?
Are we keeping “classroom curiosity” lists to archive the fascinating questions and researching of our learners? Or are we too busy “covering what has to be covered?”
“I can’t think of a better time to be a public learner…which is what you must be if you want to teach.”
Social production democratizes learning.
Take 17 minutes and explore theses and other provocations yourself. Or don’t.
[Note: In her talk, Heidi mentions “contagion” from a video that kicked off TEDxNYED. I bet that is Kiran Bir Sethi’s TED talk. If you have not seen it, and if you are interested in PBL with a “capital P,” then watch it. Or don’t.]
When students reach a certain age and responsibility level, I believe that school should permit – promote even – the use of various social media tools. I think we should “Be safe and teach them to drive.” If we truly are preparing students to lead and serve in a changing world, then we should teach students to utilize respectfully and responsibly the methods and processes that can be used in an engaged and purposeful citizenry. Literacy in today’s terms essentially demands that schools take an active role in educating our learners about how to connect with others from whom we can learn and with whom we can contribute to causes of import and worth.
I regularly think and engage with others about the reasons why students should or should not be allowed to use social media as part of school. These sessions, of course, include the opportunities, as well as the potential consequences. Perhaps soon, I will try to write a post that summarizes more of these ledger items, arranged as assets and liabilities. For now, though, I am focusing on two aspects of social media that I crave for my students: 1) encouragement and interaction from a wider, more authentic audience, and 2) opportunities to engage in civil discourse to develop one’s thinking and understanding.
1. Encouragement and Interaction from a Wider, More Authentic Audience
I know @occam98 personally; we work together at the same school. As a colleague and as an educator, I admire and respect @occam98, and I value his feedback and encouragement. To my knowledge, though, I have never met @bauerphysics. Because @occam98 tweeted about my blog, I now have encouragement and support from another educational thinker and teacher. Such feedback is wonderful. And, thanks to these two immediate responses, I may garner more comments on the actual blog post that will help me further to develop my thinking and understanding about homework as a school practice.
What if my exploration about the practice of homework were more confined, as if I could only talk to my immediate classmates and my teacher about my developing thinking and research about homework? I would have fewer potential network nodes on which to connect my thinking and learning. For students, I wish that they could engage in such connected communication through appropriate use of social media in schools. Some schools permit such use. Some schools promote it. Other schools forbid such use. Yet many students use social media independent of school. Duh! I prefer that students have the opportunity to benefit from the co-pilots, navigators, and coaches who are their school teachers (in addition to their parents). With such over-the-shoulder Yoda-dom for the emerging Luke Skywalkers, I believe students can safely interact and receive encouragement from the “teachers” whom they’ve never met in person…without turning to the Dark Side.
2. Opportunities to engage in civil discourse to develop one’s thinking and understanding
On the same day that Twitter brought the responses detailed above, I also engaged in another Twitter discussion with an acquaintance and a never-before-met-face-to-face person. If I am remembering correctly, I believe I met @SarahebKaiser at a Solution Tree event. But I have never met @Paul_Mugan. As in the above example, Sarah tweeted a blog post that I had written (“Pracademics”). I deeply appreciated the tweet and the encouragement, like I appreciated the support from @occam98 and @bauerphysics. In this second example, though, my learning advanced as a result of a different kind of online interaction than I had had in the first case. During this second case, I enjoyed participating in a fairly vigorous civil discourse, from which I grew immensely.
@Paul_Mugan, a follower of @SarahebKaiser, disagreed with an idea that Sarah tweeted – an idea specifically drawn from my “Pracademics” blog post. What then transpired was a fabulous learning opportunity for me…with a “stranger.” In the Scribd document below, I provide a taste of the dialogue and discussion. I did not capture the entire conversation on Scribd, but one could find the full exchange on Twitter. In total, I think over 30 exchanges occurred. We discussed and debated the nature of learning – acquiring versus applying knowledge. My views and opinions on the topic were both reinforced and altered. I grew tremendously in my understanding of learning – a topic that I think about quite actively. And thanks to an acquaintance and a “stranger,” I was able to think even more actively through the course of a civil disagreement and interchange. The back-and-forth provided a great opportunity for me to develop even more perspective consciousness about the complex domain of learning.
I would love for students to experience more opportunities for such civil discourse. Potential debates and discussions and teachers and learning opportunities are everywhere. With open minds and open media, we can immerse ourselves in invaluable conversations.
Also, as students engage in more project-based learning, I believe that their school activities increasingly will tend to address various issues that confront our communities. Through such connected-communication tools as WordPress and Twitter, our students could write about their growing understanding of the issues (like our Writing Workshop: Environmental Studies eighth graders do on WordPress). Blog posts could be tweeted and readers from around the globe could engage in great discussion and civil discourse about the issues. With coaching from trusted teachers, our students could both solidify and expand their understanding. Students could connect with other thinkers and advocates on such issues as obesity, the importance of sleep, computer-assisted language translation, mass-scale window gardening, and developing better prosthetic limbs for amputees (all topics that have recently benefited from open-source problem solving). I would love for more students to contribute to such problem finding and problem solving.
#itsaboutlearning
Because of the connected learning in which I am involved, I believe my knowledge and understanding has accelerated exponentially in the last two years – yesterday alone provided a hyper-speed movement of my thinking on homework and learning. “School” is anytime and anywhere for me now. What’s more, on a sociological level, I tend to believe that people are good and want to help – I experience such examples from “strangers” on a daily basis now. And as a teacher, I want these lessons and perspectives for my students, too.
