In August we move 2 more grades into New Tech which also means more PBL. Our district has been involved through Intel which has additional resources for PBL. Intel Engage site is a community which has tools and courses which are free to teaching professionals. Although not directly connected to New Tech the basic information is convergent....just terminology is different. There is more information on Intel in TCC Issue 4-4.
I have had no formal New Tech training, but have been previewing the information at their network site: echo.newtechnetwork.org Even without a login it allows you to click on More About Echo above the login space. |
| At the site click circled for videos |
There are videos covering schools, projects, samples, and reflections of teachers and students. Two really good project samples are “The Cart Project” and “Cells Gone Wild” (featured) which were both real issue projects for which the students found real answers. If these aren’t part of official training they are worth a look. Several of the videos are student produced.
Another learning place for me was the archive of Twitter chat #PBLchat which happened at 8 pm on Tuesday, 4/21/15. This chat had 5 questions relating to PBL and was facilitated by @VMVikes. Several tweets were project sites: bie.org/project_search (Buck Institute for Education’s database of projects gleaned from the web) and tonyv.me/products.(offers presentation ideas)**. Other information from the chat included advice for younger students to always link projects to service or teaching other students. This is the real aspect of their projects with the mantra: “Enter to Learn—Leave to Serve.”
Many of the videos stressed that this is a different learning approach which also teaches 21st century skills of communication and collaboration which are needed for future employment in addition to covering the required standards. You now have an overview of the objectives for New Tech and PBL. There are other parts such as Echo, the Classroom Management System used to hold all the project parts and grading system for those rising 6th grade students to rising 10th graders for the 2015-2016 school year.
Enjoy!
** Additional products suggested on Edmodo community Computer Technology. Someone was asking for multimedia projects to finish the year. Here are the responses: Paperslide videos with groups of 3 (camera, slide, speak), playdoough version of previous, eportfolio on Weebly or Wix of year's work with blog post about each, design an amusement park using pictures of existing rides and a student-created map of the park, a dramatic children's poetry reading + sound effects (8 required) recorded in audacity, or learning Gimp on YouTube channel, Wild Academy.
