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Great resources for planned and executing project-based learning in your school: "According to Edutopia, studies have shown that students who use project-based learning remember the material much longer and have healthier attitudes toward education. "Project-based learning is based on the idea that students learn best by tackling and solving real world problems. Students are much more engaged with the subject matter and look to the teacher as more of a coach who guides them through their own reflections and ideas. Project-based learning often involves students working in pairs or groups, thus facilitating a deeper understanding of cooperation and communication in solving problems."

An interesting visual way to find images--each image found leads to a "swirl" of other related images, usually from the same site. Images found can be used in content-based/project-based learning. Be aware of copyright issues when using images from the Internet. Thanks to Webhead Rita Zeinstejer for this tip.

"The theories children build, whether they are right or wrong, are not capricious. They are often logical and rational, and firmly based in evidence and experience." by Karen Worth This article is very explanatory and is a good argument for maker and project-based learning.

These are divided by subject matter, and each has a short description, so it's not as daunting a list as appears at first glance. Take some time to explore the content areas, many of which are useful for language learners, such as Daily Haiku. There will be many apps with comparable features/functions for Droid-based smartphones and tablets also.

A short video on PBL. Also links to an introductory aritlce and a longer video. Interview with Papert included. Embeddable on your website or playable on iTunes.

Although this is a science and math teacher blog, the tips and tools mentioned here are outstanding. Blog by David Wetzel (drwetzel)\n\nTopics that include a brief lesson idea and tools to use: book trailer video, interactive poster/presentations, audio/video podcasts, slideshows, collaborative project sharing.

"Providing your students with a public audience is not only a critical part of the project-based learning process, but it's also a great strategy for building authenticity into assignments to create work that matters. We often leverage our students' parents and guardians in this process because 1) they are easily accessible, and 2) they are our partners in their children's learning plans. Why not then continue and build this partnership in PBL? John Larmer wrote a great blog about how to build parent support for PBL, and one of the best ways he mentions is to keep them involved in the PBL project you launch in your classroom. Here are some strategies to consider as you leverage parents for your next PBL project."

"As part of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), students need to "ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century." Many teachers have little to no formal training on how to teach about climate change. Along with the ever-changing research and the controversy that comes with it, some teachers inevitably shy away or even prevent students from digging deep into the content. Some suggest that teachers might be getting climate change all wrong. Since teachers can't rely on books to stay current with all the new research, digital resources are the only effective way to stay on top of such a dynamic field. Consider these practices when using technology to teach about climate change:" Sites include NASA Global Climate Change, Climate Kids for younger learners, Global Oneness Project, and Earth-Now to analyze realtime data.

This video shows how to use Feed Marklet to create a button on your browser toolbar to add an RSS feed. Takes about 1 minute. You can use an RSS feed to keep track of student Webpages, and have them use it to keep track of each other's work. For instance, they might add all the pages they are making, or their blogs, and so be able to read them quickly when new content is added.

Prezi allows you to create stunning presentations online. There is a free version, or a better quality academic free version with more features. Excellent for teaching content, and it is more like a video than an ordinary old ppt.

"Based on the motivational theories of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, the game encourages students to assess themselves not on how smart or talented they are, but on how hard they work. And the reward for completing quests with characters is significant: Help the Cheshire cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and he'll help you turn invisible so you can sneak through the virtual world a la Harry Potter and his invisibility cloak. "The more characters from literature you get to know, the more powerful you become," says Schell. "

John Larmer sees a sliding scale: "There is a sliding scale of authenticity for projects, which goes from "not authentic" to "somewhat authentic" to "fully authentic.""

"In the original 2004 article I stated: "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. A real challenge for any learning theory is to actuate known knowledge at the point of application" (Conclusion section, � 1). I find Verhagen�s (2006) critique falls at precisely this point. The core of what I wrote in the initial article is still valid: that learning is a network phenomenon, influenced (aided) by socialization and technology. Two years is a lifetime in the educational technology space. Two years ago, web 2.0 was just at the beginning of the hype cycle. Blogs, wikis, and RSS�now prominent terms at most educational conferences�were still the sandbox of learning technology geeks. Podcasting was not yet prominent. YouTube didn't exist. Google had not released its suite of web-based tools. Google Earth was not yet on the desktops of children and executives alike�each thrilled to view their house, school, or business in satellite images. Learning Management Systems still held the starting point of most elearning initiatives. Moodle was not yet prominent, and the term PLEs (personal learning environments) did not exist. In two years, our small space of educational technology evolved�perhaps exploded is a more accurate term."

This site has some amazing links for all the content areas: sciences, lanugage arts (lit trips), maths, and social studies, including U.S. History Tours, using Google Maps and Google Earth. For multiple grades.

Insert a URL on this page and it will render a readability score using Flesch, SMOG, etc., plus statistics such as number of words, sentences, etc. This could be helpful to determine readable authentic materials for ESL/EFL learners. However, I suspect most webpages all run pretty close to the same level. This would be interesting to experiment with, and especially useful for electronic books and content materials.

This is a nice update on where to find resources for student projects. Mike Alfred's students use creative projects to show what they have learned, making all types of video from animations to full movies.

The software iStopMotion is fun to use and suitable for kids. See other articles on stop-motion animation and the TED-Ed videos at Animation Basics 101: http://blog.ed.ted.com/2016/07/13/animation-basics-101/

Students can write and then read the commentary on their poems.

This is an incredibly useful resource for language classes. In combination with news syndicates like ABC, Fox, AP, and AFP, Mapeas collects video news and locates it on a Google map. Students learn geography, read news in English or an FL, and can specify business, entertainment, science news, etc.

A great place for students to read about and study cultures of the world. A contributor to the Blog is Carla Arena. This would also be a good way for students to enter a project about their own region of the world. The site is organized by Culture, Topics, and Blogs about culture.