Brian Crosby's TEDx Talk, is a perfect example of why project based learning is effective for all students. He teaches mainly ELLs, or English Language Learners. He begins with a survey he gave his class. The questions on this survery: What city do you live in? What state do you live in? What country do you live in? What's your address? What's your home phone number? Most of his students didn't know the answer to any of these questions. They project he talks about is the strato-ballon. They blogged about it, participated in hands-on projects. They were actively engaged and they were enjoying learning. All teacher's must know how to keep their students interested in the subject being taught.
Paul Anderson's Blended Learning Cycle, shows us that students need that driving question, they need to be able to investigate, watch a video on the lesson, a deeper understanding, a review of the material, and a summary quiz. His blended learning cycle can be used for all subjects with a bit of tweeking (I found it hard to put his learning cycle into action for English and literature). I believe his method will help stop burp-back education and the students can be engaged with projects.
Mark Church has his students write down a "headline" that represents what they believe is the reason for the search for human origin. By having the students voice their opinion and work together, each student hears different takes on the subject. This group project is also having the students be engaged, listening, learning, and being opened/respectful to other view points. These skills being unknowingly learned will be helpful throughout their lives.
Sam Pane emphasizes when students' lesson is directly related to them they learn more and want to learn more. Use things the students enjoy to get them hooked. For instance, Sam uses the quote "with great power, comes great responsiblity." His students recognized this quote from the movie Spiderman. His class made their own superhero and made a comic to show a way the superhero helps the student be safe on the internet. His students were engaged and having fun.
Dean Shareski's video shows some of the problems that were encountered in the traditional setting for project based learning. The teachers were unable to effectively teach the students in the amount of time given. After they went to the administration and the time was fixed, they were able to have the students produce work the students were proud of. They received feedback from multiple teachers to perfect their work. The students were able to learn more and they were proud of the work they produced.
Roosevelt Elementary's PBL program allows the students to learn by projects and they begin public speaking at a young age. The parents of these students have nothing but praises for this PBL program. The teachers stress that PBL helps all students because they learn in different ways. PBL allows the students to form questions about the world. The program brings integration, in depth learning, research, and real-world problems into the classroom.
In summary, all the videos have the same underlying theme: PBL is the best way to go! While using traditional methods (lecture, powerpoint, etc.) will work for some students, PBL will work for all students. It allows students to explore, learn, and have fun. PBL allows students to produce their best work instead of rushed work. The videos above give the roadblocks they've encountered with PBL and the solutions to those problems.