PBL Ch. 5 Learning Reflection

At this point in the course I am enjoying the process of fine tuning the Bridge Project that I do with my students in the spring. I would like for my students to have access to my web page and a wiki for the project by the end of February. I am struggling with setting up the webpage just a bit, however with persistency and practice I feel confident that it will be functional in a week or two.

Using the guiding activities from the text has been useful in beginning to learn what I will need for my project and how I can incorporate technology.  As stated above I will be creating a wiki and I have also found a site that will allow my students to build a virtual bridge which is pretty neat. I am still hoping to have my students create a smart notebook presentation of their learning process; however I will not be addressing that until I am comfortable with the general outline of the project.

After reading Ch. 5 two of the topics that I found helpful were “Team Planning” and “Start Simple, then Elaborate.”  I feel that I have a greater understanding of how to organize my student teams. In the past I have grouped them solely on ability and now I will look at my grouping in a different light. Grouping my students based on how they will complement each other versus solely on skill will allow them to be challenged and have a more active role. Additionally, I believe that creating the wiki for this project will be a great tool not only for me, but for my students as well and I have a tendency to become overwhelmed and so taking it one step at a time is ideal. I would actually like to introduce my students to the wiki and have their input as it is being created for the bridge project. Not only will they have had an opportunity to practice prior to the project but they will have an opportunity to mold it.

One other general idea that I am excited about putting into place is working backwards from the end goal while tweaking this project. There is a common thread throughout the reading and the Project Based Learning method to work from the end essential questions and learning objectives that you want the students to know and understand in order to assure that they are being met. This is an ideal way to plan and I now have the perfect opportunity to practice and refine my skills in this process.