{"id":123,"date":"2016-09-30T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/?p=123"},"modified":"2018-06-18T11:09:27","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T17:09:27","slug":"using-oers-for-project-based-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/2016\/09\/30\/using-oers-for-project-based-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Using OER for Project Based Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teacher Editorial<\/span> | By Janet Remus (BOLT student)
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, educators are constantly told that they need to employ teaching strategies that are more engaging and applicable to their students\u2019 lives beyond the classroom.\u00a0 Using worksheets and lecture\"mobile-phone\"<\/strong>s are practically considered taboo, as we move from teacher-directed approaches to learner-centred approaches.\u00a0 Project Based Learning (PBL), which the Buck Institute for Education defines<\/a> as \u201ca teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge\u201d seems to offer a great alternative to traditional teaching methods.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While I personally don\u2019t believe that lectures and projects can\u2019t peacefully co-exist in the same teaching environment (perhaps another blog topic for another day …), I do see the benefits that PBL can offer my students.\u00a0\u00a0 For instance, projects can help students to develop critical thinking and problems solving skills.\u00a0 Furthermore, they can promote collaboration and they allow my students to see where they may use the skills they are learning \u2018in the real world\u2019.<\/p>\n

One More Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, as a teacher I have faced one further problem when it comes to implementing projects in my courses:\u00a0 It takes time and creativity to develop projects that meet the outcomes of the curriculum that I am required to teach, and I don\u2019t always have this time or the creativity.\u00a0 As Glenn (2016)<\/a> explains, \u201cPBL in its current form is too \u2018do-it-yourself\u2019\u201d and that \u201ceven after significant training it can initially take three times more time to plan and organize projects than teaching with a traditional lecture and test format.”\u00a0 For this reason, I can certainly understand why PBL hasn\u2019t really caught on in many classrooms despite the general push in its direction.<\/p>\n

Project Search to the Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet, I couldn\u2019t help but think of how Open Educational Resources (OER) could help make it easier for teachers to use PBL in their classrooms and potentially solve this problem. McGreal (2015, p. 2) defines OER as \u201cteaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.\u201d\u00a0 Through the sharing made possible via the internet, teachers could share projects that they have developed, making it easier for teachers new to PBL to implement them in their courses.\u00a0 These teachers could then pay back the favour or pay it forward by sharing other projects that they have developed or the modifications that they have made to already-shared projects.\u00a0 Think of all the time and energy that could be saved!<\/p>\n

So, can you imagine how thrilled I was to discover that an online repository of Projects already exists? The repository is called Project Search<\/a> and it is hosted on the Buck Institute\u2019s website.\u00a0 Project Search is very easy to use as it allows teachers to search for projects by source, subject or keyword.\u00a0 It then will bring up a list of projects that are rated Beginner, Experienced or Expert.\u00a0 If looking to do an interdisciplinary project, all the subjects that the project covers are also listed.\u00a0 Although, the site is American and the Common Core Standards that each project meets are listed, these can still be handy to Canadian teachers as we can easily see if these standards are similar to those in our programs of study.<\/p>\n

Each listed project is then linked to the website of the institution which developed the project.\u00a0 Developers included organizations such as NASA, High Tech High, the West Virginia Department of Education and other public schools and boards in the United States.\u00a0 While often the project was simply described on the developer\u2019s website with some additional resources such as PDF\u2019s or videos, I didn\u2019t see anything that would stop a teacher from using the project and also modifying it to meet their needs.\u00a0 So, although adaptable lesson plans aren\u2019t included, it was still possible to change a project to suit a teacher\u2019s needs and on the Project Search webpage it does say that the projects may be adapted.\u00a0 For this reason, I would consider Project Search to be an OER.\u00a0 In contrast, Crowdschool<\/a>, which Glenn co-founded, does offer teachers lessons plans that can be more easily re-mixed.\u00a0 However, these projects must be purchased from their developers, so I don\u2019t feel that Crowdschool is truly an OER in the same sense that I consider Project Search to be.\u00a0\u00a0 Adding lesson plans in the form of word documents is one enhancement that could potentially make Project Search even better.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it is easy to see how PBL could lead to \u201cproduction of learner-generated content\u201d which Hegarty (2015) lists as one of the eight attributes of open pedagogy.\u00a0 As students complete projects, their teachers could easily facilitate the sharing of them using various media on the internet, including YouTube, Instagram and Podcasts.\u00a0 However, I feel that it would be imperative for teachers to ensure that students\u2019 privacy is protected when sharing student work online so that government policies, such as FOIP in Alberta, are followed and more importantly, so that we can protect our students\u2019 privacy.\u00a0 For this reason, a closed forum may be needed to share student work and the identity of the students would also need to be kept private.<\/p>\n

Moreover, it is important to teach our students digital citizenship when sharing projects.\u00a0 For instance, students should be taught etiquette if commenting on others\u2019 work and also to be aware that simply copying another student\u2019s project and submitting it as one\u2019s own, is a form of plagiarism.\u00a0 However, these issues have always existed in education; they just may be exacerbated in the digital world in which we now live.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

OERs offer a great solution to time-strapped teachers who seek to implement PBL into their teaching environments by allowing the sharing of project ideas. Specifically, Project Search is a resource that I highly recommend.\u00a0 In fact, I was able to find quite a few projects that I could easily adapt to my own Physics course.\u00a0 Additionally, I would like to see the sharing extended to students, so they have the opportunity to learn from each other as well, although I caution teachers to ensure that our students are able to do so in a way that protects their identities and teaches them digital citizenship.\u00a0 What are some practical ways of ensuring our students\u2019 privacy and teaching digital citizenship that you have found helpful when encouraging them to share their work online?<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Buck Institute of Education. What is project based learning (PBL)?<\/em> Retrieved from http:\/\/bie.org\/about\/what_pbl<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Glenn, P.,\u00a0(2016). Why project based learning hasn’t gone mainstream (and what we can do about it. EdSurge<\/em>. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.edsurge.com\/news\/2016-04-23-why<\/a>project-based-learning-hasn-t-gone-mainstream-and-what-we-can-do-about-it<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources. Educational Technology<\/em>, 4.\u00a0 Retrieved from https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/c\/ca\/Ed_Tech_Hegarty_2015_article_a<\/a>ttributes_of_open_pedagogy.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. McGreal, R. (2014). Discussion paper on Open Educational Resources for Alberta Education. <\/em>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Retrieved from: http:\/\/cde.lms.athabascau.ca\/pluginfile.php\/50745\/mod_book\/chapter\/13493\/676rory.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    About the Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Janet Remus is an online Math and Science teacher with the Alberta Distance Learning Centre where she has taught for three years.\u00a0 She is enthusiastic about teaching and learning even more about PBL and OER.\u00a0 She is grateful to the teachers she had as a student who introduced her to project based learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \"Creative<\/a>
    This work is licensed under a     Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Teacher Editorial | By Janet Remus (BOLT student) The Problem Today, educators are constantly told that they need to employ teaching strategies that are more engaging and applicable to their students\u2019 lives beyond the classroom.\u00a0 Using worksheets and lectures are practically considered taboo, as we move from teacher-directed approaches to learner-centred approaches.\u00a0 Project Based Learning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[9,13,6,4,20],"tags":[34,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolt.athabascau.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}