Key Success Skills: All projects include a focus on these success skills:

1. critical thinking

2. problem solving

3. collaboration

4. self-management

5. perseverance

6. creativity  

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Goals of Living in a Digital World:

1. Critically evaluate information and how it’s disseminated.

2. Evaluate media use in today’s world, it’s affects on human rights, and equal access.

3. Design authentic inquiries that make life meaningful, using a variety of resources, and solve personal and societal challenges.

4. Communicate with targeted audiences as solutions to problems or for creative expression.

5. Reflect on what is learned, how it’s being learned, and why it’s being learned.

6. Give and receive constructive feedback to improve project processes and products.

7. Use digital platforms in a courteous and kind way, understand consequences of cyberbullying, respecting ownership of materials, be aware of digital footprint, maintain safety of personal information for.

8. Develop habits of lifelong learning.

9. Proactively limit health risks of using technology, both physically and psychologically.

10. Redesign front Billboard to reflect strong thoughtful learners in the digital age.

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Challenging Problem or Questions Are at the Heart of Each Project :

 we begin with a problem to investigate/solve, or a question to explore/answer. It could be concrete (the school needs to do a better job of stopping cyberbullying) or abstract (deciding whether lack of internet access at home is inequitable). This makes learning more meaningful.

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Characteristics to be Found in Each Learning Experience:

Sustained Inquiry: Involves seeking information or  investigating in more active, in-depth ways. 

Students are encouraged to incorporate different information sources, mixing the traditional idea of “research” – reading a book or searching a website – with more real-world, field-based interviews with experts, service providers and users. Students also might inquire into the needs of the users of a product they’re creating in a project, or the audience for a piece of writing or multimedia.

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Authenticity: “Real-world” learning increases student motivation and learning. It can impact others, or be used or experienced by others. Students are encouraged to pursue an interest or concern, or may reach out to others less fortunate.Students may post on Youtube, present to organizations, create a blog or web site.

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Student Voice & Choice: This creates ownership; students write their own driving question and decide how they want to investigate it, demonstrate what they have learned, and how they will share it.

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Reflection: Throughout a project, students – and the teacher – will reflect on what they’re learning, how they’re learning it, and why they’re learning it.

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Critique & Revision: High quality student work is attained through thoughtful critique and revision. Students will be taught how to give and receive constructive peer feedback to improve project processes and products, guided by rubrics, models, and formal feedback/critique protocols. Outside adults and experts can also contribute.

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Public Product: Three reasons for creating a public product.

1. Adds motivating power and encourages high-quality work.

2. Students make what they have learned tangible and thus, discussible.

3. Effective way to communicate with parents, community members, and the wider world

 

 

Classroom Structure:

1. Mini-units are built around a central question  that builds to a final project.. Procedures for research are mapped out and developed as a class (with pre-thinking done by teacher so that structure is provided if needed), data is collected, analyzed, shared, and reflected on.

2. Mini-lectures  are supported with videos and web-based activities that can be viewed and reviewed from home or school.  

3. Content is wrapped in dynamic online discussions, debates, and/or collaborative group work. This leads students to think critically about the content, engage with their peers, and produce something (an argument, a clear analytical explanation, formulate questions, synthesize information from multiple sources, etc.).

4. Paralling all controversial topics is the skill training of the many tools of technology.

 

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Resources:

https://www.brainpop.com/technology/digitalcitizenship/

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/super-digital-citizen#

https://www.edweek.org/search.html

PBL resources, bie.org, 2015 Buck Institute for Education