…Or as some might call it the Pepto Bismol of Learning. The reason I say this is simply one must be
not just a teacher or instructor but also a conductor, facilitator, coach,
project management expert, etc, etc.
This is not a model that one goes into lightly given the complexity and the
time it takes to do this well. This
complexity seems to be a factor that could send even the bravest running for
the hills. Jess said in her blog last
week that she has moved away from incorporating aspects of cooperative learning
as her life has become busier and busier with its many demands. I think this is true for many of us. While we want to provide a quality learning
experience for our students it must be balanced with the other demands that are
part of our lives. To me Problem-Based
Learning thus might be best for a team teaching scenario where the joy and
responsibilities can be shared.
One way I can see using PBL is as a model for action
learning with corporate clients. Right
now CCL does a lot of action learning with long term clients who are sending
intact groups through a long-term process where they come to CCL a few times
over the space of about 1 year. Part of
their learning is to create action-learning teams where they work on issues
that are being faced by their organiztion.
They have to work colloboratively but each person on a particular team
has their own piece of the pie, so to speak, that they must research, investigate
and report back to the team. As with PBL, there are a lot of project
management skills that goes along with this model, both by the instructor and
the participants. Right now the model
that CCL uses to manage this process is slighlty cumbersome and extremely expensive. It involves more face to face times at
intervals that are spread out over months.
It does not necessarily help keep participants engaged in the process. I have been working on a design
that would use the online classroom as the tool to help keep teams on task,
engaged and able to communicate more effectively (especially since more often
than not these are globally dispersed teams).
Often organiztions have internal structures like Sharepoint that can be
used to help facilitate this process but tools such as Webex, Yammer, Adobe
Connect, Wiggio, can all be used to give teams a central organization spot and
allows an instructor to help facilitate the process on an ongoing process. But again, in doing this, one must be
committed to the process and willing to see it through to the end for participants
to really gain from this expereince. So
get out the Pepto Bismol, here I come!
8 comments:
I like your Pepto Bismol comment haha. And I definitely see your point. This may be a great tool and approach for classroom, but it is one that ends up being very demanding for the facilitator. At first glance, it seems that this would lighten the work-load of an educator (after all, they don't have to prepare a lecture and plan for each day). But the more you look into and hypothesize about implementing it, the more you realize just how complicated and demanding it can be. This would be the major factor that would scare me away from using this approach.
I also laughed at your Pepto Bismol analogy. It is a very stringent process and I have found that it has not worked so well with our middle school students with the implementation of our new math curriculum this year. The curriculum is rooted in PBL and needless to say it has been a very challenging year...putting it mildly. It takes a great deal of planning and then we are preached to that we have to prepare them for the EOG's. You can't do both. I am not totally "bought in" to PBL...I think there is a need for direct and explict instruction as well.
I think you both bring up the dark side of this model and by Donia's experience I would tread lightly. Just in working through the plan for Module 2 - while we are not using PBL, it still is a logistical conundrum. Trying to organize these modules for an online course or classroom, it becomes challenging to do it in a way that makes it easy for students to navigate. I keep thinking about this past summer when I had put my class into online break out rooms for small group discussions and something happened with the server at WCU. Everyone kept being moved from room to room and then back to the main room for no apparent reason. It was hysterical but also so frustrating. I finally had to give up and turn it into an individual assignment. I guess flexibility is essential with all of this.
PBL is a very complicated model once you sit down and plan out a lesson plan. Using this model will give the instructor multiple roles as well as consume precious class time. I feel that this model would be great for adults in a challenging field of work. The online experience can be enhanced by using this theory if it is used in the right situation.
I "amen" Paul's comment. PBL works great in the right context and in the right situation, but there are other strategies which I would prefer to use in an online environment.
How do you spell relief?
I think it's great that you brought up project management as a significant aspect of using PBL. It seems to me that project management is a highly sought-after skill in many job environments. I think PBL is especially important in contexts that prepare students for professional work, because a large part of working in the real world after school is that you need to figure out what the important problems are and work towards solving them one at a time, in collaboration with others. I wonder if this kind of relevance would help motivate students to make the most of this kind of learning.
More thoughts about this project management business! I think that you are right Hyun-Duck! I think it would be a great oppotunity to engage students if there was a tie-in to learning and implementing these skills. I actually was thinking last night that a Gantt Chart (bar chart) might be useful in showing the timeline for our project. But then I was actually moving past that and thinking that a PERT Chart could be a useful tool for both instructors and students in a PBL model since it helps determine where to go next when you hit a cross roads. So many things to consider!
More thoughts about this project management business! I think that you are right Hyun-Duck! I think it would be a great oppotunity to engage students if there was a tie-in to learning and implementing these skills. I actually was thinking last night that a Gantt Chart (bar chart) might be useful in showing the timeline for our project. But then I was actually moving past that and thinking that a PERT Chart could be a useful tool for both instructors and students in a PBL model since it helps determine where to go next when you hit a cross roads. So many things to consider!
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