I’m thankful for the project-based learning approach in Alaska Studies. I thought it was effective and gave me a deeper understanding on the region we focused on. I just wish we had more than three weeks to engage with our groups and acquire more information. Even though iBooks was frustrating at times, it was not a boring and meaningless class. People in my group were actively working and I often felt bad because others took on more responsibility than me. Project-based learning allowed us to dig deep into the region and I think we gained more knowledge than how we would have through lecture. I don’t know what it’s going to be like in the classroom this fall, but I’m already planning on how I can engage with the students. I believe finished work has better quality when the students are working together and are able to communicate with their instructors well. But like Angie said a few days ago, these classes aren’t going to be over when the three weeks are up. This is only the beginning. I can already envision all the hours that are going to be spent on researching each lesson plan. Research itself wasn’t too bad. Trying to organize the entire information into one condensed lesson plan was the toughest part. I believe it’s going to be very useful though in the long run.
I think that’s a really good point you touched on–when we use project based learning in our own classes, what are some techniques we can use to make sure the work is distributed fairly evenly? Or is it possible? But yeah, I agree, in the long run this class is going to serve us very well!
I think that’s a good question. As a teacher, you kind of have to learn what students will do what things in a group project. Often, it may just be you hope everyone works to the best of their abilities. I, for one, felt really confident when designing and putting together the iBooks, but became pretty useless during the editing because I’m the not best good at being grammar edit.
Hold your head, high Jimmy – you were our primary source in a lot of cases. I’d have to say our group worked together really well, and even though the work load wasn’t even, I think we all bore the stress fairly evenly. And that deserves a beer! (Which we had… at Squierz.)