Examining Strategies for Project Based Learning

Anyone who has studied Problem Based Learning is probably familiar with the strategies on PBL. For those of you who are just discovering it though, here is a great sight to research Problem Based Learning strategies.
One of my favorite strategies is Think, Ink, Pair and Share. The way this strategy works is that you get your students to think about a question you have given them such as, Give me an example of a time…………
Show us what happened when……………

The strategy is about writing skills, I think that students today would enjoy the experience more if they were able to use technology to not only tell someone one what happened, they would be able to show them.

For example. What did you do this summer? This is a question all elementary students are asked when they come back in the fall. If presented with this as more than a three minute question, students could take some time and build a video journal to explain what they actually did that summer. If they had actual pictures, they could upload them to their journal. I realize students have very different summer experiences, as well as different financial constraints.. Some will have fantastic family pictures that either they or their family took, while others who may not have the means don’t have those pictures. This is where the teacher needs to really encourage them, and help them to understand that they don’t need elaborate pictures that they have taken. Through this enhanced version of “Think Ink Pair Share” they will not only develop their writing and presentation skill, they will also develop their technology skills.

There are many great sights where students can find a lot of free, helpful technology tool to let students accomplish this. One of the best sight I have found for this is Web2tools.”
There are some great tools on the web, where students can down load pictures that relate to different vacation areas, such as Yellowstone Park. You can also just target events line swimming to show others in their class what they did that summer. Soon it will much more about the process than actually where they went that summer. There are many great sights where students can find a lot of free, helpful technology tool to let students accomplish this. One of the best sight I have found for this is Web2tools. There are a couple of very easy tools that I found where you could document your vacation, even if you didn’t get your own pictures was called Corbis or “Photoxpress” Though this enhanced version of “Think Ink Pair Share” and various sight where students can access free software, they will not only develop their writing and presentation skill, they will also develop their technology skills.