Some PBL topic ideas...

--> What I got from the chapter
Look at http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddr83njm_116fd2sw9f4

--> Activities
I found 3 interesting projects in the www.gsn.org/pr/

1. Seasonal changes through our eyes and yours project
- http://www.globalschoolnet.org/GSH/pr/GetDetail.cfm?StartRow=1&view=2&projtype=%272009%2F09%27&sortby=Start%20Date&fAge=5&tAge=19&pID=1855
- The brief: Students are asked to observe tree, temperature, clothing, and sunrise/sunset for one week during winter and spring season. Then, they have to make report and/or photos/charts, send it through email to other peers, and compare. Finally, they have to make also the comparison data.
- I like this project because students will be engaged a lot. First, they have to research data and do preparation. Second, they have to do observation. Third, make report. Fourth, send email. Fifth, read peers report and compare. Sixth, make comparison report. There are many things students will learn from this project. Not only they learn about
environment, temperature and seasonal clothes, but also do many interesting, motivating, and thought-provoking activities.

2. Global communication project
- http://www.globalschoolnet.org/GSH/pr/GetDetail.cfm?StartRow=1&view=2&projtype=%272009%2F09%27&sortby=Start%20Date&fAge=5&tAge=19&pID=3608
- The brief: students are required to research data about life in other countries, from food, religion, government, etc. Then, students will have to create questions for the students from that 'other' countries so that they can collect data about the United States perception from the eyes of students outside the United States. At the end, students are expected to build a database based on the collected data.
- Actually, the idea is brilliant because students will have to do many research, including designing questionnaire and creating database. However, I think this project is complicated and have prerequisite information (in this case, students might not be able to start if the prerequisite is not available). The prerequisite is the student from the other countries. Based on the detail information about the project, the teacher will first provide each students/group with some names of students from outside the United States, then they can start doing the research and the questionnaire. The problem is: what if nobody outside the U.S responded this project? Then, the project might not be completed fully, or the teacher might give some dummy data, which I think is not good, because as Moursund stated that "One important role the teacher plays in a PBL lesson is in helping students see the parallels between the project and similar real-world projects" so that it is important to connect the students to the real sources or data (p.23).

3. The virtual museum of music inventions project
- http://www.globalschoolnet.org/GSH/pr/GetDetail.cfm?StartRow=1&view=1&projtype=future%2Ccurrent%3Ball&sortby=Start%20Date&fAge=5&tAge=21&pID=141
- The brief: students are asked to make their own instrument and analyze the process of the sound making in the instrument. After that, they will take some pictures of the instrument and send to the pictures to the Virtual Museum of Music Inventions for display.
- This project is interesting because students are expected to create something real, through some research of sound and voices. However, if I were a teacher, I wouldn't choose this kind of project for my students because there are not many activities they can do, and from the overall assumption: this project is too difficult. Creating real instrument that really works will need lots of time, and in this case, there will be not many things they will learn from.

What is PBL then??

--> Personal reflection of the whole chapter
When I first read this chapter for my note taking, I didn't understand because it looked complicated. However, after I did the note taking and read one more time from my note taking, I could understand the flow of the content. It's simple. Mr. Moursund just reviews 4 things about PBL in this chapter: the definition, student's point of view, teacher's point of view, and the difference between didactic learning. That's it.. =) He not only tries to list, but also explains more details, that's why it seems complicated in the first place.

Honestly, I really like when the author explains the point of view from the side of the student and the teacher. I think.. it can become 2 important points in creating PBL: the goal of PBL so that the PBL could hit the target (creator understands to always design a PBL according to student's expectation) also as comparison so that PBL is NOT created ONLY for the sake of the student, but also for the teacher (creator understands to also design according to teacher's purpose and expectation).

--> What I got from the chapter
This part is linked to http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddr83njm_115gmmsq8c3

--> Activities
- I've answered the question no.1 (my PBL experience) in my ejournal for ch. 1, so I will answer question no. 2:
I can say that the teaching method I got since I was in the elementary until high school was didactic learning. I remember that my teacher asked me to remember the periodic table for chemical subject, memorized the history of my country, also the cities and their features for geographic subject. Well, in physic and mathematic I didn;t have to memorize anything except the formulas. And for the social studies, I just learned from textbook. Every single day my teachers will stand in the front of the classroom, taught us their skills, gave us homework, tested us several times in 1 semester, and graded our scores.
Well.. this kind of method does have strengths, and I think the best one is forcing my brain to memorize things (at least my brain worked and get exercised.. =D), though at the end, I forgot almost every knowledge I memorized. And perhaps, the other benefit of didactic learning is its easiness. I believe it won't be as hard as PBL, because students don't have to think more than memorizing. Of course, the PBL will be harder, but like I've mentioned aboive, it is worthed to do because students learn and think more, and the knowledge will retain longer in their brain.
If I ever get a chance to teach, I will do both approches, but I will try to do the PBL more than the traditional one. I will use the didactic for teaching formulas, but I will use PBL to teach other things. However, in teaching with didactic style, I will have to use mindtools so that students can understand all the relationships between components, also can remember them longer. I believe this is the way to avoid the weaknesses of didactic approach.

Get to know the PBL and the examples...

--> Personal reflection of the chapter
I like the whole content of chapter 1. It gives me a general, yet describeful information about PBL (especially because of the example). By reading this chapter, I know what I will learn, what kind of environment I will be, what terms I will see a lot in the book, and what prerequisites I need to prepare. Moreover, it is started with a good quote "Even the longest journey begins with a single step" by Lau Tsu, which I think gives a good motivation to start a new knowledge.

Though I don't read many scholar books, but I barely see other authors put their "content introduction" in chapter 1. Mostly they do in the preface, and I think Mr. Moursund understand that some of us won't read preface (me for example.. =D)

--> What I got from the chapter
This part is tooo long, so I decided to put it in the google docs. This tools is so awesome! You can have word processor, spreadsheet, power point.. everything for free!
I've been using it for more than 8 months, and it has helped me a lot.
This is my link to my google docs for chapter 1
http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddr83njm_114fpz75d5r

--> Activities
P/T Team is important! -> this would be the theme I would use if I were recruited as instructor or work in the education field. I would use my thought and knowledge as I've described above as my background thinking, to ensure the school board that students need to do more than just do regular/traditional learning.

As far as I remember, since I was in kindergarten until I finished my undergraduate study, I had only 1 PBL, which was my final thesis in my undergrad study. Well, I have to admit that it was the education system in my country in my generation. Everything is teacher centered. All I remembered in my junior and high school, what I did was just "study". Teachers taught something, gave homework, gave tests, and I would study and faced the tests. However, at least I still experienced 1 time. In doing final thesis, students are required to find 1 topic, research the topic, find actual sources, do the analysis, create the thesis, and finally present in front of 4 professors, and explain everything if they ask something. For this one, for sure I still remember the whole process. I made Hotel Reservation using Text Message Application, with Delphi 6.0 and SQL Server. I had to research about hotel reservation system, talked with some hotel managers to help me at that time, analyzed how text message works and how it can be implemented to the computer server which connect to the regular hotel application.

--> Other references
Jonassen, D. 2006. Modeling with technology: mindtools for conceptual change. Ohio: Pearson.

The beginning...

I just got the PBL book today (Tuesday, Sept 1st) in the afternoon, though the order was made last Wednesday after class. This is what I don't like (and have trauma) with order-online-book shipping. They said 1-3 days, and it turned out to be 1 week.. =(

This E-journal is basically my note-taking from the book, plus additional thoughts of mine. My writing professor taught me (1 year ago) that if I read a source, I need to make a note-taking. In the note-taking, everything reflects the main idea of the content so that if one reads it, he/she can understand what is inside the original source. Note-taking is also citing, so it has to have citation format and credit for the author of the source.

What this blog is about???

This blog is about what I've read, learned, and experienced in the etec 5320 class....

from the start til the end...

from sad moments to happy moments...

from easy readings to stressful asssignments...