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Shifting from after-school activities to authentic projects challenges after-school staff to rethink how they work with youth (just as classroom teachers have to do when they start down the PBL path). Projects are likely to be different from “the way we’ve always done things,” and change can be challenging.

ongoing professional development has been the best way to address the challenges that come with implementing PBL

You for Youth was unveiled last week

You for Youth includes four online courses, one of which focuses specifically on PBL.

Researchers have found substantial evidence that focusing on relatively long term problems that require meaningful engagement with challenging subjects that integrate ideas from a number of diverse disciplines in which is supported by practical and useful technology can help overcome many classroom challenges and prepare students for practical and relevant skills for the future.

Problem-based learning at once allows groups of students to collaborate, to apply themselves in real-world challenges that demonstrate the relevance of the material, explore and integrate information from across multiple domains and allow the teacher to adopt the role of facilitator and co-learner rather than as the single point of expertise in the classroom.

In this framework, teachers are well employed as a master craftsman who provide just enough scaffolding in order to ensure students can remain on task and productive rather than floundering without guidance.

Some questions the students wondered about couldn’t be answered by their working on their own. “I wonder if there are patterns in my basement?” needed some parent support. “I wonder if snakes have patterns?” meant I needed to share an informational picture book with the class. The question above about patterning with cake meant that I had to do some baking.

At the end of the unit, each of the children produced a digital artifact to show what they had learned. These were all posted on their blogs. As this was the first time we had done this, I reminded them of what our objectives were at the beginning, and gave some ideas of ways they might choose to express what they knew, although I was open to their ideas as well. Some students chose to animate their patterns with Animationish or make a digital picture and record their voices with Audioboo. Others chose to use the iPad app ScreenChomp and made a screencast. A few made posters and explained them while another student recorded it on video.

I loved the fact that we could learn curriculum outcomes based on what the students (not the teacher’s guide or myself) chose. Digital artifacts have been a part of my classroom for a long time, but I prized the specificity of the ones we created this time. I have some still-forming ideas for ways I want the next unit to be better. However it turns out, I think I’m hooked. And I’m definitely still learning.