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:
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
Creativity and Innovation
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Communication and Collaboration
Information, Media and Technology Skills
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
ICT (Information, Communications and Technology)
Literacy
Life and Career Skills
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
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
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