Blog Post #11

Kayla
There are so many great points to Brian Crosby's Back to the Future lecture.Not only is he showing a perfect example of project based learning, he is showing that students are capable of so much more than we give them credit for sometimes. Even though some of his students don't know their addresses and phone numbers, they excel at the balloon project. They are even excited about it. He is so right. We need to stop racing kids through school. Let them get excited and learn at the same time, and the results will be better.

In Paul Anderson's video, Blended Learning Cycle, he begins with getting back to the power of the question. I love the formula he uses for his lessons. It begins with a question. That question is followed up with an investigation done by the students. He has a video lesson that the students watch on their own time, and that frees him up to help them elaborate and review before they have a quiz. I really like the idea of the students having access to the lesson ahead of time. This goes back to flipping the classroom. This allows for more class time to be spent doing hands-on activities.

Paul Anderson and Brian Crosby are not the only teachers that are utilizing the project based learning method for teaching. In these videos there are a few more examples of how learning is changing.
Making Thinking Visible
Project Based Learning
Building Comics

Jasmine
In Brian Crosby's Back to the Future video, he talks about his ESL class and shows a project that they did involving a balloon. This balloon project taught them the scientific side, pressure, and also helped the students further their knowledge for technology. Rather than it being a typical science class with homework and tests, they would have to write blog posts on the experiments that they performed in class and research information for experiments. One point I found very interesting was when he said that we shouldn't race kids through school, they should be excited about what they are learning rather than dread going to school everyday.

In Paul Anderson's video, the Blended Learning Cycle, he presents a way to combine blended learning (online, mobile, and classroom) and the learning cycle (engage, explore, explain, expand; which all four E's evolve around evaluation). His teaching method was "Quivers" : Question, Investigation, Video, Elaboration, Review, and Summary quiz. The question is what hooks the students and gets them interested in what he is teaching. The students investigate by experimenting and examining what is happening. The video is what the students watch on their own time to free up more class time for experimenting. Elaboration is when the students read about what they are doing. Then they review what they have learned before taking a summary quiz. This way of teaching ensures the students leave the classroom truly knowing what was taught.

In Sam Pane's video, Super Digital Citizen, he teaches his students about internet safety. They create comics about a digital superhero that they make. They create a situation that could happen on the internet that they could avoid by using correct internet safety. They include themselves in the comic and tell their story. This project not only teaches them internet safety, but it also lets them incorporate technology into their learning.

In Dean Shareski's video, Project Based Learning, three come together and combine their class as one. History, English, and information processing are combined to make a class that depends on project based learning for a unique learning experience. Project based learning is a very effective method of teaching which involves the students in the lesson more than regular lecture based learning. One interesting point I found in this video was that starting PBL at an early age can help students overcome the fear of public speaking. If we start students off early with presenting in front of their peers, then they most likely won't be afraid to stand in front of people and present later on in life. They would have already overcome that fear in elementary. school. Project based learning is very effective, even in the long run of life.