Customer Reviews

Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age

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Reinventing Project based learning by Susie Boss and Jane Krauss is a well organized compendium of journalism and communication on the leading edge of current technology trends. They have used the most current Web 2.0 trends of communication and collaboration on the web. The book is a great snapshot in time of the current web development state. It appears that the authors believe authentic learning happens when you examine your ideas from all sides and from other points of view. New tools like Blogs, flikr, skype, wikis, and del.icio.us that support reflection and collaboration, give learners the opportunity to shape and revise their work, and expose the work to the analytical feedback of other people. The main direction of the book seems to be to collaboratively create knowledge with others. The content is divided up as follows.

SECTION I Anticipation
* Chapter 1 Mapping the Journey--Seeing the Big Picture
* Assess your readiness to begin teaching with technology-rich, authentic projects.
* Technology Focus: Social Bookmarking
* Chapter 2 Creating a Professional Learning Community
* Engage with colleagues, near or far, to build collaboration into project design and enrich your teaching practices.
* Technology Focus: Online Communities

SECTION II Packing Up
* Chapter 3 Imagining the Possibilities
* Establish the conceptual framework for your project. Why do "big ideas" matter in project design?
* Technology Focus: Why Use a Wiki?
* Technology Focus: Essential Learning with of Digital Tools, the Internet, and Web 2.0
Chapter 4 Strategies for Discovery
* How do you begin designing a project? A guided design process helps, whether you build a project from scratch or adapt an existing project plan to meet your needs.
* Technology Focus: Track Assets Online
* Chapter 5 Project Management Strategies for Teachers and Learners
* Teachers and learners alike benefit from improving their project management skills.
* Technology Focus: Project Management with Technology

SECTION III Navigating the Learning Experience
* Chapter 6 Project Launch--Implementation Strategies
* Get your project off to the right start by generating curiosity and preparing students for the active learning ahead.
* Technology Focus: Screencasting
* Chapter 7 A Guiding Hand--Keeping a Project Moving
* Consider the critical roles of classroom discussions, technology use, and troubleshooting strategies in keeping the project moving forward.
* Technology Focus: Podcasting

SECTION IV Expanding Your Circle
* Chapter 8 Building Connections and Branching Out
* Successful projects may take off in directions you did not anticipate.
* Imagine the possibilities for extensions and connections.
* Technology Focus: Online Collaboration
* Chapter 9 Making Assessment Meaningful
* Near the end of the project, you put your formal assessment plan to use.
* With 21st-century projects, teachers are incorporating new approaches to make assessment more meaningful.
* Technology Focus: Online Grade Books
* Chapter 10 Celebrating and Reflecting
* Culminating activities remind learners of where they have been and what they have gained along the way.
* Technology Focus: Photo Sharing

SECTION V Unpacking
* Chapter 11 Bringing It Home
* Build time for reflection and sharing into the project life cycle to make the most of your investment in meaningful curriculum design.

Have I found the book useful? Probably not, as it is not as much about project-based learning as I had hoped. It is more about communication and collaboration and current learning trends than it is about project-based learning. It is however, a wonderful book and a must read for anyone trying to get up to speed in our web dependent world. Read this book now, as it will be out of style after a few years.

Full Disclosure: The authors mentioned my classroom in this book.

I believe that this book gives an exceptional overview of project based learning in the modern classroom. From the up front planning, to the tools, to the nature of managing global collaborative projects that link classrooms like mine with classrooms around the world (we've partnered with classrooms in Bangladesh, China, Qatar, Austria, Australia, and others in the US.) I believe that there is a shortage of writing in this area and that this book is a visionary book whose time has come. It is an important book for technology administrators, teachers, and school boards to read so that they may facilitate change and decision making based on real world practice and not fear. Excellent book.

Finally a resource for the 21st century - this book ties in DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS with Project Based Learning. Contains AWESOME resources and ways to get students thinking! Totally worth the money - even recommended my district buy it for us all and we do a book study! Way to integrate technology naturally into the curriculum.

Like so many books for educators, this one offers many glittering generalities about the importance of project-based learning while offering little to nothing in the way of step-by-step guides. The authors identify several examples of project based learning but don't go into detail on a single one. This book is the equivalent of saying "wikispaces is great for collaborative learning" and then going on to talk about something else.

This book SO resonates with my feelings and convictions as an educator! I firmly believe in the project-based learning concept, and this book has so many great real-world ideas for incorporating technology into projects, as well as just good information on project-based learning in general. I liked the examples it gave of real teachers and their experiences using different technologies and theme projects with their students. I'm not super tech-savvy, but this book has inspired me to learn more about the possibilities and tools that are out there in the 'techno-world.' Would definitely recommend it to any future or current educator!

I appreciate 'Reinventing PBL' for many reasons, but the one that stands out is the recognition by the authors that isolated good teachers within 20th century learning environments is not enough nor the answer. As the book articulates, there needs to be a paradigm shift of how content, assessment and workflow are managed. As a former educator and current advocate of better ways for teaching and learning, I too often see implementation of what I call a 'bolt on approach' to PBL... do the same thing with an occasional student showcase and call that innovation.

Truly embracing what needs to happen in education requires a change in practice and change in tools. The authors articulate this perspective while still providing enough real tools to enable more than isolated improvement. So much so, that we at Project Foundry ([...]) recommend this book to all our new schools we work with.

Sincerely,

Shane Krukowski
Managing Director
Project-based Learning Systems
Milwaukee, WI