I mentioned in a previous posting and in my interview with Jon Udell that I'm a big fan of project-based learning.
The basic idea of project-based learning is that each student (or group of students) chooses a project that interests them and that covers areas of the state curriculum that they must satisfy. The project is approved by a teacher/board and then assisted during its execution by one or more advisors. Since students are working on something that engages them, they find it much easier to stay motivated and focused. It's also much more real-world; students are expected to seek information and assistance when necessary, rather than being spoon-fed knowledge for subsequent regurgitation.
We're going to add support for project-based learning into edu 2.0 during Q1, and I thought it would be fun to blog about the design process.
First of all, there are several basic requirements for a straightforward implementation:
- a way to input/edit/display the project definition
- a way to assign one or more students to a project
- a way to assign one or more advisors to the project
- some kind of forum/daily journal for the project
- workflow to support the project approval process
- a task list that students can maintain for the project
- a way for the advisors (and maybe parents) to monitor the project
- a way to link a project to the curriculum requirements it meets
- a way to grade the project and display the results
After some thought, we realized that our site already almost supports many of these features. For example, with a little tweaking, our moderation process for material approval could be used to approve project proposals. Similarly, we could add a project as a kind of assignment and then immediately leverage our classroom management and grading features. Likewise, our discussion forum code could be tweaked a little to support the concept of a project journal. The main remaining things seem to be a task list and group assignments, which shouldn't be hard to implement.
However, the really cool stuff happens when you start to share projects in a community. Not only does this create a rich repository of projects, but it also allows teachers and students to interact with other teachers and students who have done the same project. Imagine being a teacher who's new to project-based learning and being able to tap into the experience of other teachers who have already advised the same project. Or see the journals of the students who have already completed the project. The list goes on.
I'm really looking forward to adding these features to our site. And like the rest of the core features on the site, support for project-based learning will be absolutely free for teachers and students.
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