Tag: education_reform

Design Thinking or PBL, A Chicken/Egg Scenario? My journey.

http://www.science20.com/gerhard_adam/chicken_and_egg_problem_view_evolution-107927 Last night I missed a great conversation during a Twitter chat hosted by #MeritKCI and involving my friends who frequent the #dtk12chat. As I was scrolling through the tweets from the chat I noticed some discussion of PBL and how different Design Thinking (DT) is from PBL. A blog post that was referenced (and […]

Thoughts About This Coding Craze

In 1976 I set off to the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship to major in Math and Computer Science. In 1986 I was taking courses in computer architecture and the language ADA as I worked on my master’s degree in Engineering. In 1992 I helped teach a computer class to teachers […]

You See, It Takes Time

https://www.flickr.com/photos/badboy69/ We are seeing a real dichotomy in education these days. Thanks to social media we are exposed to teachers, at all levels, doing wonderful things with their students. We’re seeing students doing incredible things that they have chosen to do – not because they are completing an assignment that they have to do.   […]

I’m Not a Techie

Technology Cow via http://goo.gl/XR2MYi In 1976 I went to the University of South Carolina to be a dual Math and Computer Science major. I got my math degree but gave up on computers after spending hours at the card punch machine at late hours on the university’s one computer (that also had to do research and […]

Another Take on Problem Based Learning for Math

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gpforeducation/ I have been wrestling with the marriage of Project Based Learning (PBL) and Math for nearly 8 years now.  A few years ago I moved towards Problem Based Learning (PrBL) instead of Project Based for math. It just seemed to make more sense. With PrBL there are shorter time periods to complete a problem […]

What is Essential For Successful PBL?

    http://earthmosaic.org/index.html This year the Buck Institute for Education (BIE.org), of which I am on the National Faculty, is re-examining the “Essential Elements” for PBL. As I was thinking about it I remembered that I have posted about these elements a few times, over the years, and I came across this post from July […]

Resolve to Stop Using the Word “Fail”

http://goo.gl/ssvt4z This year I want to see educators using the word “fail” less. In 2013 and 2014 it seemed like it was the word to use when it came to discussing student resiliency. Half a century ago Winston Churchill talked about failure not being fatal. He then went on to emphasize the importance of not […]

There Was Gold In Them There Colorado Hills

http://goo.gl/oNBuIc A Gold standard for PBL – that’s what the folks at BIE.org are trying to define. And we are reaching out to all of you who are practicing this in your classrooms and schools. This past week the National Faculty (NF) met for our Fall summit and we had some rich, deep discussions on […]

Which Came First PBL or Small Group Instruction?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smu_cul_digitalcollections/ Ye Olde Chicken-Egg story. Why am I wrestling with this? Because many consider me pretty smart about Project Based Learning(PBL). And, our school which calls itself a PBL school, is pushing small group instruction. So, is PBL just a version of small group instruction? Not sure. And when you infuse a very structured form […]