Project-Based Learning
Intel© Essentials Online
KRISTEN SHAND, PH.D.
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY,
FULLERTON
DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION
Essential Question
How can technology be used most effectively to
support and assess student learning?
What is Project-Based Learning?
 Project-based learning is a student-centered,
instructional model.
 This type of learning develops content area
knowledge and skills through an extended task that
promotes ‘student inquiry’ and ‘authentic’
demonstrations of learning in products and
performances.
 Project-based curriculum is driven by important
questions that tie content standards and higherorder thinking to real-world contexts.
What is Project-Based Learning?
 Project-based units include varied instructional
strategies to engage all students regardless of their
learning styles.
 Often, students collaborate with outside experts and
community members to answer questions and gain
deeper meaning of the content.
 Technology is used to support learning.
 Throughout project work, multiple types of
assessment are embedded to ensure that students
produce high-quality work.
Effective Project-Based Units
 The following characteristics help define effective
project-based units:
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Students are at the center of the learning process.
The project focuses on important learning objectives aligned with
standards.
The project is driven by Curriculum-Framing Questions.
The project involves ongoing and multiple types of assessment.
The project involves connected tasks and activities that take place
over a period of time.
The project has real-world connections.
Students demonstrate knowledge and skills through products and
performances that are published, presented, or displayed.
Technology supports and enhances student learning.
Thinking skills are integral to project work.
Varied instructional strategies support multiple learning styles.
21st Century Skills
 Learning and Innovation Skills
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Creativity and Innovation
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Communication and Collaboration
 Information, Media and Technology Skills
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Information Literacy
Media Literacy
ICT (Information, Communications and Technology)
Literacy
 Life and Career Skills
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Flexibility and Adaptability
Initiative and Self-Direction
Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
Productivity and Accountability
Leadership and Responsibility
Unit Plan
Planning for
Project-Based
Learning starts
with a unit plan.
Unit Plans
adhere to
content
standards.
Projects help
meet these
standards
Projects DO
NOT take over
the unit, they
are embedded
within a unit
and are part of
the overall plan.
Planning Your Unit
 Start with content standards
 Create student objectives/learning outcomes
 Design Curriculum-Framing Questions
 What are CFQs?
Essential Question: A broad, overarching question that can bridge
several units or subject areas
 Unit Questions: Guiding questions for your unit
 Content Questions: Content area of definitional questions
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Planning Your Unit
 Sample Unit Plan Presentations
Designing and Assessing Projects
Project
design
Assessing Projects
Assessment
plan
Designing Effective Projects
Student
sample
Web Based Projects
 Wikis
 Wikis allows students to collaborate on a project by constructing a website about
a given topic
 Wikis in Plain English
 Blogs
 Blogs allow students to create projects where ideas and written responses are
gathered
 Blogs in Plain English
 Collaboration Tools
 Collaboration tools allow students to work on several multimedia projects
simultaneously
 Google Docs in Plain English
 Social Bookmarking
 Social Bookmarking allows students to bookmark informative websites and share
these with other people
 Social Bookmarking in Plain English
Thinking Tools
http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm?iid=ed_nav+k12tools
 Visual Ranking Tool
 Identify and refine criteria for assigning ranking to a list
 Seeing Reason Tool
 Investigate relationships in complex systems, creating maps
that communicate understanding
 Showing Evidence Tool
 Construct well-reasoned arguments that are supported by
evidence, using a visual framework