I have to admit - I find the theory for the week, the PBL, pretty alluring. I found myself wrapped up in its utter uniqueness. I mean, for some reason the earlier theories felt familiar and homey... but for me this PBL, this based on problems and role-playing solutions, felt kind of racy to me. In a good way, of course. :)
I appreciated the background/application pieces this week from the medical field as I think that really gives us a good perspective on this model. And honestly, it's how I'll remember this theory. My mind wanders to my experiences teaching a "mock" lesson during my methods courses before student teaching. I know that PBL has its basis in the group work, and my mock lessons were just little ol' me, though.
Sidenote - how interesting were the medical articles, talking about their eTalk and the whole new room/lab they created for this new and experimental type of instruction. I had one of those moments where I wondered what the authors would have thought if they could have fast-forwarded 15 years later. Wow, 15 years. Didn't realize how long it was until I just typed it.
I think the piece weighing the pros/cons/research on PBL (come on, they were leaning towards the pro side a little) - the one by Hung, Bailey, and Jonassen - was quite nice. Quite an easier read, if I do say so myself, much more "accessible" and some interesting ideas and arguments. While I do love the PBL, I'm not 100% sold on their reasoning/rationale in the piece. That's another post altogether.
This theory, more than the others for me I think, requires the redefining of the role of "instructor" - yay! Cooperative learning, yea a little bit. But to truly present students (of any age) with a "real" problem and give them the tools to solve it (or they go after them themselves) - that's the racy part. Love it. I'd love to see myself more in the role of facilitator of learning ... even though I love myself as the transmitter of knowledge, I can't lie. ;)
Accomplishing this via technology is where I'm a bit stumped. And I'm going to have to go to my peers for help on this one. I can see how you can provide a common space or meeting ground like Elluminate or GoogleWave or something like that (wikis too, maybe) for a group engaged in PBL... and then let them hunt for the tools/websites/research articles they'll need... and then have them re-engage online... but is that too simplistic?
My group met this week to really nail down our next module and we considered only for a fleeting moment doing our module using PBL... but quickly steered in another direction because we felt like PBL required SO MUCH preparation - or at least that's what it seemed like. I mean - those medical guys had to build a whole new learning center...
And hell yeah for the depth vs breadth. I'm in the depth camp. Subject matter/disciplines are holographic by definition, thus by studying a few components you can grasp the whole. (Plus, you can never realistically teach ALL of a subject matter... or we'd all be out of a job. :))
Here's an idea... what if a group using PBL used something like Twitter to communicate with each other - and part of their process is to engage "others" along the way to their solution? Maybe they don't "meet officially on Twitter - but in the course of their normal day they use Twitter to continue the ongoing discussion...
Or set up a Ning for the group to work together in...
Okay, the ideas are starting to flow more now. Will have to read my peers' posts tomorrow. Onward! Enjoy the weekend!
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Matthew, I think the same way that PBL needs lots of preparation, though when it comes to the class meeting time, students seem to take the more active role.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree more about "studying a few components you can grasp the whole"! I'm in the depth camp as well! yay!
Matthew, I also think that a module based on PBL approach would involve a lots of preparation.
ReplyDeleteI am sure Twiter and/or Ning will be the best in terms of collaborative work.
Dipali
Matthew - loving the Ning and Twitter suggestions. I feel like each week we're mostly throwing up Elluminate as a "safe" tool to suggest - but there are so many out there - there have to be some other tools worth suggesting! I'm glad you posted something a bit different!
ReplyDeleteWhen I came up against the breadth vs. depth debate I was wondering - does it really have to be all or nothing? Jack of all trades - master of none? Just a thought...
I always love to read your thoughts on the article, b/c they often align with the things I think as I read; you just have a more eloquent and interesting way of putting those thoughts I think. I like the idea of using twitter b/c that would allow for easier meeting and sharing of ideas as they occur as opposed to a specific time. Sometimes it is really hard to find a common time...esp if you had a group of 6-8 as one article suggests. The only problem with twitter...people who are not quite up to speed with today's technology would have a hard time participating. I suppose that would force people like me, who still dont twitter, to get with the times!!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
Good thinking, and yes Twitter could play a role. I can't remember where this was at, but at some point in my academic life I saw a vet school planning to implement PBL and they were going to use handhelds. I think the idea was for students on a team to divide up research tasks, go to the library, take notes, and come back and synch everything they found on one computer where the whole team and facilitator could see the progress. Today you could probably do that on the Web more efficiently with a tool like DropBox, but at the time,I suppose they were trying to make the research process more efficient with the latest and greatest hardware. I never much cared for Palms, but heck, there's probably "an app for that" now on the iPhone and a way to message your team your latest findings from library research. In short, hundreds of possible technology angles, with one's decision on which to use based on any number of criteria from cost and availability to time to train students on use.
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