LB#15

Project-based Learning and Multimedia:  

 If I am going to count the learning that I have in this topic I can't write it in just a whole page.I learn that Project Based Learning with the added component of technology has an impact on student achievement.

Project Based Learning:

In a study from 1995-2000, researchers at SRI International found that technology-using students in Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project classrooms outperformed non-technology-using students in communication skills, teamwork, and problem solving.  This study specifically targeted the effectiveness of PBL with multimedia.  According to the study’s final report, three factors appear critical to the multimedia project’s success: the incentives for teacher participation, the professional development model, and the focus on assessment.  “It is too easy to get caught up in the activity of technology use and to neglect the quality of the content students are learning.” (Silicon Valley Challenge 2000 – Year 5 Report, March 2001).

In Polman’s paper Designing project-based science : connecting learners through guided inquiry, his view of guided-inquiry, emphasizes the role of technology, the importance of teaching students how to do science, and the reflections of the teacher at the center of his study of project-based science. There are practical suggestions on establishing a project-based classroom and the pitfalls that await a startup program of this kind.(Polman 2000)

In another paper by Bloomfield and group makes some important comments regarding expectations when using project-based learning. The author stresses that giving students freedom to generate artifacts is critical to their construction of knowledge. Whether the guiding questions and activities are student or teacher-generated, their outcomes must not be fixed at the outset or students will not have the opportunity to try their own problem-solving approaches (Bloomfield et al, 1991, p.372). 

Bloomfield and her coauthors also describe the benefits of PBL: “…as students investigate and seek solutions to problems, they acquire an understanding of key principles and concepts. Project-based learning also places students in realistic, contextualized problem-solving environments. In so doing, projects can serve to build bridges between phenomena in the classroom and real-life experiences; the questions and answers that arise in their daily enterprise are given value and are shown to be open to systematic inquiry. Hence, project-based education requires active engagement of students' effort over an extended period of time. Project-based learning also promotes links among subject matter disciplines and presents an expanded, rather than narrow, view of subject matter. Projects are adaptable to different types of learners and learning situations.... Projects can increase student interest because they involve students in solving authentic problems, in working with others, and in building real solutions (artifacts). Projects have the potential to enhance deep understanding because students need to acquire and apply information, concepts and principles, and they have the potential to improve competence in thinking because students need to formulate plans, track progress and evaluate solutions”. (Bloomfield et al, 1991, p.372-373)

Hallinger and ERIC Clearinghouse on Education Management who authored Charter schools: Problem-Based Learning Project discusses how PBL can be best utilized in a charter school environment and disagrees somewhat in his view of final product expectations.  Like other PBL projects, Hallinger’s premise consists of eight separate components. “An introduction explains the project, followed by the presentation of the problem itself. Learning objectives for the project are stated, and students are presented with resources that facilitate the project. "Product specifications" detail what should be included in the performance or product the students present at the culmination of the project. Guiding questions direct students to key concepts presented through the project.” 

Fallows’ case studies, Inspiring students: case studies in motivating the learner, look at the best methods to motivate college students who are only taking a class for credit, without a strong interest in the subject presented.   Included among methodologies recommended is PBL.  .  (Fallows and Ahmet 1999)

Moss and coauthors who review PBL methods to use with adult English Language Learners, describes their importance in ELL programs.  “Project-based learning functions as a bridge between using English in class and using English in real life situations outside of class. It does this by placing learners in situations that require authentic use of language in order to communicate (e.g., being part of a team or interviewing others). When learners work in pairs or in teams, they find they need skills to plan, organize, negotiate, make their points, and arrive at a consensus about issues such as what tasks to perform, who will be responsible for each task, and how information will be researched and presented”.(Moss, Van Duzer et al. 1998)

Grant in his work, “Getting a Grip on Project-based Learning: Theory, Cases and Recommendations,” examines the theoretical foundations of project-based learning, particularly constructivism and constructionism, and notes the similarities and differences among implementations, as well as providing concrete recommendations.  “Rooted in constructivism, constructionism and cooperative/collaborative learning, project-based learning has strong theoretical support for successful achievement.  Suggestions for implementing these examples as well as other examples of project-based learning include: begin slowly, prepare learners for using cooperative learning and use constructive assessments.” (Grant, 2002)

Multimedia:

Sprankle and co-author Johnson in their piece entitled Experience Multimedia, explain how “Multimedia is the communication of ideas and information through the use of multiple computer elements presented in an interactive electronic environment.  These elements include text, graphics, audio, video, animation, and interactivity.  Multimedia increases learning through increased retention of information.  Studies have shown that we can retain only around 15% of what we see.   Retention more than doubles for what we both see and hear.  However, we can retain more than 75% of what we see, hear, and interact with.  The passageway for information to reach our brain is through our senses and multimedia is multi-sensory stimulation.” Here they inform us how important Multimedia is due to its ability to interact with so many different types sensory perceptions. (Sprankle and Johnson, 1998)

In 1999 the U.S. Department of education indicates “several white papers focusing specifically on multimedia. In general, these papers indicate that the research reports support of the use of multimedia in IT-assisted Project Based Learning (PBL). In such PBL, the content and assessment tend to be authentic, and students learn both the subject area being studied and also how to create multimedia documents.”  In other words the assessment gathered from pbl is assessment that conforms “to fact and [is] therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief” (Webster’s II New College Dictionary, 1995).

Finally Gardner himself in the book he co-authored with Shirley Veenema entitled Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences supports allowing students the opportunity through media and pbl to present what they know in the manner in which they learn best. “According to multiple intelligences theory, not only do all individuals possess numerous mental representations and intellectual languages, but individuals also differ from one another in the forms of these representations, their relative strengths, and the ways in which (and ease with which) these representations can be changed. There are at least eight discrete intelligences, and these intelligences constitute the ways in which individuals take in information, retain and manipulate that information, and demonstrate their understandings (and misunderstandings) to themselves and others.  And so, whether the course be history or physics or dance, we should try to teach individuals in ways that are consonant with, or that stretch, their current mental representations. Equally, we should give individuals the opportunity to exhibit their understandings by means of media and representations that make sense to them” (Veenema and Gardner, 1996).