Students Thrive on Cooperation and Problem Solving

The beginning of this article really caught my attention, "learning-- and schooling-- must be totally transformed."  This is a bold statement, yet very true in my opinion.  Education is constantly changing and methods we use to teach students is crucial.  Standing in front of a class for hours on end, lecturing, is ineffective.  Students need to be engaged and learn skills and information that will help them after they graduate from school.  This article does a great job of highlighting an effective teaching method, project based learning.  This method includes learning and thinking skills, information- and communications- technology literacy skills, and life skills.  Obviously teachers still need to teach content and critical information to students, but they way they are doing so can change.  Students can learn how to work together, collaborate, and learn cross-curricular content while applying it to real-life situations.  I love how instructors potentially would start each unit by throwing students into a real world or realistic project that engages interest and generates a list of things they need to know.  When I think about how great incorporating PBL into the classroom would be, I can't help but think about how difficult and time consuming it would be too.  There are so many expectations put on teachers and there never seems like enough time.  In order for PBL to work, the standardized assessments would need to change as well.  If curriculum allowed for PBL, I think it would be extremely beneficial for students.  I really liked how the author talked about assessments and using rubrics in the beginning of the project so students can self-appraise their work in progress and direct their own learning.  The most interesting part of the article was the use of internet.  Projects would be housed online and they would be available from year to year AND can be shared between schools (not to mention a lot less paper!).  The grade books are also online and are live documents so students, parents, and teachers can a have communication line as far as assessments and progress goes.  I think this article really sheds light on PBL and emphasizes its strengths.  The benefits of PBL seem high and effective.