Technology and Problem Based Learning

1. Technology and Problem Based Learning Day 2

2. To Start • Join Wiki if you have not yet done so • Copy/paste your reflection from yesterday onto discussion board • You may write more if you have finished this already • Tweet one thing you learned using the hashtag #tpblkids Next, we will: • Finish sharing the standards you’ve selected…as of now….. • Review Template • Review Rubric

3. In Pairs…. • Deconstruct Rubric • Highlight, underline, etc. • Modify where not clear • Share out with whole group

4. More Examples of PBL “More Fun Than a Barrel of ... Worms?!” “Geometry in the Real World: Students as Architects” “March of the Monarchs” “Soil Superheroes” “Animal Poaching”

5. 21st Century Skills

6. 21st Century Learner . . . . . . will use technologies that haven’t been invented to do jobs that don’t exist. . . . networked . . . multi-tasker . . . digitally literate . . . craves interactivity . . . strong visual-spatial skills . . . tethered to the internet . . . wants to learn things that matter . . . wants to be challenged to reach own conclusions

7. Looking deeper at . . . . . . digital literacy . . . • information creation • innovation • activism • global citizenship • responsibility “Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives” Palfrey and Gasser, 2008

8. Why 21st Century Skills? Growing consensus that schools need to be accountable for more than “basic” academics. “Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” -Sir Ken Robinson, 2006 “The top 10 jobs for 2010 weren’t even created in 2004” - Diana G. Oblinger, President EDUCAUSE

9. “The Global Achievement Gap” Our teens leave school equipped to work only in the kinds of jobs that are fast disappearing from the American economy. Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need – and what we can do about it. -Tony Wagner, 2008 Harvard Graduate School of Education

10. Seven Survival Skills for Teens Today(Global Achievement Gap, 2008 by Tony Wagner) • Critical thinking and problem-solving • Collaboration • Agility and adaptability • Initiative and entrepreneurialism • Effective oral and written communication • Accessing and analyzing information • Curiosity and imagination

11. Instruction for 21st Century Skills • Relevant to student outside the classroom • Student is highly engaged • Student has a choice and voice in his/her learning • Student takes ownership for own learning • Includes higher order thinking - creativity and innovation • Learning tasks elicit evidence of learning

12. “It is a world in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life, in which high levels of education - a very different kind of education than most of us have had- are going to be the only security there is.” -New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 2006

13. 21st Century Skills are…Life savers Allowing us to rediscover or recharge our PASSIONabout teaching! In the ocean of assessments, paperwork, and day to day routines…GREAT teachers must possess the vision to see above the crest of turmoil and mediocrity to see what is possible. Implementing 21st Century Skills into your lessons will revitalize YOUR interest and your students’ interests! Having “Passion for Teaching” is really more about what YOU get out of teaching.

14. Overview of 21st Century Skills http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119

15. 1. Learning & Innovation Skills • Creativity & Innovation • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving • Communication & Collaboration

16. Creativity & Innovation • Demonstrating originality and inventiveness • Developing and communicating new ideas to others • Being responsive to new and diverse perspectives • Acting on creative ideas and making useful contributions

17. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving • Making complex choices and decisions • Understanding the interconnections among systems • Framing, analyzing and synthesizing information in order to solve problems and answer questions

18. Communication & Collaboration • Articulating thoughts and ideas through speaking and writing • Demonstrating ability to work effectively with diverse teams • Ability to make compromises to accomplish a common goal • Assuming shared responsibility for collaborative work

19. 2. Information, Media & Technology Skills • Information Literacy • Media Literacy • ICT Literacy Information, Communications and Technology

20. Information Literacy • Accessing information efficiently and effectively and using information for the problem at hand • Understanding the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

21. Media Literacy • Understanding who media messages are constructed using which tools • Examining how individuals interpret messages differently • Understanding the ethical/legal issues surrounding the use of information

22. ICT Literacy • Using digital technology, communication tools and/or networks appropriately • Using technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information

23. 3. Life and Career Skills • Flexibility and Adaptability • Initiative and Self-Direction • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills • Productivity and Accountability • Leadership and Responsibility

24. A Question to Consider… How well prepared are our students in using 21st century technology skills? • Discuss at your table group • Share

26. ICT Literacy Maps Project Ideas A series of ICT Literacy Maps illustrating the intersection between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy and core academic subjects including English, mathematics, science and social studies. The maps contain concrete examples of how ICT Literacy can be integrated into core subjects making the learning of these relevant to the demands of the 21st century. http://www.p21.org/ict-literacy-maps

27. ICT Literacy Maps

28. 21st Century Learning:What does it involve? • Emphasize core subjects • Emphasize learning skills • Use 21st Century tools to develop learning skills (computers, internet, other technology) • Teach and learn in a 21st Century context(relevance to students’ life, authentic learning experiences, bring world into classroom, go out into the world) • Teach and learn 21st Century content • Use 21st Century assessment that measures 21st Century skills(classroom assessments and standardized tests)

29. Framework for 21st Century Learning Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes Life and Career Skills Learning and Innovation Skills Information, Media and Technology Skills

30. 21st Century Themes(21st Century Content) Core Subjects • Global Awareness • Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy • Civic Literacy • Health Literacy • English • Reading/Lang Arts • World Languages • Arts • Mathematics • Economics • Science • Geography • History • Government • Civics

31. Learning and Innovation Skills Information, Media & Technology Skills • Information Literacy (ISTE 3) • Media Literacy • ICT Literacy (Information, Communications, and Technology) • Creativity and Innovation Skills (ISTE 1) • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills (ISTE 4) • Communication and Collaboration Skills (ISTE 2) ISTE 5 - Digital Citizenship ISTE 6 - Technology operations and concepts

32. Life and Career Skills • Flexibility and Adaptability • Initiative and Self Direction • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills • Productivity and Accountability • Leadership and Responsibility

33. Possibilities for incorporating 21st Century Skills . . . • Project or Problem based learning • School-wide projects where students explore passions • Internships • Student driven action research projects • Authentic service learning • Creative alignment of educators • Other . . . .

34. Explore On Your Own • Partnership For 21st Century Skills • http://www.p21.org • Tools and Resources-Educators • 21st Century Skill Maps • http://www.p21.org/tools-and-resources/educators#SkillsMaps

35. Essential Questions • Ask to stimulate ongoing thinking and inquiry • Raise more questions • Spark discussion and debate • Asked and re-asked throughout the unit (and maybe even the year) • Demand justification and support • “Answers” may change as understanding deepens

36. Sample Essential Questions

37. More Sample Essential Questions

38. More Essential Questions

39. Sample Essential Questions • How much license does a writer of non-fiction have to make a point? • To what extent to the costs outweigh the benefits of deforestation of the rainforests? • Why and how to artists break with tradition? What are the effects? • “No pain, no gain”. Agree?

40. More Essential Questions • How do we know what to believe in what we read? • What makes a good artist great? • How true is it that genius is 90 percent perspiration and 10 percent inspiration? • How can we enhance any artistic performance?

41. Question Stems • What are different points of view about…..? • What is the jihadist’s story of 9/11? • How might this look from _____’s perspective? • How is______similar to/different than______? • What would it be like to walk in _____’s shoes? • What motivates a suicide bomber? • How would you feel if you were____? • How might ____ feel about ____? • How do I truly know _____?

42. Narrow Your Focus • Review your standards. Select 1-3 content standards • With a partner, begin to frame your Essential question (this is not your “problem” yet. This is your instructional focus question). • Write your content standard and essential question on chart paper

43. Gallery Walk • Post your chart in the hallway • Walk through and read each other’s Standards and Essential Questions • Comment/Make Suggestions on the EQ

44. Organizing the PBL Classroom: Time Management Scheduling Projects • Avoid bottlenecks within courses: schedule projects and end-of quarter assignments at different times. • Projects should not replace end of quarter tests or papers; if that happens, then a lot of things are due at the same time, and it’s counterproductive. • Avoid bottlenecks between courses: coordinate project schedules with other teachers. • Almost everybody does projects at the same time. Students complain that they have five projects due in the same week. • Teachers should talk to one another and space projects out over the course of the year. This would result in higher quality projects. • Use block scheduling, if possible, to increase flexibility. • Block scheduling is extremely important, as is having flexible classroom space and computers. You may also use a system of permanent passes so kids can go down to the library and move around the campus.

45. Holding to Timelines • Build in a 20% overrun • When planning a project, set a certain number of days and build in a 20% overrun. • Be prepared to introduce alternative instruction when the project schedule bogs down • You’ve got to keep a flexible project schedule. The weather may not cooperate. Students may complete things faster than you expected. • Sometimes kids think they are done and you don’t. Ex: you may have to give extensions to get expert interviews or because of technology breakdowns. Ideally the project is the outgrowth of other kinds of learning, so you can always reinforce subject matter learning when you can’t work on the project. • Learn how to adjudicate scheduling decisions: when to enforce and when to extend a time line. • The schedule you lay out is never the schedule you follow. It takes experience to know how much flexibility to give students and when to bring down the hammer. If projects take forever, kids lose interest and focus. You have to know when to tighten up and maintain deadlines and when to loosen up and say, let’s take another week.

46. Getting Started Orienting Students • Get students thinking about the project well before they begin • Before starting a project, get students thinking about it so they’ll be ready to plunge in when it’s time. For example, a project conducted in April on the physics of music but the teachers began talking about it in January. • The earlier students start thinking about it, the more prepared they are. • Give students a rubric that communicates what they are responsible for • The best way to grade project work is to have a rubric. The rubric should be known in advance by the kids. Then, when working on project, they know what they are searching for and trying to accomplish. They have a standard they can apply to their own work and to the final evaluation. • Students should be involved in developing/refining the rubric. Students should be able to restate a rubric in their own words. • Reach agreement with students on grading criteria before the project begins • The more teachers and students agree on grading criteria before the project begins, and the more transparent the grading criteria is to students – so they really understand what the characteristics of an excellent project are – the better.

47. Promote Thoughtful Work in the Early Stages of a Project • Build in the use of a research plan for recording the what, why, where, when, how decisions • The first day of the project is a warm-up. Students brainstorm questionsand complete a research plan. They don’t go to the library until they know why they are going there. • Before they go anywhere outside the classroom, have their time organized for them. “Here’s your research topic for today. I’m going to check your notes at the end of the period.” • Use negotiation, as needed, to start students on productive tracks • Have a private meeting with each group to get them started while the rest of the class is involved with a reading assignment. Discuss each group’s research questions with them. Students often don’t know what a good research question is. You have to tell them if they have written a question that is really hard to research

48. Organizing Student Time • Require frequent checkpoints and products to facilitate a sense of mission • At the beginning of a project, we require a product to be completed out of each work session. If it’s a research period of one and one-half hours, we’ll require them to make an oral group report about what they’ve learned. Or we ask them to write an action plan. After they get used to our expectations, we will let them go for a couple of periods before asking for a report.

49. Establishing a Culture that Stresses Student Self-Management • Shifting Responsibility from the Teacher to Students • Involve students in project design • Re-engineering the learning environment means moving from the sage on the stage to the guide on the side. It means creating a more collaborative environment with students where projects are a mutual responsibility. You have to rethink your whole relationship with students and become more of a facilitator and coach. • Bring the problems to the students to decide rather than solving the problems yourself and bring the solutions to the students. Make the design of the project itself part of the curriculum. It looks like you are giving up control, but you aren’t. You still have ultimate control of things, but you’ve decided what decisions students are able to make, and you are hold them accountable for making them

50. Avoid Making Decisions For Students • “Unlearn” the idea that teaching is about your content; it is about their thinking. • Most of the content students get is dismissed/lost as soon as they graduate (or pass the test). • Help students think through the project work and decide what it is going to look like • Do not make all the decisions yourself.