Welcome to what I think is an exciting post filled with PBL ideas to support the Gold Standards. PBL is a natural fit in any combination of face to face, elearning, and a blended environment. Now is especially the time to facilitate the student centered learning that Project Based Learning makes possible. In this post, I will provide thoughts and free resources to help you make the Gold Standards of PBL come alive. Most of all, I will provide some amazing links that can be used to support the Gold Standards face to face, online, and in the blended environment. Please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans.  I promise you will find some great information coming your way this school year…So Sign Up Now and please pass this on with a retweet!   – Mike Gorman (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

 Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference? I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have delivered hundreds of workshops and presentations. Check out my Booking Page .  I have some powerful online interactive workshops and webinars that can be used to engage learning in this new environment. Eamil we and we can talk about a powerful interactive online workshop for educators that models blended learning best practices. Thanks so much.  Michael Gorman (mjgormans@gmail.com).

Blended Learning and Project Based Learning… Taking the PBL Gold Standards Online by Michael Gorman at 21centuryedtech

The Gold Standards from PBLWorks are the building blocks that make up a good PBL Keep in mind that these Gold Standards are also based on best practice and can be used on their own in everyday teaching and daily lessons and activities. They also can be integrated into the online and blended learning environment. I always encourage educators to take small steps when implimenting new ideas. Before looking at resources to support these big or small steps, let’s review the Gold Standards of PBL.

A Focus Point at the Center: Include Learning Goals, Key Knowledge, Understanding, Success Skills. Supporting this central focus in the center are:

Challenging Problem or Question:  Based on the standards and answered by the product.

Sustained Inquiry: Ongoing… Spiraling promoting deeper thinking… facilitating new questions.

Authenticity: Meaningful, real, connected to other subjects and world making a difference.

Student Voice and Choice: Choice of ways to learn, and how they demonstrate learning.

Reflection: A key to learning since metacognition is a part of learning.

Critique and Revision: Important concept promoting the iterative process involved in learning.

Public Product: A student’s opportunity to answer DQ in a variety of possible ways.

Article ( https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl/gold-standard-project-design) – Read more about the Gold Standards from PBL Works

Perhaps you are an experienced PBL facilitator but are looking for some ideas, information, or tools that you can add to your toolbox. You might be new to PBL and are looking for some resources to help you begin. Most of all you might be looking for ways to bring PBL into the online and blended learning environment. I encourage you to look over the links provided below to help you support the important PBL Gold Standards. They include some tools, information, ideas, articles, and concepts. My hope is you look them over and polish a Gold Standard with one of the resources. It might be a thought to emphasize a Gold Standard using an online or blended idea. Of course, if you want to try multiple resources go ahead, Keep in mind that it is important that we take small steps, so just one is fine.

Resources to Support the Gold Standards in the Blended Learning Environment

At The Center: Learning Goals, Key Knowledge, Understanding, Success Skills.

PBLWorks: (https://pblworks.org/) – Look at the resources from the world experts on PBL. There are articles, videos, PBL Units, rubrics, designer documents, and many more. There are new resources included that help educators explore PBL integrated with blended and online learning, including a few I have written for PBLWorks.

Edutopia: (http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning) – A large collection of PBL articles, resources, videos, and ideas. Look at them with a blended idea in mind.

PBL Lessons: (http://www.learningreviews.com/Project-Based-Learning-Lesson-Plans.html) – Some great PBL lessons arranged by subject areas from different organizations on the web. How might some of these look in a blended classroom?

OER Commons: (https://www.oercommons.org/) – Wonderful place to find lessons and blended learning ideas that can cover standards that fit into a PBL or just a single lesson. Best of all, many of these lessons can be incorporated in a Learning Management System (LMS).

PBS Learning Media: (https://pbslearningmedia.org/) – Great multimedia, lessons, and resources that will provide a blended experience in a PBL bringing out the Gold Standards. A true free Goldmine!

PBL Works Rubrics: (https://my.pblworks.org/resources?f%5B0%5D=type%3A27) – A premier site for finding rubrics that will help students and teachers assess the 21st century skills. These can be posted as prompts for online discussion and self reflection.

Microsoft Rubrics – https://easdinnovativelearning.weebly.com/the-4cs.html) – This site connects to some great rubrics that promote the 4C’s of Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Again… how can they be used in the blended environment?

Habit of the Mind Rubric: (https://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=K68632&sp=yes&) – A great rubric that really captures the success skills emphasized in PBL. This is one of my favorites, and it has so many possibilities as a whole rubric, or just a selection of indicators throughout the blended learning process.

Challenging Problem or Question:  Based on the standards and answered by the product.

PBLWorks: https://my.pblworks.org/resource/document/driving_question_tubric)  – A Tubric? Yes a Tube and a Rubric that help teachers design a Driving Question. The video and template are all supplied. This is a an online experience for your own learning. Could it help students build their own Driving Questions?

Driving Question Article: (https://tinyurl.com/mjgormansdq)  – A two part series from Mike Gorman (yes… one of my articles) at 21centuryedtech and National Faculty at PBLWorks. This reading explains and provides information for writing a Driving Question. How might it change those important essential questions and learning targets you post on your LMS?

Sustained Inquiry: Ongoing… Spiraling promoting deeper thinking… facilitating new questions.

QFT from Right Question Institute: (https://rightquestion.org/education/) – A wonderful way to promote student inquiry. Great resources including a Blended Learning Toolkit using Google and Padlet. This is a must visit site and will give you ideas to use tomorrow!

Google Search Education: (https://www.google.com/intl/en-us/insidesearch/searcheducation/) – A site that included lessons and ideas for facilitating student inquiry. A great opportunity to promote student inquiry and ownership in the  Blended Learning environment.

Authenticity: Meaningful, real, connected to other subjects and world making a difference,

iEARN: (https://iearn.org/) A global site crossing all disciplines promoting class to class collaboration throughout the world. Provides connection to UN Sustainable Development Goals. A great possibility to find an active collaborative online project connecting your students to the world!

Taking It Global: (https://www.tigweb.org) – A Global space that promotes projects perfect for a PBL and Blended Classroom while making learning authentic for students. A great opportunity to blend those classroom walls with the outside world!

Student Voice and Choice: Choice of ways to learn, and how they demonstrate learning.

Pedagogy Wheel: (https://tinyurl.com/mjgormanspad) – This wheel provides a lot of technology tools that students can use to choose a way to publish their answers to the DQ while demonstrating their learning. The possibilities are endless and remember, the teacher does not have to know how to use tools students select. That is the power in student owned learning.

Edutopia Article: (https://tinyurl.com/edutstudentcenteredl) – This article provides several ways that a teacher can provide for putting students in the center of their learning. So many of the ideas can blend into your LMS!

Reflection: A key to learning since metacognition is a part of learning.

Making Thinking Visible: (http://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines#CoreThinkingRoutines) – This is a site from Harvard’s Project Zero that provides routines to promote thinking and understanding. It is so powerful when students can see their thoughts and the thinking of others. Your imagination can run wild as you consider ways Visble Thinking can be expanded into the Blended environment.

Institute for Habits of the Mind: (https://www.habitsofmindinstitute.org/) – A resource filled with multiple ideas that promote student cognition to promote deeper understanding. The resources and ideas are endless both in and out of the classroom.

Critique and Revision: Important concept promoting the iterative process involved in learning.

Better Lesson: (https://betterlesson.com/strategy/13/gallery-walk) – This article provides information on the Gallery Walk protocol including ways to promote it in the Blended Learning environment. It is really is a powerful protocol and can jump into the online world with ease!

New Tech CF: (http://newtechnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/NTN-critical-friends.pdf) – A protocol that provides students a ways to critique their work and projects with thoughts provided by the New Tech School Network. How might this look in the Blended environment using some of your favorite collaborative tools?

Public Product: A student’s opportunity to answer DQ in a variety of possible ways.

PBLWorks: (https://www.pblworks.org/blog/products-students-can-create-pbl-projects) – A wonderful article from one of the best, all about what a final PBL project might look like to show a demonstration of authentic learning. You will find ideas that work online!

Learning Depot – (https://tinyurl.com/ldpublic-proj) There are one hundred final product ideas. A Blended opportunity can fit right in. Perhaps your students can make an online tool connection after exploring the ideas!

Final Thoughts

Take small steps. A start might include how to bring some of the Gold Standards into one lesson. Consider ways that technology can be blended both in and outside of the classroom, Remember there are many resources in your Learning Management System that can be employed. Most of all, enjoy the PBL and Blended Learning journey!

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century (and even before that) learning. Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, PBL, STEM, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy.  I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans. I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Keep up the amazing work,  have a great week, and a enjoy this wonderful new school year. Welcome to the Future! – Mike Gorman

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference? I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have delivered hundreds of workshops and presentations. Check out my Booking Page .  I have some powerful online interactive workshops and webinars that can be used to engage learning in this new environment. Thanks so much.  Michael Gorman