May 9 – 13, 2016

Each Friday we post a list of our favorite articles, blog posts, and other resources we’ve run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

Here’s what we liked this week:

Big Bang 2016
Big Picture Learning
Registration is open for this conference on student-centered learning, July 26-29 in Orlando, Florida, from one of our partners in Deeper Learning. It focuses on “the teaching and learning practices that best drive student engagement.” Keynote by Sir Ken Robinson (whose video “Teachers Are Like Gardeners” we use in our PBL workshops).

Assessment in Project Based Learning: Frequently Asked Questions
New Tech Network
Blogger and teacher Andrew Larsen gives practical answers to questions about the use of traditional assessments and assignments in PBL, balancing individual and group assessment, grading, and assessing 21st century skills.

‘Diversity Does Not Happen By Accident’ and Other Lessons About Equity in the Maker Movement
EdSurge
A report on a panel discussion about “broadening access to making and creating technology to underrepresented groups.” I love this quote from Rafranz Davis, executive director of professional and digital learning in Lufkin School District, Texas: “You shouldn’t have a Maker Day. Maker should be a normal part of the way we learn.” Nichole Pinkard of DePaul University also makes the great point that maker projects should “incorporate the community” and not be limited to classrooms.

Why and How Personalized Learning is Transforming Texas Education
Getting Smart
Tom Vander Ark describes how several Texas school districts and programs are implementing personalization, blended learning, and in many cases PBL. Great to hear that districts such as El Paso want to “move past a test-prep culture” to a vision for active learning and a greater emphasis on success skills.

The Empathy Project: Using a Project-Based Learning Assignment to Increase First-Year College Students’ Comfort with Interdisciplinarity
International Journal of Problem-Based Learning
The paper’s author Micol Hutchison is at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the Department of Focused Inquiry (!). The project placed student teams in a scenario: the corporation they work for asks them to create an employee test for empathy, and present it as a “pitch” to a panel. The project was engaging and successful, and the instructor explains lessons learned about the importance of coaching and scaffolding for collaboration.

Follow us on social media: Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Edmodo, YouTube and LinkedIn. For information about BIE professional development services click here.