Exploring Project-based Tools considering Constructivism

The wild road through the Web is wonderful. But not all Web sites are organized the same. We would all like to find sites that motivate and relate to our students. I also look for sites that help organize my deficient left brain skills and overactive right brain. Some sites that I explored and surveyed this week from our Walden resources suggested both constructivism and behaviorism elements. One site I explored and liked is called PBL., for Project Based Learning that assists teachers to think and organize lessons. Edutopia was interesting and provides technology based motivation in which students explore real-world problems. The most interactive site was the NASA. I can't wait to show my students this one and the science teacher.

PBL is an online resource that organizes by providing a progressive check list that offers multiple planning ideas, drafting key questions, assessments, mapping out the project, and a checklist for what skills we will need to manage. This is a resourceful site if you are a new teacher or need organizational help like me. Here is the site: http://pbl-online.org/default.htm. I would describe PBL as more of an outline planning process that does allow change and altering. It is a keeper. In relating this site to our text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that works byPitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski this PBL site breaks down the whole parts of a lesson into individual tasks. This is like our systems analysis read in Chapter eleven called, "Generating and Testing Hypotheses" (Pitler p. 203). You problem solve as you work on their site by checking off your designated plan. It does allow you to resolve and conclude your lesson plan decisions. The six tasks written about in our text, systems analysis, problem solve, historical investigation, invention, and experimental inquiry can be found from yourself in this site, as you plan and construct. You can fit new information together with what you may already know. It is user friendly and easy to read.

In contrast, the Edutopia site http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning I surveyed uses constructivist/constructionist learning theories because it creates a greater insight for the viewer. By watching the virtual tours of designated subjects, you begin to understand by interaction with the virtual environment. There are many videos about students who are excelling in technology and interviews from educated people who share their theories. The George Lucas Educational Foundation makes media resources available and it offers links; Edutopia.org, Edutopia magazine, and video Edutopia video: I enjoyed this site and would use it as motivation for my students in pursuit of passion for life and overcoming technology fears.

Last, but not least is my favorite of the three sites: http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ or NASA Solar System Simulator. WOW. This site was the most engaging. Perhaps it is the subject matter of the Lunar Module, or the astronauts that is enticing. It is interactive and visually enthralling. The photographs can be zoomed in and out. There is a moon with Lunar sites you can click on and hear and see and read about. Then there are more interactive features. There is fun stuff too. The site offers you to download a program to make "photosynths". Who needs a science curriculum if you have this site! NASA provides additional links to sites such as "Dr. C" who is a computerized scientist aka as someone who is real. Please visit.

Our text book offers sites that are interactive and resourceful. How we choose to use these sites to engage our students is important for the constructing of ideas. If we understand the tasks, and believe these Web sites can assist in children creating their artifacts and bring them closer to real life situations, then technology is worth it. Let students have new experiences and reinterpret and invent with their ideas. Jean Piaget said, " The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done-men who are creative, inventive and discoverers"(http://thinkexist.com/).

Pitler, H., Hubbell,E., Kuhnn,M.,& Malenoski. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Work. Alexandria, VA: ASCD