Facilitating Educational Equity Online through PBL – #ISTEsla20 Wk 3 Day 2

The following post has been completed as part of my personal reflection as I work through the ISTE Summer Learning Academy #ISTEsla20 Any images, tables, or direct quotes (as indicated with the appropriate formatting) are provided from the specific course or webinar and can be credited to: ISTE Summer Learning Academy. (2020). https://summerlearningacademy.iste.org/

Rich Dixon, Lisa Mireles, ISTE, summer learning academy, Kirsten Thompson

Week 3 – Day 2 is one I’m hoping will hold some helpful resources for my son’s school who is focused on PBL for their students. I was first introduced to PBL in 2012 when I found PBLU and have been trying to learn and incorporate more ever since. This webinar is facilitated by Rich Dixon and Lisa Mireles and is described as follows:

“Looking to try project-based learning (PBL) when teaching remotely or in blended environments? Join us as we explore how the PBL teaching methodology promotes student-centered online learning that keeps students engaged with high-quality outcomes. This interactive session was developed using survey results from educators who identified their most common problems facilitating PBL online.”

Main Takeaways

PBL
- an instructional methodology in which students work together, over an extended period of time, to solve a real-world problem or investigate a complex question
- students produce a presentation to share with an authentic public audience
How can PBL support equity?
- Educational equity is where each child receives what they need to develop their full acadmic & social potential
- 1. PBL promotes high expectations for ALL students
- 2. PBL honours diverse backgrounds, skills and experiences
- 3. PBL transforms and redistributes power in the classroom
Tips/resources for implementing PBL online
- challenges include engagement, finding meaningful and relevant project ideas, creating a learner-centered environment, supporting individual students learning needs
- start with driving questions that are engaging, open-ended, aligned to learning goals
- track student engagement with “pulse checks”, tracing student interaction and using online protocols
- set clear expectations for end goal and ongoing work by providing exemplars, visual cues and ongoing specific feedback
- foster project engagement with students by co-creating an outline of tasks, subtasks and co-prioritizing next steps
- vary input by walk & talks, collaboration boards, individual work time
- use project management tools to manage groupings, improve communication and share resources
PBL

Questions

Do your students have the privelage of having connectivity, similar scheduling, and parent assistance to connect with peers outside of school for collaborative PBL?

General PD Thoughts

When planning for your learners needs, remember that text on slides may not be clearly visible if closed captioning is used. I am a regular user of CC and often have to pause, turn off CC, read the slide text, then turn everything back on to proceed.
I was disappointed that much of this presentation came across as a product pitch for PBL Works. I understand that that is obviously their background but the webinar description did not openly disclose that this was a discussion on how to facilitate educational equity online through the use of PBL Works. It seems like there are great resources but it just wasn’t what I expected.
Today’s webinar shared the following ed tech tools: PBL Works, Flipgrid, Google Keep, Padlet, Learning Keeps Going, Project Pals, Headrush Learning, Student Corner, Spinndle,
Thank you to Rich and Lisa for sharing!

Read all of the #ISTEsla20 posts: