PBL and WebQuest Week 5

This week 5 I have learned that “the project-based learning approach creates a "constructivist" learning environment in which students construct their own knowledge. Whereas in the “old school" model the teacher was the task master -- in the "new school" model the teacher becomes the facilitator”.  Yes, I confirmed my theory!  I was navigating through the different websites and I found the information in the URL http://www.globalschoolnet.org/Web/pbl/whatis.htm .  I learned how all age students can develop more confidence in their ability to learn English incluiding the ones that can be resistant to learn it.

 We  need to convert the learning experience in something meaninful. We always are going to start form  our objective related with our student’s needs. I was very moved to read the story of Susan Gaer when she developed a PBL with their inmigrants students. She helped them to document traditonal recepies from their countries. She impacted a learning objective and a historic momentum. Why? Because I am sure that there where not documentation for the mayority of those recepies before of that project.

The usage of PBL has with it the opportunity to apply alternative assessment in to the classroom. That opened for me the oportunity to create  a rubric using an online tool.

Also, for the URL http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat015.shtml I learned that “A WebQuest is built around an engaging and doable task that elicits higher order thinking of some kind. It's about doing something with information. The thinking can be creative or critical, and involve problem solving, judgment, analysis, or synthesis. The task has to be more than simply answering questions or regurgitating what's on the screen. Ideally, the task is a scaled down version of something that adults do on the job, outside school walls.” Here is when a teacher need to find the task that is going to lead to thinking about the web content.

Our multidisciplinary touch can make the WebQuest a real display of cooperative learning strategies.

I learned that a great WebQuest is one that through creating situations or tasks can make students to develop a strong dependence on one another.