Project Based Learning

Reflection: Hands On Learning in Washington, D. C.

Dr. McManus told my cadre on many occasions that the Washington policy experience would be the most unbelievable trip we’d do in our doctoral program. He was full of excitement and exuberance and anyone listening knew that this particular experiential instance was beyond the usual. I have to admit, that even though I felt my professor’s excitement, I did not fully understand the true meaning of his words. In fact, I wasn’t sure what I would actually do in Washington, D.C. other than listen to party line speeches and be a tourist. As with anything, it took the actual experiences to open the doors to my understanding.

As we planned for the trip, Jack kept the information flow coming to us at full speed. His stories laid a groundwork of images of Washington, the Capitol, senators and representatives we would encounter, hearings, official breakfasts, the presidential effect, meetings with people whose names we normally only read about. As the schedule of events took shape, it was formed and reformed almost daily, all tracked on our online spreadsheet. Different cadre members took on responsibilities of meetings and visits at the World Bank, ISTE, Pentagon, Department of Education, National Public Radio, Smithsonian Institution Education group, New York Times DC Bureau, US News & World Report, ESEA Senate hearings, FCC hearings, and others.

I think we were all quite amazed by the presence of the city itself, of the security, the energy, the connections, the magnitude, the power that was everywhere. And as Jack had said, all we needed to do was to tell people that we were Pepperdine doctoral students and doors would open – and that is exactly what happened. Our cadre 14 members were scattered about the city during the days in Washington, attending meetings and hearings, after which we’d find evening time to debrief and share experiences, knowledge, and reflections. We were well received at the Department of Education and the Apple High Tech Summit meeting, times when I could expand upon my real world education issues and policy needs face to face with people like Jim Shelton, Hal Plotkin, Karen Cator (Dept of Ed), David Byer (Apple), Hilary Goldmann (ISTE), and Karen Billings (SIIA).

My particular best moments were at the Department of Education; here is my account of talks and meetings there. The first meeting was attended by Dr. Sparks, Sunnie Kim (who arranged the meeting), Sean Mendoza, Lupe Vanderploeg, John Simonsen, and me. Mr. Plotkin and Mr. Shelton addressed us with dignity and seriousness, and took notes as we spoke. Discussion was directed straight to us: what did we want to say or ask? We asked how we could be of help with our doctoral backgrounds in educational technology. As we launched into our main points, from responses by Mr. Plotkin and associates, it was clear that there exists opposing goals from the Department of Education. On the one hand, they encourage innovation, on the other testing remains a prime focus and pressure upon K12 education throughout America. It would seem there is a great distance in understanding between what the officials in the Department of Education think about, and what really goes on in school cultures. For example, Hal Plotkin suggested that the federal government can’t really help out, that the change must happen at the local level, with petitions and surveys of what teachers really want. We responded, with all due respect, that things are different away from Washington in the day to day, stress-ridden, test conscious world of K12. Mr. Plotkin said he was not aware, for example, that twitter is blocked in most schools, so that the twitter communications coming out of the Department of Education, directed to teachers, are being blocked by school districts and failing to reach most teachers.

Jim Shelton stressed that teachers need to form communities using technology, with which I agreed: it is a powerful concept for sharing learning and moving ideas of the group forward. Mr. Shelton responded that he thought teachers had access to online communities, to which we replied that this was not the case. School district blocking filters stop access to Classroom 2.0 for example, which is a major worldwide teacher community. The reason most often given for filtering such sites is that they belong to a category called social networks, which by definition are prohibited in schools, prohibited from all school users, teachers and students alike.

My question to Mr. Shelton was this: Don’t you think that all teachers need access to the technology tools available on the Internet if they are to take advantage of the propositions and ideas laid out in the National Educational Technology Plan? He answered yes.

I asked very clearly for a statement from him directly from the Department of Education to teachers and administrators across the country: every teacher needs at least one unblocked computer to be able to fully use the resources of the Internet, to be informed, to download updates to web 2.0 tools, to seek and join professional development opportunities, and to connect their students with the larger outside world. All of this is about student engagement and teacher growth. A message like this could be invaluable for helping teachers engage in networks/Internet concepts and resources. We just need Mr. Duncan to say the word: open the Internet to teachers – do not block professional adults from information, from doing their jobs, from learning.

We all thought Mr. Plotkin and Mr. Shelton were sincere in their responses to our short presentation on situated learning, communities of practice, and real learning – even though our recommendations had little to do with the data driven focus we kept hearing from Mr. Shelton. At best, we were heard. Will it make a difference? Will they continue a dialogue on these issues? I hope so.

Karen Cator, director of the office of educational technology, received us late in the day in the conference room of the Secretary of Education. She spent a good deal of time listening as each of us described our doctoral studies, and she and was quite conversational and interested, often asking questions and taking notes. She seemed very energetic and eager to get the National Education Technology Plan implemented through American schools. Our comments were in support of the effort, but with the exception that there was a conflict of energy with the plan. The plan calls for innovation, but in an environment still devoted mainly to testing and assessment, many of us spoke to a diminished chance of success for the plan. I spoke from a K12 perspective that teachers were so geared toward testing and meeting AYP, fearing for their jobs, worrying about comparisons and punishments, that it was highly unlikely that they would undertake innovative teaching approaches such as project based learning with technology, nor would they find the time to join communities of practice under the pressure of high stakes assessment. I am not sure that Ms. Cator truly took this message to heart as she is driven by the political goals of her boss, Arne Duncan. Time will tell.

Overall, I feel empowered from my interactions on this trip. I have been in situations where my voice was heard, my questions were contemplated and answered, and where I had the chance to describe policy changes and solutions to people with the power to make something happen. My ongoing doctoral perspective is that I can function at a higher level in the world, that I can be a part of needed changes, especially in preparing new teachers for the classroom, both in terms of pedagogy and educational technology.

Too much of traditional education is like having a manual for the game, but students spend all their time with the manual and not playing the game. Gee argues that playing video games is constant assessment and feedback, that is, the learning progresses based on moment to moment interactions, decisions, negotiations, and strategies of the student (player).  “Scientists have always learned the language of science by doing the science.” When do students want to read book? Often after they have experienced the subject matter and are now curious and want to learn more.  Games provide a way for players to participate and to produce something, to have a consequence on an environment. Games go beyond age grading - anyone can at time be a mentor or a learner. Gee argues that games are engaging kids more than ever in reading and writing, contrary to attitudes that games are killing literacy.

Good friend and teaching colleague, Bob Greenberg from Connecticut, is always making videos about something in education.  In this one, he interviews a few of us teachers from around the world who have been partnering in classroom projects.

I’m posting this short video of David Kelly, Professor of design, at Stanford University and IDEO co-founder. I like his take on the importance of fun, chaos and project-based learning. My classroom experiences with elementary kids are exactly as the learning that he describes here. Teachers will say “all learning can’t be fun.” But actually all learning can be engaging, the feel or attractions or urge to go on in the process toward a goal or living an event.

David Kelley Interview from 21Foundation on Vimeo.

I just finished a short paper called  Can a Human Resources Model in Schools Result in Increased Student Achievement? In short, schools need more of a professional function for recruiting experienced teachers. Current methods fall very short of matching experience to needs. Followup support is often nonexistent. Reasons for placing teachers in classrooms are often not based on a match for expertise.

The idea of being out of sync comes to mind precisely because schools feel free to put almost any teacher in any classroom regardless of specific experience or expertise. Districts reserve the right, per a teacher’s contract, to place a teacher in any school or grade level as needed. A fourth grade teacher can become a first grade teacher; a kindergarten teacher can become a fifth grade teacher, and so forth. Imagine your own child is starting 5th grade in school and you discover that your child’s teacher for this year has been teaching 2nd grade for the last 25 years.  Hello….what? You might begin to wonder what skills and expertise this person has acquired in 25 years with 7-year olds that is immediately applicable to 5th grade?  In fact, the new (experienced) teacher is probably wondering the same thing: “How will I teach this older student? Am I qualified just because I have been teaching for 25 years?” Likely, no. Thus comes the mismatch, the out of sync teacher. As a parent, you might wonder why the school district didn’t search for a teacher with experience with older elementary students instead of putting the first available teacher into your child’s classroom. News flash: this happens everyday, all the time in schools. Teachers are shuffled into rooms not based on being a good fit for the job, but based on the fact that a teacher, any teacher is needed. Somehow, a belief exists among school administrators that if one is a teacher, one can teach any grade level. No teacher worth his or her salt believes this is true - people become good at what they do by practice and study and reflection and by working with others in a community. Can you imagine this same thing happening in medicine or engineering or any other profession? Of course not.

Dr. Barab discusses some of the prime reasons why virtual learning situations such as in Quest Atlantis are better received by kids than typical classroom learning situations. Concepts that intersect in QA are educational instances involving activity, narrative context, trying on identities, agency, and consequentiality. A key problem in schools might be described as a disconnection of students from real involvement in their learning. If schools continue with a disembodied methodology focused on testing, is there any real indication that drop-out rates will decrease or that the reform touted by the current rewards-based political Race to the Top will have any positive impact on students in American schools?

My own classroom experiences favor projects and technology, of which Quest Atlantis is a wonderful fit. Kids are constantly being told to stop talking in school, but we all know that talking is part of our social existence, and our social groups constitute our various instances of being in the world. Conversations in my classroom among kids “playing” Quest Atlantis are rich, questioning, focused, playful, and an excellent example of knowledge being distributed among students. The content of Quest Atlantis is contextualized, very real, very attractive. Kids remember where they have been, characters they have talked with, unsolved dilemmas - and along they way, they not only talk to students in the same room, they also talk to the avatars of students from school around the world, again a natural function of the urge to socialize. There are no avatars policing Quest Atlantis telling the students to stop talking.

The title of my blog incorporates playing. We all play, or should play, and we derive important satisfaction, good feelings, overall life benefits…so of course it follows that play should be an important component in learning. The brilliant Dr. Stuart Brown tells a story in the following TED talk that I see as fitting perfectly into project based learning. In my own classroom, I describe our work as “playing with projects.” Dr. Brown makes the concept perfectly clear for me and illuminates the immense realm of playing.

Visit the National Institute for Play for another interesting video specifically aimed at play and learning.

Twitter is certainly garnering a lot of attention in education and everywhere else. Here is an example of how a University of Texas professor uses Twitter in her classroom.

Professor Monica Rankin uses a weekly hashtags to organize comments, questions and feedback that students post on Twitter in class. The tweets are projected “live” to the class, an ongoing back channel of ideas related to class discussions. Professor Rankin says more students are participating in classroom discussions than before she tried the Twitter experiment. Here’s a Youtube video:

I’ve been back in the United States for a few weeks now, still reeling in the memories of the week in Dublin, Ireland, followed by two weeks in England. Edtech 2009 was my first international conference presentation, and I was welcomed with such enthusiasm and friendliness that I feel like I visited family instead of educational technology professionals. My paper on project-based learning was accepted into the research track, after it went through a review to which I responded with clarifications. The National College of Ireland, just a block off the River Liffy, hosted the technology event. Keynotes were from the Open University (Niall Sclater) and Educause (Richard Hatch). People like Leo Casey, Paul Gormley, Catherine Bruen, Eugene O’Loughlin, all dedicated education/technology professionals made me quite at home on the urban campus. Here is a conference review from ILTA.

This video shows some of the important aspects of project-based learning. Especially notable is Seymour Papert’s input to the idea of veering from a curriculum and focusing on the immediacy of learning.

They keep coming back, whereever I turn, whatever I read, whatever I see or touch - objects, things, inventions, manifestations…physical things created by other people. As tools, objects can be desribed as containing a part of culture, of having embedded knowledge, a power to teach just because they exist and fit the hand or please the eye or iron a shirt or open a door. Sherry Turkle wrote a fascinating account of peoples’ attachment to objects, The Inner History of Devices. I’m still processing this - for now, here’s a video about objects.

Objectified

I love being in the presence of learning phenomena; moments spring
up like sudden fountains or flashes of light. Happens all the time in
the classroom. Perspective is everything. Imagine this scene. Kids have
been toiling for the last couple of weeks on standardized testing - and
I have the unenviable position of being the dreaded administrator.
Where has our classroom teacher gone and who is here in his place
impersonating him? That is what their faces say as I distribute the
thick, bland booklets, and then read the scripted instructions. These
tests are strange intrusions into our project-based classroom. We have
been doing and talking and moving around, and tinkering and writing and
blogging and Questing in Atlantis… and now, what! Has the universe
imploded on itself? The testing begins and the faces sag and the brows
wrinkle and the concentration that is usually present, fades into
whatever. Do I make myself clear? The kids are ready to go home right
now, where normally they are ready to come to class. This silent, no
talking, fill in the trick answers, decipher the pretend
paragraphs…it just gets worse.  I wander the room unable to help, and
watch as they misinterpret, mismark, or totally skip questions. I
remain mute per the instructions. I have to chuckle. Where in the name
of common sense is the validity of this activity? What kid in the
classroom is learning from this experience? What does this government
sponsored and very very expensive test have to do with the life of the
child frowning into the booklet?   But onward….

After the test, I declare mega-recess! We cannot get to the
playground fast enough. Our feet are leaden in the effort to find our
way to the exit; we want to run but the rules of school say that we
must walk. Then we burst throught he doors, into the sunshine, and some
of our innate creatrivity and joy begins to return. We wipe the test
from our minds and rush toward the swings and climbers and grassy open
spaces. We all breathe in and our smiles return. We have the longest
recess on record and I imagine calling the Guiness Book of World
records and reporting this extravaganza of play.

I interviewed Howard Rheingold, a writer, a professor, and a leader in thought and deed in online communities and social media. Mr. Rheingold shares his rich experiences as a forerunner in online communities, digital participation,  leadership, and education.

Update: March 21 — Landmark 2009 at www.kidlink.org
I am the moderator for this global project.

After three grueling weeks, 71 teams from around the word are sending in their competed list of found Landmarks. Each team composed 9 cleverly written clues for the location of their unknown place on Earth. The remaining teams began their question and search mode, tracking down all of the hidden places. Here is an example description from the school Gymnazium Humpolec in the Czech Republic:

1. I am situated in the country, which area is approximately 300times bigger than Togo.
2. My task is to remind an important story from a big war event.
3. I stand near the city which name was changed two times.

7. My total height is by 2,570 metres smaller than the height of Slovakian highest mountain.
8. I have the image of Greek goddess of victory.
9. I remind a battle which took 200 days.

Answer: The Statue of  Mother Russia in Volgograd

“The Most Challenging Games on the Internet” It’s a multi-school, global project attracting students ages 9-15, from Hannibal, Missouri to the Czech Republic to Grenoble, France to Australia and beyond. Players have the option of the Primary (younger set) level or the Challenge (wide open) level. Both games run on the same timeline Feb23 through March 20.  Here’s a video announcement:

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Dr. Sherry Turkle of MIT researches relationships of people to things, to technology, to what happens when people use objects. How do objects change us, change our perception, change our directions in life? Here is a short talk by Dr. Turkle.

What does it really mean to learn something new? Teachers put students in this position almost daily, but how often do teachers put themselves in the same position? The following amateur video of mine shows my process of learning something new and associating the components with learning theory. Here is my take on Louisiana Cooking, an attempt to show my entry as a newcomer in the quest to discover if it might be a community of practice. Close inspection will reveal foundations of Vygotsky, Brown & Duguid, and Lave & Wenger.